Pick of the week: xScope

This weeks pick is cute little utillity app from the Iconfactory ((You know, the ones with the Twitter bird icon that everybody copies)) called xScope. If you do any kind of design work xScope will most certainly help you in your day to day work. xScope is really a compilation of seven small tools combined in a great looking package. For only $26.95 you get the following tools: 1. Dimensions Measure anything on the screen instantly. E.g. the distance between two elements. 2. Rulers How much is 200 pixels again? - Use the rulers to quickly align stuff on your screen. 3. Screens Ever wondered how big the viewable area of IE 6 is ((Its 1004x568 in case you were wondering)) with a resolution of 1024x768? Screens gives you an overlay that you can configure with the measurements of every major player on the browser marked ((And you can configure your own if that is not enough)). 4. Loupe Zoom in on anything and copy the pixel color to the pasteboard or use it for precision editing in programs that do not have a loupe. 5. Guides Just like guides in Photoshop but here they fill the whole screen. 6. Frames Square guides for when you need to contain stuff. 7. Crosshair A mouse cursor that fills the whole screen.

I mostly use Dimensions, Rulers and the Loupe and that easily justifies the $26.95 price tag.