This app displays a ruler on the screen. You can measure the objects by showed ruler on the screen. You can also measure the picture's size by the showed ruler on the screen. See System Requirements. Simple Screen Ruler. Overview System Requirements Related. A ruler application for macOS. Horizontal and vertical rulers. Float rulers above other applications (press F to toggle). Move windows independently or as a group (press G to toggle). Show or hide the shadow behind rulers (press S to toggle). Align rulers at mouse location (press O for origin). Ondesoft Screen Rulers for Mac Easy, powerful and accurate virtual screen rulers for your Mac Ondesoft Screen Rulers is a highly configurable measuring utility for Mac with many intuitive features, enable you to measure objects quickly and precisely on your Mac screen in Pixels, Inches, Picas, Centimeters and multiple customizable units according to your need. MB-Ruler is a tool to measure distances and angles on the desktop.
| Click here to return to the 'Measuring screen elements in pixels' hint |
Why didn't I think of that?
A much better option than Free Ruler is PixelStick. It isn't in the way as much as Free Ruler, and it lets you measure angles and distances along an angle too.
Yeah, I've been doing this for a while now. It's so fast and easy for web design. I also didn't think it was a hint, but it can save tons of time. I'm glad others will know about this now.
A+
ditto for using it for years and not thinking it was hint-worthy.
Note: the hint requires at least Leopard. The coordinates aren't shown in Tiger.
Free Screen Ruler Mac File
Bonus tip: hold down the spacebar after you start dragging, and you can move your entire selection around without starting over. Makes it easy to get the positioning exactly right.
I formed this habit in Illustrator, and at some point I must have tried it as an automatic reflex when taking a screenshot. Was surprised and delighted that it worked. I believe this feature was added in Snow Leopard.
Hey that's really cool. That seems tip-worthy to me in and of itself.
Rob
I agree. It's a great tip, and some great tips here in the comments.
I love the part about holding down the spacebar after you start dragging.
I just tried PixelStick and I'm grateful to have learned of it here, in these comments.
Thanks!
PixelStick is my favorite measuring tool, but, honestly, i never thought to use the screen capture..
I think that's a really good tip, thank you!
I love the spacebar trick - very neat! And also really pleased to have found out about PixelStick - I won't use it for everything but I think I'll certainly use it enough that I've already given it a space on my Dock!
I never thought of using modifier keys for screen capture, but hey, it actually works:
shift: horizontal or vertical selection only, depending on the movement you were making
option: use a centered starting point
option-shift: like shift with centered starting point
space: move it around
so cooool ... thanks .....
I've hacked mine so the ruler is wider (1250, soon to be 1920) and made the graphic for the 'ticks' much sharper. Also added individual pixel marks up to the first 100. I'll probably submit my update to the creator when I'm done... but other things always get in the way. It'd be nice if the ruler width was draggable! Then I could make it whatever width/height I wanted...even measure across multiple screens.
For added accuracy, after the ruler is visible, zoom the screen (CMD + OPT + + .... I don't like CMD + mouse), turn off blur CMD+OPT+ and you can get very anal with your pixels.
I love PixelStick too! Great tip there.
cool !
I use the screen zoom feature for handicapped people and have set it so holding down 'ctrl-alt-cmd' and using the scroll-wheel zooms the screen. Maybe good to zoom in first to measure more precisely.
I use screenshots a lot and was blown away by the modifier keys working !!
Hi guys,
I've recently created a small app that is just amazing when it comes to measuring items on screen. It's workflow is a lot better than a standard ruler. Check it out at http://pixf.it
It automatically finds the edges of the item you want to measure offering you a choice of copying the dimensions to the clipboard in a couple of different formats. Hope you enjoy it.
Cheers!
Along with a few tools that you have to buy, you can still measure pixels on the Mac with its stock application. There is a Grab utility, you can capture screen selection, it will create window with an image of selected area (not saved to the disc yet), then you can go to Edit -> Inspector and it will show dimensions of selected area (it will also show dimensions as a tooltip during selection process). Good thing is that captured image isn't saved to the disc, you can just dismiss it. Not great, but does the job. It also supports delayed capture which is good for capturing popup menus and such.
