PerkinElmer's Spectrum software stores FTIR spectra as binary .sp files. If the instrument PC is
the only place with Spectrum installed, or someone sent you .sp files, this page converts them
to CSV, Excel or JCAMP-DX so you can open them anywhere.
How to convert PerkinElmer .sp to CSV
- Upload the
.spfile. Many files, or a ZIP of them, can go in at once. - Keep the number format on decimal points, or switch to decimal commas with semicolons if your Excel expects that.
- If you need absorbance but measured in %T (or the reverse), set Y axis under More options.
- Download the CSV:
Wavenumber (cm-1)in the first column, then the spectrum in its stored unit, for exampleAbsorbance.
What is read from the file
Besides the data, a .sp file records the measurement setup, and all of it appears in the
preview and on the workbook's metadata sheet:
- sample name and creation date;
- instrument model and serial number, for example a Frontier FT-IR/NIR, and the firmware;
- number of scans, detector, source and beam splitter;
- apodization, phase correction and beam type;
- the accessory used, such as a Universal ATR;
- y and x units, data interval, spectral range and number of points.
That is often enough to answer "how was this measured?" months later without going back to the instrument.
Which files work
The reader handles the binary format written by Spectrum for instruments such as the Spectrum One, Spectrum Two, Spectrum 100/400 and Frontier, in absorbance and transmittance. Files were checked against PerkinElmer's own CSV exports (identical x values, y within the export's rounding) and against an independent open-source reader.
Older text-header .SP files, for example from some older fluorescence instruments, use a
different layout that this converter doesn't read yet (it tells you when it sees one); export them as CSV or
JCAMP-DX from the instrument software instead.
Tips
- Spectra that PerkinElmer software saved as
.spcor in Bruker's OPUS format are read too; see SPC to CSV. - Upload a series of
.spfiles together to line them up side by side in one table, ready for an overlay or an average in Excel. - The JCAMP-DX download is useful for spectral library software and carries the instrument details in its header.
More about what this tool reads and writes: Spectrum File Converter (OPUS, OMNIC, SPC, WDF, SP, JWS).