diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 2506796..989244e 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ dependencies = [
 dev = [
     "build",
     "mypy",
+    "numpy",
     "pytest",
     "ruff",
     "toml",
diff --git a/src/appose/shm.py b/src/appose/shm.py
index 528c4af..296dde3 100644
--- a/src/appose/shm.py
+++ b/src/appose/shm.py
@@ -8,8 +8,8 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
-import re
-from math import ceil, prod
+import warnings
+from math import prod
 from multiprocessing import resource_tracker, shared_memory
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
@@ -129,15 +129,21 @@ def __init__(self, dtype: str, shape: list[int], shm: SharedMemory | None = None
 
         Args:
             dtype: The type of the data elements; e.g. int8, uint8, float32, float64.
+                NumPy-style short forms (e.g. u2, f4, |u1, =c8) are also accepted,
+                and normalized to the standard name (e.g. uint16, float32).
+                Explicit byte orders (< or >) are rejected: Appose arrays
+                always use the machine's native byte order. To match a NumPy
+                array, pass arr.dtype.name, not str(arr.dtype), which keeps a
+                non-native byte order; or use copy_of to copy the array.
             shape: The dimensional extents; e.g. a stack of 7 image planes
                 with resolution 512x512 would have shape [7, 512, 512].
             shm: The SharedMemory containing the array data, or None to create it.
         """
-        self.dtype: str = dtype
+        self.dtype: str = _normalize_dtype(dtype)
         self.shape: list[int] = shape
         self.shm: SharedMemory = (
             SharedMemory(
-                create=True, rsize=ceil(prod(shape) * _bytes_per_element(dtype))
+                create=True, rsize=prod(shape) * _bytes_per_element(self.dtype)
             )
             if shm is None
             else shm
@@ -151,20 +157,62 @@ def __str__(self):
             f"shm='{self.shm.name}' ({self.shm.rsize}))"
         )
 
-    def ndarray(self):
+    def __array__(self, dtype=None, copy=None):
         """
-        Create a NumPy ndarray object for working with the array data.
-        No array data is copied; the NumPy array wraps the same SharedMemory.
+        Support numpy.asarray(nda), which wraps the array data as a NumPy
+        ndarray without copying it; the NumPy array uses the same SharedMemory.
         Requires the numpy package to be installed.
         """
         try:
             import numpy
-
-            return numpy.ndarray(
-                prod(self.shape), dtype=self.dtype, buffer=self.shm.buf
-            ).reshape(self.shape)
         except ModuleNotFoundError:
             raise ImportError("NumPy is not available.")
+        arr = numpy.ndarray(
+            prod(self.shape), dtype=self.dtype, buffer=self.shm.buf
+        ).reshape(self.shape)
+        if dtype is None:
+            dtype = arr.dtype
+        if copy is False and numpy.dtype(dtype) != arr.dtype:
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Cannot convert NDArray from {arr.dtype} to {dtype} without copying"
+            )
+        return arr.astype(dtype, copy=bool(copy))
+
+    def ndarray(self):
+        """
+        Create a NumPy ndarray object for working with the array data.
+        No array data is copied; the NumPy array wraps the same SharedMemory.
+        Requires the numpy package to be installed.
+
+        Deprecated: use numpy.asarray(nda) instead.
+        """
+        warnings.warn(
+            "NDArray.ndarray() is deprecated; use numpy.asarray(nda) instead",
+            DeprecationWarning,
+            stacklevel=2,
+        )
+        return self.__array__()
+
+    @classmethod
+    def copy_of(cls, arr) -> NDArray:
+        """
+        Create an NDArray in new shared memory, holding a copy of the given
+        NumPy array.
+
+        The data is copied value by value, so the source array may be in any
+        byte order and memory layout (e.g. a big-endian array, or a transposed
+        view); the copy is always C-ordered, in native byte order.
+
+        Args:
+            arr: The NumPy array to copy.
+        """
+        nda = cls(arr.dtype.name, list(arr.shape))
+        try:
+            nda.__array__()[:] = arr
+        except BaseException:
+            nda.shm.dispose()
+            raise
+        return nda
 
     def __enter__(self) -> Self:
         return self
@@ -187,9 +235,77 @@ def __exit__(self, exc_type, exc_value, exc_tb) -> None:
 )
 
