xscope
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xScope 4 released and currently on sale for 50% off
xScope version 4 has been released by The Iconfactory. If you aren't familiar with xScope, it is a tool for designers who need to measure, inspect, or test design elements. Version 4 comes with dozens of new features which I won't bother regurgitating here, but will highlight some of the ones that stuck out to me. I first learned of xScope several years ago when I was looking for an on-screen ruler to check the dimensions of a web page I was creating. Of course xScope can do that, but it's sort of like saying you can use your iPhone as a tip calculator. It can do many kinds of measurements to check dimensions, rulers, and basically anything else on your screen. There are controls to check sizes on Retina vs non-Retina displays, on-screen guides, and more. One of the most interesting features of the new version is the text feature, which lets you search, decipher, and convert text into HTML entities, URL encodes values, or other formats. It also has a handy loupe feature which helps you check colors and measure small spaces easily. If you do app development or work with CSS on web pages or any other of a wide range of design work, you should check out xScope. As part of the version 4 release, it is currently on sale for US$25, which is 50% off the regular price. If you want to try it before you buy, you can download a demo from their website. You can buy it either directly from The IconFactory or from the Mac App Store. (As always, my recommendation is to buy directly from developers whenever possible, which allows them to give you upgrade pricing and also gives you faster updates without having to wait for the Mac App Store approval process, which is often very slow.) A $50 app stands out in the world of "fart app pricing," so I was interested to see how people would react. This morning I searched Twitter for for xScope and @xscopeapp and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Several people called version 4 an "instabuy". "For my work, the Text tool in the new version of @xscopeapp is enough to warrant the upgrade cost. Nice effort!" - @alstonebridge "No brainer this one: Upgraded to @xscopeapp 4.0 and it's not even "release thursday" yet. Use it every single day. Kudos @gedeon and team." - @hiltmon "Fab-tastic xScope 4.0 is out. Brilliant tool for designers, photographers, and me." - @mattgemmell There were plenty of others, but perhaps the most helpful comment for people who are considering it is this comment from a few days ago by Kerri Hicks who wrote: ".@chockenberry xScope probably saves me about five minutes a day. At $50/hr, it'd pay for itself in about two weeks. Can't wait for upgrade." Developer Craig Hockenberry has been at work on xScope full time for the past year and reminded users that "It's been 2.5 years since the last xScope release and included (non-trivial) Photoshop Mirror, Retina and Mavericks updates for FREE." Those who are familiar with The IconFactory know that they have a great track record of developing and maintaining great apps for iOS and Mac. If you aren't sure that xScope is for you, get the demo and try it out. As a non-developer/non-designer, I wasn't sure that it was something I would use, but I bought xScope 3 some time ago and regularly find times when I think "Oh! I can use xScope for that!" For example, sometimes when I'm making Keyboard Maestro macros, I have to use mouse positioning and movements. I could either try to guess and use trial & error (& error & error...) or I could just fire up xScope and get it right the first time.
xScope 3.5 offers Retina support, improved mirror tool
Iconfactory has released xScope 3.5 this week, with Retina support for the Retina MacBook Pro and improved mirroring that allows a Photoshop document to be mirrored while being edited. The rulers can be inverted to make measuring on dark backgrounds easier, alignment marks can be displayed on the ruler, tools work in full-screen apps on Lion and Mountain Lion and more. xScope is a US$29.99 purchase through the Mac App Store or direct download. You can try it before buying it by doing the direct download option.
