Rulers - On-Screen Measurement Tool for Windows

A lightweight on-screen ruler application that provides precise pixel measurements and alignment guides for designers, developers, and anyone who needs accurate screen measurements.

screenshot

Features

📏 Draggable Guides: Create horizontal and vertical measurement guides by dragging from the rulers
📊 Coordinate Display Modes: Show absolute or relative pixel offset
⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts: Hold Ctrl to make guides interactive
💾 Persistent Settings: Automatically saves and restores guide positions between runs
⚙️ System Tray Integration: Minimal interface with tray icon for easy access
🖥️ Multi-Monitor Support: Automatically detects and creates rulers for all connected monitors and adapts when monitors are added/removed
🔋 Low resource usage: Minimal CPU load when idle, does not drain your laptop battery. Small on-disk and RAM footprint

Installation

Pre-built binary

Download from the releases page
Unzip to a folder of your choice
Double-click rulers.exe

Building from Source

Get Zig version 0.14 and install it.
Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/omgtehlion/rulers.git
cd rulers

Build the project:

zig build -Doptimize=ReleaseSmall

Run the application:

zig-out\bin\rulers.exe

Usage

Basic Operation

Launch the application - Rulers will appear on all monitors
Create guides - Click and drag from the ruler edges to create measurement guides
Move guides - Hold Ctrl and drag guides to reposition them
Remove guides - Drag guides back to the ruler edge or use the tray menu

Tray Menu Options

Right-click the tray icon or any ruler to access context menu:

No position - Do not display pixel coordinates
Absolute position - Display exact pixel coordinates on guides
Relative position - Show distance measurements between guides
Clear guides - Remove all active guides
Exit - Close the application

Keyboard Shortcuts

Ctrl - Hold to make guides interactive and show semi-transparent overlay
Right-click on ruler - While holding Ctrl, removes all guides

Configuration

The application automatically saves guide positions to rulers.ini in the application directory. The file format is:

H0=100    # Horizontal guide at Y position 100
V0=250    # Vertical guide at X position 250

License

This project is distributed under a BSD-like license.

History

Originally created in 2007 as a Delphi7 application. The Zig rewrite modernizes the codebase while maintaining full compatibility with the original functionality and adding new features like 64-bit version, multi-monitor support, and improved menus.

Rulers

Install / Use

README