 
-def _bytes_per_element(dtype: str) -> int | float:
-    try:
-        bits = int(re.sub("[^0-9]", "", dtype))
-    except ValueError:
-        raise ValueError(f"Invalid dtype: {dtype}")
-    return bits / 8
+# Standard dtype names, with the number of bytes per element of each.
+_DTYPE_SIZES = {
+    "int8": 1,
+    "int16": 2,
+    "int32": 4,
+    "int64": 8,
+    "uint8": 1,
+    "uint16": 2,
+    "uint32": 4,
+    "uint64": 8,
+    "float16": 2,
+    "float32": 4,
+    "float64": 8,
+    "complex64": 8,
+    "complex128": 16,
+    "bool": 1,
+}
+
+# NumPy-style short forms of the standard dtype names.
+_DTYPE_ALIASES = {
+    "i1": "int8",
+    "i2": "int16",
+    "i4": "int32",
+    "i8": "int64",
+    "u1": "uint8",
+    "u2": "uint16",
+    "u4": "uint32",
+    "u8": "uint64",
+    "f2": "float16",
+    "f4": "float32",
+    "f8": "float64",
+    "c8": "complex64",
+    "c16": "complex128",
+    "b1": "bool",
+    "?": "bool",
+}
+
+
+def _normalize_dtype(dtype: str) -> str:
+    """
+    Return the standard name of the given dtype; e.g. "<u2" -> "uint16".
+
+    Accepts standard names (e.g. uint16, float32) as well as NumPy-style
+    short forms (e.g. u2, f4). A short form may be prefixed with = (native
+    byte order) or | (byte order not applicable), which is ignored. Explicit
+    byte orders (< or >) are rejected, so that parsing behaves the same on
+    every machine; Appose arrays always use the machine's native byte order.
+
+    Only platform-independent types are supported; e.g. longdouble and
+    single-character codes like "l" are rejected, since their sizes vary.
+    """
+    if dtype in _DTYPE_SIZES:
+        return dtype
+    if dtype.startswith(("<", ">")):
+        name = _DTYPE_ALIASES.get(dtype[1:], dtype[1:])
+        if name in _DTYPE_SIZES:
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"Unsupported dtype: {dtype} "
+                "(Appose arrays are always in native byte order; "
+                f"use '{name}' instead, e.g. via arr.dtype.name, "
+                "or copy a NumPy array into shared memory "
+                "via NDArray.copy_of(arr))"
+            )
+    short = dtype[1:] if dtype.startswith(("=", "|")) else dtype
+    if short not in _DTYPE_ALIASES:
+        raise ValueError(f"Unsupported dtype: {dtype}")
+    return _DTYPE_ALIASES[short]
+
+
+def _bytes_per_element(dtype: str) -> int:
+    """
+    Return the number of bytes per element for the given dtype.
+    """
+    return _DTYPE_SIZES[_normalize_dtype(dtype)]
diff --git a/tests/test_service.py b/tests/test_service.py
index d4e952f..c9029a0 100644
--- a/tests/test_service.py
+++ b/tests/test_service.py
@@ -247,7 +247,9 @@ def test_python_sys_exit():
 
 def test_crash_with_active_task():
     env = appose.system()
-    with env.python() as service:
+    # Note: Import numpy (a dev dependency) up front, so that the worker does
+    # not emit its numpy warning, which would pollute the stderr under test.
+    with env.python().init("import numpy") as service:
         maybe_debug(service)
         # Create a "long-running" task.
         script = (
diff --git a/tests/test_shm.py b/tests/test_shm.py
index 7c50093..29f34dc 100644
--- a/tests/test_shm.py
+++ b/tests/test_shm.py
@@ -2,8 +2,12 @@
 # Copyright (C) 2023 - 2026 Appose developers.
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
 
+import numpy
+import pytest
+
 import appose
 from appose.service import TaskStatus
+from appose.shm import _bytes_per_element, _normalize_dtype
 
