Designing web sites, I kept stumbling across the problem that I had to find out the size of certain elements on a page displayed in the browser window. As most of you might know, this is a pretty difficult task. Therefore I was happy when I found a freeware tool for Mac OS X called “Free Ruler” written by Pascal. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to keep it on top of the browser window when klicking on that window, so I kept searching and discovered Kevin Freitas‘ Firefox extension “MeasureIt”. This tool does an excellent job. It only has one drawback. You can’t resize an already drawn rectangle. I hope that Kevin will be able implement this feature in a future release. If you need a similar tool for IE on Windows, check out the “Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar” which is still in beta stage. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way to draw a rectangle like I can do with “MeasureIt”.
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I wrote an article about the new “Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar”, too. It is better the Accessibilty Toolbar for the IE. The “MeasureIt” Extension is really cool and helps me every day during the projects, I never will miss it!
Depending on when you bought your last computer and what OS you’re using Apple has been including recent versions of the Art Directors Toolkit. This program has an on screen rule that you can resize, rotate, and specify the measurement units. I use it all the time when I’m developing websites.
Wow, thanks for the tip. I sure was aware of the presence Art Directors Toolkit but haven’t taken a look at it before I read your post. And the screen ruler even stays on top. Great tool.