xScope - May 19, 2004
Author: ARTIS Software & The Iconfactory
Cost: $14.95
Version: 2.1
Reviewed by: Steven Canfield
User Rating: 
60%
xScope from the Iconfactory is an application that consists of six tools designed to help you develop websites or applications, or assist in graphic design. Each of the tools comes with some slick functionality, and there's likely one here that solves a problem you didn't know you had.
Features
xScope has six tools, and they are:
- Rulers - Translucent, expandable rulers that tell you how big a region is. Quite useful when you're trying to reverse engineer something (like Apple's Command Tab functionality)
- Screens - Puts a semi-transparent, draggable box around your screen. The idea here is to design websites so that everyone can use them. It's a bit like the lines on a camera that show you what will be covered with what print. What is most useful about this tool is that they've taken into account how much each window frame takes up, so you end up knowing exactly how much space you have for the website. This one is one of the cooler and more useful tools.
- Loupe - I don't know why it's called that. This is basically the eye dropper in Photoshop, but for your whole screen. The 'Avoid Mouse' functionality is cool, but it seems like it's a little broken, since the window doesn't move if you're just on the window frame.
- The final 3 tools: Guides, Frames and Crosshair allow you to basically define a region or area of the screen. This can be useful (especially Crosshair) to find out how far apart point a and b are. That might sound like useless information but I assure you theme developers and software developers care about that sort of thing a lot.
Ease of Use
xScope is extremely usable. Things like 'Avoid Mouse', the way all the rulers and windows are semi-transparent, and the way they all act like their Photoshop counterparts makes it really easy to get right in and start working.
Price
xScope costs $14.95, which definitely seems a little pricey. If you are a truly hardcore graphics pro, or if you spend your days reverse engineering Apple, I can see how it would be worth that. To the casual graphics artist, though, I don't see getting $14.95 of functionality out of it. If you design websites for a living, though, the combination of Screens for compatibility + Loupe is probably unbeatable, and this might be a piece of software to pick up.
xScope is an excellent idea and and excellent implementation, and aside from some minor bugs and a slightly high price, it doesn't really have any flaws. xScope is the kind of tool that you want in your toolkit because you're going to need it -- but you won't use it except once in a blue moon.
Comments
Posted by Chris at May 19, 2004 08:11 AM | Edit | Delete
XScope is a *great* little app, but I agree that it is on the pricey side.
Oh, and by the way, a loupe is that little jeweler's-magnifying-thing.
Posted by Mark at May 19, 2004 09:02 AM | Edit | Delete
XScope is a usefull and pretty application but Art Directors Tool Kit does all the same things and more. However I would recommend users try both of them to see which works for them. Iconfactory releases nothing but quality products as far as I have seen. I own both Pixadex and Candybar myself. So it is up to the users style and preference. Both are great applications.
Posted by Floggy Bottom at May 19, 2004 09:15 AM | Edit | Delete
What the hell is with people who complain about the "high" price of $10/15/20 for stuff? I mean, you drop $15 on a movie and soda, yet somehow that same price is too high for a useful piece of software that will last much longer than any lingering stench of Van Helsing. I don't get it, really.
Posted by Methnen at May 19, 2004 12:37 PM | Edit | Delete
I have to agree with you Floggy. $15 for something you use for years is not that much to ask. GAs you said going to the movies twice would cost more even if you didn't buy a soda. :)
Posted by Frisbee at May 19, 2004 03:46 PM | Edit | Delete
I don't go to the movies often, and when I am, I'm not usually the one who's paying for it...
Posted by danielgrenell at May 19, 2004 04:11 PM | Edit | Delete
i think it's a little pricey for what it does. imo of course.
Posted by Chris Brummel at May 19, 2004 09:08 PM | Edit | Delete
It is definitely not pricey. I paid for it about 15min after it came out because it fits my needs almost perfectly. I use it everyday. And now Synergy matches its icons. My only complaint is that I wish it didn't act like a separate app and acted like Konfabulator; in that it feels like an extension of the OS instead of an open application. Why not just hold down the button to get a menu instead of uselessly switching over to the app?
Posted by Michael Tyznik at May 19, 2004 10:53 PM | Edit | Delete
A loupe is the little magnifier that jewelers use to see details of jewels (individual cuts). That's what the loupe in the program does, let you see details (individual pixels) of the screen.
Posted by Palli Svans at May 20, 2004 04:15 PM | Edit | Delete
I think loupe is to simulate the printers loupe (used for decades and still is is today. Printers use it to look at registration marks and the density of the dots. Photographers also use the same loupe as the printers. Take my word for it, I work at a newspaper. Nothing to do with diamonds anyways!
Posted by Heiesuke at May 31, 2004 08:56 PM | Edit | Delete
I must try this out
Posted by Anh Tuan at June 6, 2004 10:38 PM | Edit | Delete
Anh Tuan
Posted by news- at August 19, 2004 03:23 AM | Edit | Delete
Posted by Richard Cabeza at September 11, 2004 02:09 PM | Edit | Delete
thanks this really agree with it
Posted by outsider at February 4, 2006 08:06 AM | Edit | Delete
mieszkania Warszawa, ogłoszenia nieruchomości, projektowanie stron, tworzenie stron, agencja reklamowa, reklama w internecie
Posted by git at February 4, 2006 11:45 AM | Edit | Delete
zdrowa żywność, psycholog, nauka angielskiego, soczewki kontaktowe, psyche sf, jk, ns, projektowanie wnętrz, hydraulik, opcat, domy opieki, freetimes, jidds, fabrykapoe, sfworks, polskepoeje, pb, pp, jk, wypadki, opony, agroturystyka, klimatyzacja, apteka, dentysta, fs, kray, eway, angs, gits, akupunktura, sw, sf, puz