In order to make the fused multispectral (MS) image keep the spectrum information of the original multispectral image as much as possible and improve the spatial resolution effectively, a novel image fusion algorithm based on the nonsubsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) and the multiresolution edge detection is proposed. The advantages of NSCT and multiresolution edge detection are presented; The fusion rules of the high and low frequency subbands respectively based on multiresolution edge detection and direct substitution are devised; The QuickBird images have been fused with this new method. The simulation experimental results demonstrate that the method proposed could keep the spectral information and improve spatial resolution simultaneously, and work better than traditional wavelet and contourlet transform.