For virtually the whole of the 100-year period in which X-rays have been used to produce radiographic images, the image has been created and stored on photographic film. More recently, techniques have been developed to generate electronic images, which can be viewed and digitally stored on computers. The advantages of these images are that they allow brightness and contrast manipulation, compensating for slightly incorrect exposures, and allowing subtle lesions to be visualised, which cannot be seen on film. It is much easier, with digital images, to identify small fractures, such as stress fractures in racehorses, and early osteoarthritis, in the form of small growths of new bone around joints. It is also easier to examine bones in areas where there are large amounts of overlying muscle, such as the vertebrae in the back of the horse.