A method of displaying a digital medical image. The steps include acquiring a digital medical image; determining from the acquired digital medical image the anatomically relevant region which defines the relevant image boundaries; and determining an optimum virtual plate size from a stored plurality of virtual plate sizes for displaying the anatomically relevant regions of the digital medical image on a display device. In one arrangement, the acquired digital medical image has associated exam information (such as bodypart and image projection), the plurality of virtual plate sizes are stored by exam information, and the optimum plate size is determined, at least in part, by the exam information associated with the digital medical image.