The use of ARD (Ascii Regional Description) has been rationalised within ASTERIX. Previously an old, development version was being used, the code having been frozen into the ASTERIX libraries. We are now using the official, released Starlink version. A consequence of this is that ARD files previously created with ASTERIX will be incompatible as the syntax is slightly different. Some minor editing will rectify this, the main difference being the removal of the COMPOSITE keyword. The syntax is described in SUN 183. Commands which have been changed to use the new syntax are XSPOKES, REGIONS and QUALITY (ARDQUAL). There is also a new image processing command, IREGION, which incorporates the functionality of the first two of these, and much more - more details of that in the following section.