Systems and methods are configured to generate a frequency map representing a density of objects found in regions of a sample that may be used in setting parameters for imaging the regions. Various embodiments involve binarizing the pixels for a raw image of the sample to transform the image into binary data. Run-length encoded components are identified from the data for dimensions of the raw image. Each component is a length of a sequence of adjacent pixels found in a dimension with the same value in the binary data. A projection of the image is then generated from projection values for the dimensions. Each projection value provides a measure of the density of objects present in a dimension with respect to the components identified for the dimension. This projection is used to identify a level of density for each region of the sample from which the frequency map is generated.