Otter Software Blog

Name: xScope
Supplier: Iconfactory and ARTIS Software
URL: http://iconfactory.com/software/xscope
Price: $26.95

xScope is a set of tools that can be used to perform tasks pertaining to on-screen graphics. For example, one tool allows you to measure dimensions, there is a loupe tool to allow you to inspect colours at a pixel-level and there is a tool that allows you to set up and display vertical and horizontal guides. The other tools are on-screen rulers, screen overlays to show the visible areas of alternate screen sizes, a tool that allows you to draw on-screen frames and a crosshair tool that provides co-ordinate information.

The tool I use the most is the one that allows me to measure dimensions. Whist I was putting together the user interface for Lunchbox I wanted to make sure that the space between the bottom of the stand-alone table cells and the top of the toolbars on two of the screens were the same size. xScope allowed me to measure it quickly and easily with no complicated maths or guessing:

Similarly, I decided to try to resize my segmented controls so that the individual elements were closer in size to Apple’s recommendation of 44 x 44 px. I could easily find out that the standard segmented control in its bar style was only going to give me an area of 38 x 29 px so I not only managed to increase the height and width of the segmented control to 46 x 37 px but this then allowed me to use a larger image, 32 x 32 px rather than 24 x 24 px.