The image dissector echelle spectrometer system consists of a stigmatic, coma-compensated echelle spectrograph with high resolution and high dispersion, an image dissector tube with specially designed focusing and deflection coils and a minicomputer with 16K memory. The measurement of the spectrum, involving wavelength selection and intensity measuring through single-photon counting, is performed by the computer. The standard software contains programs for focusing, wavelength calibration, scanning, and spectrochemical analysis. The fields of application of the IDES system are: emission from combustion and electrical flames: dc arcs; hollow cathodes and glow discharges; atomic absorption; and fluorescence with line and continuous line sources.