The ideal companion for designers and anyone that needs to make pixel precise measurements, get the numeric value of a color, or magnify a portion of any screen.
Pixel Tools does the following:
1. Tracks the mouse and magnifies the region of interest (1x - 64x).
2. Measures the distance in pixels between two points on the screen (Width, Height, and Straight Line Distance). Y Coordinates can be measured Cocoa style (positive Y is up) or traditional style (positive Y is down).
3. Gives the RGB or HSB numerical value of the color under the mouse (Hex 00-FF, Float 0.000-1.000, or Integer 0-255).
4. Allows precise positioning of the mouse cursor using the arrow keys. Hold the shift key to move 5 points at a time.
5. Every function has a keyboard shortcut so it's quick to access.
6. Keyboard shortcuts have global equivalents so that they can be used even when the app is not frontmost. For example, to set the measurement origin you can use the space-bar when the app is frontmost, and when it's in the background you use Control-Option-Command-Space-Bar to do the same thing. Global keyboard shortcuts can also be disabled.
7. Allows setting the main window to float in front of all other windows for easy access (default), or setting it to behave like a normal window so that it can layer behind the frontmost app. This is great if you want to keep Pixel Tools open all of the time, but don't want it obstructing your view when trying to read your mail.
8. Allows you to hide controls and rulers so that the window can be sized to have a very small footprint, yet still be completely usable. Pixel Tools is designed to see underneath itself, making it so that even when it covers part of the app that you are measuring, it still works. Both of these features are particularly important for users on small screens.
9. Allows locking the mouse position to focus on a particular area on the screen. You might use this to change the color format settings without affecting what the app is focused on.
10. Allows locking the screen updates so that you can measure transient or animated effects. For example, you might use this to measure the distance on an item that has a mouse-over effect. With updates locked, the mouse-over will remain on, while you measure.
11. Works with any number of monitors, of any size, and any layout. Works well in full screen split view as one of the 2 windows.
12. Enhanced for your Mac's Retina display. Get the color values for each sub-point pixel using the arrow keys.
13. Designed to maximize your Mac's battery life. Pixel Tools will only display updates when needed and, on Mac OS X 10.9 or higher, won't update when obscured by other windows.
14. Optimized memory usage – keep your RAM for other apps.
15. Very small executable, so the app launches very quickly.
16. Works great in light or dark appearance mode.
This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
first 5 minutes not bad - promising
sjamesmccarthy
I agree with the visualization comment below. This app is controlled primarily through keyboard commands, which works okay for me, but until i grasp all of them it will take me more than 5 minutes to fully appreciate the feature set of this app. i do wish that it had a menubar icon or someway quick to activate the app.
This is EXACTLY what I’ve been looking for
Ranselm
I use Adobe Premiere Pro on a daily basis and do a good bit of compositing both in Premiere and After Effects. After Effects has a great little “Info” window that tells you the color and positino pixel info of whatever your mouse is hovering over. This would be really useful in premiere as well, but doesn’t exist. The closest thing in premiere I can find is to use “Ultra Key,” select a color, and then see the pixel info, but that’s a really clunky process. This app gives me real-time pixel data anywhere on my workspace. It’s beautiful!A sincere thank you to the fine folks at Sol Robots!
Measurements start at 1,1 intead of 0,0!
Weters
The ruler is effectively useless. You can set an origin and then measure the distance to some other point. The problem is if you set the origin, the initial value of W and H are 1 and 1 instead of 0 and 0! Move a pixel to the left, and it goes from 1 to -2. So, if you have positive measurements, you need to subtract one, but if you have negative measurements, add one. Sure you can do the math, but for $4.99 you shouldn't have to.
Developer Response
Thanks for your feedback. How best to measure distances was a difficult design decision to make. The mouse doesn't move between pixels but rather on them. Where do you measure from? Measuring from the middle of a pixel would always give you an extra half pixel, which isn't particularly useful. So we choose to measure from the corner of the pixel you start from to the corner of the pixel that you end on, such that both the start and end pixels are included. This is great for measuring the whitespace between two screen elements, simply mark the beginning of the whitespace and move to the end of the whitespace.
Pixel tools is great and is easy to use
Vescovi
Very helpful tool for precise graphics. Most important feature: very easy to use.
- Changes to support App Store receipt changes.
- Other minor changes required by newer macOS versions.
Version 1.4.6
The developer, Save The Machine, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
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Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
