X-Scope, for the designer’s toolkit

I’m am betting that most of my designer friends out there rely on Photoshop for most imaging needs whether it be serious design work or the mundane and trivial such as a quick pixel measurement for that job due in a few minutes. Sometimes I want a quicker way to handle the easy stuff without the need of hungry Photoshop. That is where X-Scope comes in.

X-Scope is a finder based toolbar that gives you access to 7 quick use icons for those moments that do not require a move to big mama’s house i.e Photoshop. In the screenshot below I have all of the tools open – it’s not likely this will be the case when working so this is just a reference. What is great about X-Scope is its transparency – it lives quietly up in your finder menu bar there for you to “tap” it on the shoulder when you need it (click really).

Here are the tools you get with X-Scope:

• Dimensions – neat tool that gives your pointer real time measurement stats for where ever you rest your mouse in pixels. It will measure anything on screen and is extremely useful for those times you need to guestimate the size of an onscreen element – it’s very accurate.

• Rulers – great set of (H) and (V) rulers that you can place anywhere on screen and use for measuring or even aligning elements if needed. Fully adjustable and 360 degree rotatable – they can even span multiple screens!

• Screen - gives you a great tool for using a pre-defined (div) like space that allows you to create or test elements within that space – excellent tool for laying out or testing.

• Loupe - tool for magnifying screen elements under your pointer, also resizable and gives you pixel color output for those times when you need to sample color values.

• Guides - the guides tool allows you to set up any number of (H) or (V) guides on screen for whatever purpose you may have, you also have control over the guide colors.

• Frames – adjustable marker boxes float on top of the screen, allow you to set any size and position on screen as well as save specified sets for later use.

• Crosshair – Reports the co-ordinate position of the mouse cursor also allows any point on the screen to be set as the origin.

X-Scope is developed from the Iconfactory and is available for $26.95 – we highly recommend it.