v0.2.0 · Pre-alpha · MIT / Apache-2.0

Measure anything on your screen.

A fast, native pixel-measurement overlay for designers and developers. Snap to objects. Drop guides. Read distances. Vernier runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux — including Wayland.

Free forever Open source Cross-platform Built in Rust
Features

Everything you need to measure pixels.

Vernier sits as a transparent overlay on top of every other window. Hit the hotkey and the whole screen becomes measurable.

Pixel-perfect distance

Drag between any two points on the screen and read the distance in real device pixels — no zoom math required.

Snap to objects

Sweep a rectangle near any UI element and the overlay locks to its bounds. Get exact width and height in a single drag.

Snappable guides

Drop horizontal and vertical guides that stick to screen elements. Check alignment across windows and apps.

Crosshair mode

A full-screen reticle that follows the cursor. Spot misalignment across an entire layout at a glance.

Global hotkey

Toggle the overlay from anywhere with a configurable shortcut. Auto-installed on Hyprland; portal-based on other compositors.

Annotated screenshots

Capture the screen with your measurements baked in. Hand specs to designers and engineers in one paste.

Cross-platform

Works on your machine. Whatever it is.

The competition is macOS-only. Vernier is built from day one to be native everywhere — including Linux on Wayland, which most measurement tools won't touch.

macOS

Apple Silicon and Intel. Drop-in replacement for PixelSnap. Free.

  • Native overlay window
  • Retina-ready
  • Menu-bar tray icon
Available now

Windows

Windows 10 and 11. Per-monitor DPI awareness baked in.

  • Layered transparent window
  • System tray integration
  • Multi-monitor
In progress

Linux

First-class support for both X11 and Wayland. Hyprland is the primary development target.

  • wlroots layer-shell overlay
  • StatusNotifierItem tray
  • Auto-installed hotkey on Hyprland
  • GlobalShortcuts portal fallback
Available now
Built in Rust

A measurement tool that respects your hardware.

Vernier is a single statically-linked Rust binary with a transparent native overlay on each platform. No Electron. No web runtime. No background bloat.

  • Instant toggle Hotkey-to-overlay in a single frame. Idle CPU is effectively zero.
  • Tiny footprint One stripped binary. No service workers, no companion processes.
  • Modular workspace Core, platform, UI, and app split into clean crates. Each backend lives behind a single trait.
  • Memory safe Rust's ownership model means the overlay can't leak, crash, or take down your session.
  • Dual-licensed MIT and Apache-2.0. Use it at home, at work, or fork it for your own thing.
  • Customizable Configure the toggle shortcut, the theme, and the units from the prefs window.
terminal
# Linux (Arch / Hyprland) $ cargo install vernier $ vernier
# default toggle: CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+SUPER+F # the daemon auto-installs the bind on Hyprland layer-shell overlay registered
$ vernier toggle # show/hide $ vernier quit # stop daemon

Stop guessing. Start measuring.

Free, open source, and on every desktop you use. No license server, no email signup, no upsell.

$ cargo install vernier