A macOS app that makes the dock magnification scale with its size.
macOS has a weird quirk, where your dock magnification is absolute. So if you set your magnification, then your dock automatically shrinks, all of a sudden, your dock magnification appears bigger than it was before. This has happened to me, so I wanted to fix it!
This app monitors the dock's height (or width) and adjusts the magnification based on that. It writes to the dock's preferences (same as using the defaults command) and uses AppleScript to send the settings right to the dock. This avoids having to restart the dock each time.
The app polls the dock's size every 0.3 seconds. It only updates the dock if a change in the width or height (dependent on your dock location) is detected. In normal use, the app uses about 0.3% CPU and ~25MB memory, and has about a 0.3 energy impact.
You'll be prompted about most of these.
- macOS Sonoma or newer
- Accessibility permissions (Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility)
- This is needed to monitor the dock's size.
- Automation (System Events) permissions (Settings > Privacy & Security > Automation)
- This is to use AppleScript to update the magnification of the dock on the fly, instead of restarting it.
- Scale: The scaling of the magnification compared to the dock's size. Use the Info button to learn more. The slider ranges from 0.5 - 2.0, but you can manually enter anywhere from 0.25 to 100.
- Enable Magnification: Whether to enable magnification. Turning this off doesn't disable the app's functionality; it just tells macOS to not use magnification, which is a separate setting.
- Launch at Login: Start MagnificationScaler when you log in.
- Apply: Apply the settings you set instantly.
- Restart Dock: Same as running
killall dock. (As of version 0.0.0D, this should be unnecessary.) - Dock Info: View the current dock size and orientation in a popup.
- Quit: Quit MagnificationScaler.
The app also provides macOS App Intents for the Shortcuts app, which reflect the settings:
- Get Magnification Scale
- Set Magnification Scale
- Get Magnification Enabled
- Set Magnification Enabled
- Apply Settings
- Restart Dock
Does the app monitor or listen?
The app manually checks the dock size every 0.3 seconds. As far as I know, there is no way to listen to rendered dock size.
While you can listen for when the dock settings are updated, this will not trigger when the dock automatically shrinks.
Does the dock have to restart?
No! The dock doesn't have to restart, as of MagnificationScaler version 0.0.0D. The app now uses AppleScript to set the dock's magnification in real time.