diff --git a/BioExt/align/__init__.py b/BioExt/align/__init__.py
index 835c6b4..b1285c7 100644
--- a/BioExt/align/__init__.py
+++ b/BioExt/align/__init__.py
@@ -305,6 +305,8 @@ def __call__(
                 self.__cached_insertion_matrix
                 )
 
+        #print ("\n", score, "\n", "\n\n".join ([ref_, query_, str(open_insertion), str(extend_insertion), str (open_deletion), str(extend_deletion), str (miscall_cost), str (do_local), str (do_affine), ref_aligned.decode ('utf-8'), query_aligned.decode ('utf-8')]))
+
         if sys.version_info >= (3, 0):
             ref_aligned = ref_aligned.decode('utf-8')
             query_aligned = query_aligned.decode('utf-8')
diff --git a/BioExt/graphing/__init__.py b/BioExt/graphing/__init__.py
index f2d9dc0..faa14ab 100644
--- a/BioExt/graphing/__init__.py
+++ b/BioExt/graphing/__init__.py
@@ -155,8 +155,11 @@ def _magic_ticks(lwr, upr, div=5):
     return ticks
 
 
-def count_alignment(alignment, columns='all', refidx=None, limit=100):
+def count_alignment(alignment, columns='all', refidx=None, limit=100, embedded_counts = None):
     records = []
+    
+    if embedded_counts is not None:
+        import re
 
     if columns is None or columns == 'all':
         r = next(iter(alignment))
@@ -217,6 +220,7 @@ def count_alignment(alignment, columns='all', refidx=None, limit=100):
     counts = np.zeros((s, N), dtype=float)
 
     def allrecords():
+        i = 0
         for i, r in records:
             yield r
         for i, r in enumerate(alignment, start=i):
@@ -226,17 +230,25 @@ def allrecords():
 
     for r in allrecords():
         for j, c in enumerate(columns):
+            if embedded_counts is not None:
+                m = embedded_counts.search (r.name)
+                if m is not None:
+                    weight = float (m.group(1))
+            else:
+                weight = 1.
+                
             ltr = r[c].upper()
+
             if ltr in skips:
                 continue
             elif ltr in ambigs:
-                frac = 1 / len(ambigs[ltr])
+                frac = weight / len(ambigs[ltr])
                 for ltr_ in ambigs[ltr]:
                     i = letters.index(ltr_)
                     counts[i, j] += frac
             elif ltr in letters:
                 i = letters.index(ltr)
-                counts[i, j] += 1
+                counts[i, j] += weight
             else:
                 raise ValueError('unknown letter: {0}'.format(ltr))
 
diff --git a/BioExt/misc/__init__.py b/BioExt/misc/__init__.py
index b4765c0..4f27bfb 100644
--- a/BioExt/misc/__init__.py
+++ b/BioExt/misc/__init__.py
@@ -309,7 +309,7 @@ def compute_cigar(reference, record, reference_name=None, new_style=False):
     # inject the annotations and yield
     record.annotations['CIGAR'] = cigar
     record.annotations['edit_distance'] = edit_distance
-    record.annotations['position'] = start
+    record.annotations['position'] = start 
     record.annotations['length'] = end - start
     record.annotations['reference_name'] = reference_name
 
diff --git a/scripts/msa2json b/scripts/msa2json
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a8a20f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/msa2json
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import sys, json, signal
+
+from argparse import ArgumentParser, FileType
+
+from Bio import AlignIO
+
+from BioExt.graphing import count_alignment
+
+def main(args=None):
+    if args is None:
+        args = sys.argv[1:]
+
+    try:
+        signal.signal(signal.SIGPIPE, signal.SIG_DFL)
+    except ValueError:
+        pass
+
+    parser = ArgumentParser(description='translate a FASTA nucleotide file')
+    parser.add_argument('-f', '--frame', type=int, choices=range(3), default=0)
+    parser.add_argument('-c', '--counts', action='store_true')
+    parser.add_argument('input',  nargs='?', type=FileType('r'), default=sys.stdin)
+    parser.add_argument('output', nargs='?', type=FileType('w'), default=sys.stdout)
+
+    ns = parser.parse_args(args)
+
+    alignment = AlignIO.read(ns.input, 'fasta')
+    r = next(iter(alignment))
+    
+    matcher = None
+    if ns.counts:
+        import re
+        matcher = re.compile ('\:([0-9]+)$')
+    
+    counts, alphabet = count_alignment (alignment, columns = list(range(len(r.seq))), limit = 1000000, embedded_counts = matcher)
+    
+    amino_acid_counts = {}
+    alphabet_letters  = alphabet[0]
+    
+    for k in range (len(counts[0])):
+        amino_acid_counts [k + 1] = {}
+        for a_letter in range (len(alphabet_letters)):
+            if counts[a_letter][k] > 0.0:
+                 amino_acid_counts [k + 1][alphabet_letters[a_letter]] = counts[a_letter][k]
+        if len (amino_acid_counts [k + 1]) == 0:
+            amino_acid_counts.pop (k+1)
+    
+    json.dump (amino_acid_counts, ns.output)
+
+    return 0
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b97bef4..32582e7 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -120,7 +120,8 @@
         'scripts/bealign',
         'scripts/begraph',
         'scripts/consensus',
-        'scripts/translate'
+        'scripts/translate',
+        'scripts/msa2json',
         # 'scripts/variants'
         ],
     ext_modules=ext_modules,