diff --git a/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ConnectedComponents.java b/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ConnectedComponents.java
index af92b853e..d58e0053e 100644
--- a/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ConnectedComponents.java
+++ b/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ConnectedComponents.java
@@ -84,7 +84,9 @@ public class ConnectedComponents {
 	/** Background value */
 	public static final int BACK = 0;
 	/** 2^23 - greatest integer that can be represented precisely by a float */
-	static final int MAX_LABEL = 8388608;
+	public static final int MAX_FINAL_LABEL = 8388608;
+	/** maximum label value to use during intermediate processing */
+	static final int MAX_LABEL = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
 
 	/** number of particle labels */
 	private static int nParticles;
diff --git a/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ParticleCounter.java b/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ParticleCounter.java
index 92925c86a..1afb4d852 100644
--- a/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ParticleCounter.java
+++ b/Legacy/bonej/src/main/java/org/bonej/plugins/ParticleCounter.java
@@ -236,6 +236,9 @@ public void run(final String arg) {
 		final int[][] particleLabels = (int[][]) result[1];
 		final long[] particleSizes = (long[]) result[2];
 		final int nParticles = particleSizes.length;
+		
+		if (nParticles > ConnectedComponents.MAX_FINAL_LABEL)
+			IJ.log("Number of particles ("+nParticles+") exceeds the accurate display range (2^23) of the 32-bit float particle image");
 
 		final double[] volumes = ParticleAnalysis.getVolumes(imp, particleSizes);