I second the recommendation of PixelStick. Its an awesome, light and handy little app for anyone measuring (in any app or in maps) and working with colors.
http://plumamazing.com/mac/pixelstick
Desktop Ruler For Windows 10
If you want to measure the actual size of a small object in inches or centimeters and you don’t have a real ruler at hand, this virtual on-screen online ruler will help you. You can make the necessary measurements on any device that allows you to browse the web. This online app works on both computers with a large screen (laptops, PCs, monoblocks or smart TVs) and mobile gadgets (phones, phablets, tablets, e-ink readers). The maximum length of the ruler (fully visible when displayed on a sufficient screen) is 20 inches, or 50 centimeters (500 millimeters) for the metric scale option.
💁 How to use this online ruler
For the ruler to display correctly (i.e., in proportion to the actual physical size), it must be calibrated. You can calibrate it in one of the following two ways:
📱 💻 📺 Set screen diagonal
This is the most reliable and easy way. Specify the size of the diagonal of your screen in inches ('). Enter this value in the input field located in the lower left corner of the ruler image. Then click the or press the button on the keyboard. You can also select the size from the drop-down list (which opens when you click the button , which is adjacent to the numeric input field). This presents many of the most common options among users.
The diagonal of the current device's display, automatically detected by the browser, is . In most practical cases, this calculated value does not correspond to the real extent and is instead proposed for consideration as an approximate one for consideration purposes. This circumstance is caused by the existing constraint imposed by the specifics of the interaction of modern web browsers (none of which has the functionality of providing web applications with access to information about the display’s physical parameters) with operating systems. Depending on the type and class of device, the probable error varies in a range of up to several centimeters, or 1 inch. Accordingly, to the best possible, the reliability of the indications of the uncalibrated online ruler will differ from the standard. Nevertheless, the deviation may be minimal. In this case, the initially visualized ruler will be suitable for measurements that do not require high accuracy (especially when measuring small objects).
If you do not know the exact value of your screen’s diagonal, you can find it in the technical documentation attached to the device, or simply search the Internet for the model name.
If for some reason this information is difficult to obtain and you have a standard plastic card with you, you can use the second method. ↓💳 Fit to the width of a plastic card
You can also calibrate the on-screen ruler using a bank payment card. Its standard width is 3.37 inches (3 3⁄8 inches), or 85.6 mm (8 centimeters, 56 millimeters) for the metric measurement. For your convenience, the corresponding sign is plotted under the scale of the ruler. Change the diagonal value in the input field until the edge of the plastic card attached (oriented horizontally) to the screen coincides with the black stroke to the left of the icon.
Using this method in addition to the first method will allow you to determine the size of the display diagonal. To avoid the known inconvenience associated with selecting a number by successive manual input, bring it to the desired value using the vertical scroll arrows that appear on the right side of the input field when you hover the cursor over it (when using the virtual ruler on a PC).
📏🔧 How the ruler’s actual size is achieved
Based on the browser-defined screen height and width, the script:- calculates the diagonal in pixels (it does not matter if the number of virtual pixels on which the browser operates is the actual physical resolution of the display);
- calculates the PPI (pixels per inch) of the screen: the resulting diagonally expressed diagonal is divided by the user's diagonal value in inches;
- determines the length of the ruler in pixels, the corresponding real 50 centimeters: the PPI value is multiplied by expressed in inches 50 centimeters. For inch scale, it is simply multiplied by 20.
⚠️ ️Note
Keep in mind that the above instructions for setting up the ruler are valid only when the following conditions apply:
Free Screen Ruler Mac
- Standard page scale adjustment in your browser (this is true for desktop browsers). When the scale is zoomed in/out, the ruler scale will shrink/stretch (along with other elements on the page that are subject to transformation during scaling). This will lead to a significant distortion of the online ruler readings. If you often, for example, change the font sizes on sites, be sure to set the scale to 100%;
- JavaScript is enabled;
- The ability to download images is enabled.