xScope 3 out today, design tool adds mirroring and other new features
My non-TUAW job is in print journalism, where I spend my nights as a designer for a newspaper in central Pennsylvania. Part of that work involves being able to estimate, from the glance at a photo in InDesign or a paper dummy, how much of a story I can fit on a page, photo dimensions and more. The same goes for online design. Design veterans will tell you that knowing how big your elements are, aligning them, how they'll look on various screen sizes and other metrics isn't exactly easy. Icon Factory and ARTIS Software's xScope is a premium tool for helping streamline design for the web and the screen. Nearly three years after version 2 was rolled out, xScope 3.0 makes its debut today. It rolls eight tools into one, including the ability to mirror the contents of any Mac desktop on an iOS device via the free xScope Mirror app. The app's been redesigned with an updated look that meshes well with OS X 10.7 Lion, smart tools that toggle on and off automatically depending on the app you're using, optimized code base and more. %Gallery-145098% Tools Mirror: This is the newest item in the Xscope Swiss Army knife, and it's pretty handy for demoing your work to clients or co-workers. You can bring up an iOS design prototype in Photoshop, mirror it to an iPhone or iPad to see how it would look on the smaller screens and lock it so you can pass it around without someone accidentally bumping the window. Dimensions: This tool is a universal favorite for those who use xScope. It allows you to take on-screen measurements of pretty much anything you can throw at it. Improvements for version three include pattern recognition and screen capture. Place the dimension tool at any location on your monitor, and you'll get crosshairs (what xScope dubs "laser beams") that let you know the distance from the center of the crosshairs to the next element it encounters. Move it around and it adjusts. You can take screenshots, learn the aspect ratio of an item and more. Rulers: The built-in ruler in InDesign is one of my most-common used tools. xScope's built-in ruler can measure any element and can snap to the edge of the element to make it even easier when you press the control key. The rulers can be rotated and the calipers and mouse-position indicators can be toggled on and off. Keyboard shortcuts allow for fine-tuning measurement increments. Screens: This places an overlay on your monitor to let you know where design elements fall on a particular platform. In the gallery example, we look at the regular TUAW site as seen on an iPhone with a red-shaded box indicating where the keyboard should be. This gives you an accurate view of how a web page would look on an iPhone. Loupe: Loupe allows you to zoom in extremely closely on a page element, grabbing color details that can be used for creating palette or making sure design elements align perfectly. As with the other tools, the loupe tool will update as you move your mouse around the screen and allows for fine-tooth measuring of very small items such as buttons. You can lock the loupe in place to make changes without the risk of bumping your mouse. However, this is when I began running into issues using xScope. Every time I activated the loupe tool, xScope crashed on my iMac, so I wasn't able to test the loupe. The other tools were pretty stable, so I imagine the crashing will be fixed fairly quickly with an update. Guides and Frames: Most design tools have the ability to create multiple guides, and xScope's guides feature is fairly solid. You can create a number of them using a keyboard shortcut and quickly clear them as needed. A guide wizard is available to help space the guides out evenly. I wish guides could be set to a particular window rather than the entire screen. Depending on your background, the guides are hard to see, so you'll have to set guide color via preferences if you have a dark background. Frames are like guides, but for a particular grid area. Crosshair: The final and simplest tool, it tells you coordinates based on where your cursor is on the screen. You can set any point as the origin, be it the entire monitor, within a window, or whereever you set your center point to via a keyboard shortcut. xScope normally costs $29.99, but it's currently on sale via the Mac App Store for $19.99. It's also available through direct download if you want to give it a try before you buy it. If you're a designer, it's a solid set of tools to have.
xScope 2.0
If I had any talent whatsoever in the area of graphic design xScope would be a go to app in my toolbox. xScope, for those not in the know, is a great little app that makes measuring onscreen elements a snap. xScope 2.0 raises the ante by adding a Dimensions tool that works as if by magic. Turning on the Dimensions tool lets you find dimensions between various elements (or using a lasso tool) quickly and easily. It is tough to describe, but check out this cool video of it in action.There are a bunch of new features and improvements, all of which are listed here, which make xScope 2 more than worth the $26.95 for you pixel pushers out there.
The Iconfactory updates xScope
xScope by The Iconfactory and ARTIS software has been updated to version 1.5. It's a great utility that I'm sure many of you will find useful. It actually contains six different tools, including an on-screen ruler (aside: I actually saw a person holding a wooden ruler against a computer screen once. I immediately directed her towards xScope), a live preview of your content in various screen sizes, a magnifying glass (that I use all the time to get color values), on-screen horizontal and vertical guides, frame markers and a cross hair. Changes to version 1.5 include: Frames can now be linked and moved simultaneously Horizontal and vertical guides can now be linked and moved simultaneously When the Loupe is locked, the arrow keys can be used to nudge its position on-screen (yay!) Added calipers to the Ruler making it easier to perform certain measurements Plus, version 1.5 is universal. There's more, of course, including a laundry list of improvements and bug fixes (get the full run-down here). xScope costs $16.95US and requires Mac OS 10.3 or higher.
