Free Ruler
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Free Ruler overview
Free Ruler is a screen ruler for OS X with many intuitive features. Great for Web developers, graphic designers and programmers.
Features:
- A horizontal and vertical ruler which can be used independently or simultaneously.
- Measurement in pixels only for now. Support for inches, picas, and centimeters is on the roadmap.
- Automatic alignment of rulers.
- The ability to group rulers and move them around as a unit.
- Shadowless rulers with customizable transparency.
- Interactive tick marks which follow the mouse location for more precise measurement.
- Independent resizing of rulers.
- Single key shortcuts for most ruler functions.
Note: While the software is classified as free, it is actually donationware. Please consider making a donation to help support development.
What’s new in version 2.0.5
Updated on Feb 20 2021
Version 2.0.5:
- Optimized for Apple Silicon
- Added menu item and keyboard shortcut U for cycling through units
- Fixed issue with ruler scale changing when ruler is partially off-screen
- Improvements to ruler drawing code
Information
App requirements
- Intel 64
- Apple Silicon
- macOS 10.12.0 or later
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What customer like
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What needs improvements
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Jun 8 2022
Version: 2.0.5
So cool not a virus recommend you get 100%
Dec 6 2019
Version: 2.0.3
What happened to "Change Ruler Length" It'S a pain to get it to lenght I need.
Dec 5 2019
Version: 2.0.3
I have loved it for many years. Thank you so much! It is one of my favorite Mac utilities. Any designer worth her salt should have one.
Nov 12 2018
Version: 1.7b5
Still works perfectly in OSX 10.14.1 Mojave. Amazing that this 2007 software still runs fine despite all the OS changes!
Jan 14 2015
Version: 1.7b5
Been using this for several years. It's simple but it's so useful. Love it! Glad it continues to work through the OS's.
Oct 29 2014
Version: 1.7b5
Still works on 10.9.5, although one has to make the rulers visible with cmd-1 and cmd-2 sometimes. Have not figured out the exact behaviour.
A great enhancement would be an Always-on-Top option, for e.g, aligning or positioning selections in a graphics program.
Jul 7 2013
Version: 1.7b5
Obviously a lot of thought went into this little app. It does what it's supposed to do extremely well.
I works so well, I'd have a hard time making any useful suggestion to it!
Sep 21 2011
Version: 1.7b5
I use Free Ruler a lot when I am working on websites and graphics.
Really good app, and you can't beat FREE!
Jan 12 2010
Version: 1.7b5
Works fine on 10.6.2. Unfortunately, as the notes for the latest release (over two years ago) state, the transparency feature has been removed (although the commands are still available in the menu).
Aug 23 2009
Version: 1.7b5
This application has been around for many years and still works well.
Mar 8 2007
Version: 1.7b5
Finally... I can put down my makeshift paper ruler. A perfect asset for web designers!
Feb 13 2007
Version: 1.7b5
I don't know what I'd do without this app. As a web designer, it's invaluable for determining available screen real estate. Thanks so much for this - I've been using it since the first version.
Jan 3 2007
Version: 1.7b5
in the next release can we have an angle measure pleeeeeease
Jul 29 2006
Version: 1.7b4
Great tool. Very easy to use. Came in handy for me just after this version was released.
Thanks for the work in making this! Just need a universal version now.
Jul 19 2006
Version: 1.7b4
Thank you so much for making a ruler app that actually gets physical measurements (in, cm, etc.) correct. I tried to get the author of G-Ruler to implement this feature, but he didn't seem to understand the issue.
Jul 19 2006
Version: 1.7b4
This is "THE" Ruler appliation. PERIOD. I've been using this since time began. It continues to be the premeire ruler app even though it hasn't been updated in over three years..until now. I figured it wouldn't be updated again, but praise Allah, it lives on! Now, if we can get a Universal version for Intel machines, then the universe will be at peace.
May 1 2005
Version: 1.6
I hate to knock a free application, but Free Ruler has two big problems:
1. It uses way more CPU cycles than it should have to, causing my fan to come on full blast.
2. The drop shadow sometimes makes it very difficult to see details on the screen you're trying to measure. (You can work around this by moving the ruler and using the cursor, but still, the drop shadow needs to go.)
I've used Free ruler for a couple of years now, and I'm very grateful to the author, but I've just tried out a program called PixelStick that I'm finding more useful. It's not as intuitive as Free Ruler, but it's worth taking the time to learn it.
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