 ndarray_inspect = """
 task.outputs["rsize"] = data.shm.rsize
@@ -39,3 +43,148 @@ def test_ndarray():
         assert "uint16" == task.outputs["dtype"]
         assert [2, 20, 25] == task.outputs["shape"]
         assert 123 + 78 + 210 == task.outputs["sum"]
+
+
+def test_dtype_standard_names():
+    for dtype, size in [
+        ("int8", 1),
+        ("int16", 2),
+        ("int32", 4),
+        ("int64", 8),
+        ("uint8", 1),
+        ("uint16", 2),
+        ("uint32", 4),
+        ("uint64", 8),
+        ("float16", 2),
+        ("float32", 4),
+        ("float64", 8),
+        ("complex64", 8),
+        ("complex128", 16),
+        ("bool", 1),
+    ]:
+        assert dtype == _normalize_dtype(dtype)
+        assert size == _bytes_per_element(dtype)
+
+
+def test_dtype_short_forms():
+    for short, name in [
+        ("i1", "int8"),
+        ("i2", "int16"),
+        ("i4", "int32"),
+        ("i8", "int64"),
+        ("u1", "uint8"),
+        ("u2", "uint16"),
+        ("u4", "uint32"),
+        ("u8", "uint64"),
+        ("f2", "float16"),
+        ("f4", "float32"),
+        ("f8", "float64"),
+        ("c8", "complex64"),
+        ("c16", "complex128"),
+        ("b1", "bool"),
+        ("?", "bool"),
+    ]:
+        assert name == _normalize_dtype(short)
+        assert name == _normalize_dtype("=" + short)
+        assert name == _normalize_dtype("|" + short)
+
+
+def test_dtype_explicit_byte_order():
+    for dtype, name in [
+        ("<u2", "uint16"),
+        (">u2", "uint16"),
+        ("<f4", "float32"),
+        (">c16", "complex128"),
+        ("<?", "bool"),
+        ("<uint16", "uint16"),
+        (">float32", "float32"),
+    ]:
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=f"native byte order; use '{name}'"):
+            _normalize_dtype(dtype)
+
+
+def test_dtype_unsupported():
+    for dtype in [
+        "",
+        "=",
+        "==u2",
+        "|=u2",
+        "=uint16",
+        "|uint8",
+        "uint",
+        "u3",
+        "f16",
+        "c32",
+        "?1",
+        "l",
+        "g",
+        "longdouble",
+        "float128",
+        "intp",
+        "U10",
+        "<U10",
+        ">i3",
+        "datetime64[ns]",
+        "object",
+        "FLOAT32",
+    ]:
+        with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Unsupported dtype"):
+            _normalize_dtype(dtype)
+
+
+def test_ndarray_normalizes_dtype():
+    with appose.NDArray("=u2", [3, 5]) as data:
+        assert "uint16" == data.dtype
+        assert 3 * 5 * 2 == data.shm.rsize
+
+
+def test_copy_of_big_endian():
+    # A big-endian array, as produced by some image readers.
+    src = (numpy.arange(3 * 4 * 5).reshape(3, 4, 5) * 1000).astype(">u2")
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="use 'uint16'"):
+        appose.NDArray(str(src.dtype), list(src.shape))
+    with appose.NDArray.copy_of(src) as data:
+        assert "uint16" == data.dtype
+        assert [3, 4, 5] == data.shape
+        assert 3 * 4 * 5 * 2 == data.shm.rsize
+        dst = numpy.asarray(data)
+        assert dst.dtype.isnative
+        assert numpy.array_equal(src, dst)
+
+
+def test_copy_of_non_contiguous():
+    src = numpy.arange(24, dtype="float32").reshape(2, 3, 4).transpose(2, 0, 1)
+    with appose.NDArray.copy_of(src) as data:
+        assert "float32" == data.dtype
+        assert [4, 2, 3] == data.shape
+        assert numpy.array_equal(src, numpy.asarray(data))
+
+
+def test_copy_of_unsupported():
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Unsupported dtype: datetime64"):
+        appose.NDArray.copy_of(numpy.zeros(3, dtype="datetime64[ns]"))
+
+
+def test_asarray_zero_copy():
+    with appose.NDArray("float32", [2, 3]) as data:
+        arr = numpy.asarray(data)
+        assert "float32" == arr.dtype.name
+        assert (2, 3) == arr.shape
+        arr[1, 2] = 42
+        assert 42 == numpy.asarray(data)[1, 2]
+
+        copied = numpy.array(data)
+        copied[0, 0] = 7
+        assert 0 == numpy.asarray(data)[0, 0]
+
+        converted = numpy.asarray(data, dtype="float64")
+        assert "float64" == converted.dtype.name
+        assert 42 == converted[1, 2]
+
+
+def test_ndarray_deprecated():
+    with appose.NDArray("uint8", [4]) as data:
+        with pytest.warns(DeprecationWarning, match="numpy.asarray"):
+            arr = data.ndarray()
+        arr[0] = 9
+        assert 9 == numpy.asarray(data)[0]