PlotRuler v0.1.5

PlotRuler v0.1.5

What's new

• Arrow-key nudge — fine-tune a calibration line with left/right (X axis) or up/down (Y axis) arrows after clicking an anchor, before typing its value.
• Readout nudge + copy — in readout mode, arrows move the crosshair to an exact point and Ctrl+C copies its coordinate.
• Focus-gated keyboard hints — shortcut reminders are shown only while the overlay has focus; the Ctrl+N hint is right-aligned and spaced from the window corner.
• Version in the tray icon — the tray menu and tooltip show the running version; the menu is reordered (name/version at top, Quit at the bottom).
• Format indicator in a corner — the number-format label is pinned to the bottom-left instead of following the crosshair.
• No-tray minimize removed — on systems without a notification area the title bar shows only maximize + close.

Install

• Windows: download PlotRuler.exe and run it (Win+Alt+P toggles the overlay, Ctrl+N starts a calibration).
• Linux / macOS / other: pip install plotruler, or pip install -e . then plotruler.

Known deferral

• Wayland: the overlay's calibration model depends on global screen coordinates, which Wayland forbids by design. Use an X11 session on Linux.

PlotRuler v0.1.4

PlotRuler v0.1.4

What's new

• Windows test-suite fix — the cross-platform tests added for Linux were
  incorrectly assuming a non-Windows target, which crashed pytest on Windows.
  They now assert the platform-appropriate behavior and skip the off-Windows
  module where it doesn't apply, so the suite is green on both platforms.
• Python 3.10+ support — the app no longer requires Python 3.14.
• PyPI publishing workflow — pip install plotruler is now a supported
  channel, published automatically on release.

Install

• Windows: download PlotRuler.exe and run it (Win+Alt+P toggles the
  overlay, Ctrl+N starts a calibration).
• Linux / macOS / other: pip install plotruler, or
  pip install -e . then plotruler.

Known deferral

• Wayland: the overlay's calibration model depends on global screen
  coordinates, which Wayland forbids by design. Current Linux support targets
  X11. See LINUX_PLAN.md.

PlotRuler v0.1.2

PlotRuler v0.1.2

What's new

• Number format options — the readout can be shown as Auto, Plain, Scientific (m × 10ⁿ), Engineering, E notation, or SI prefixes (12.3 k). Switch with number keys 1-6 when focused, or from the tray menu → Number Format. The choice persists across restarts.
• Log axes — after the second value on each axis, a Linear/Log choice appears. Both axes can be log or linear independently; a log axis fits the calibration in log space so it reads across orders of magnitude. Log scale is skipped automatically when an anchor value is zero or negative.
• Much smaller executable — the build excludes unused Qt modules, dropping from ~257 MB to ~46 MB.
• Overlay polish — bigger resize handles, larger and consistent instruction text near the bottom of the window, and the readout lines are cleaner.

Install

Download PlotRuler.exe, run it, and use the tray icon (Win+Alt+P toggles the overlay, Ctrl+N starts a calibration). No Python install needed.

Known deferral

• Linux: Wayland forbids the global screen coordinates the overlay's calibration model depends on, and X11 is being removed from modern GNOME/Ubuntu sessions. Cross-platform support is being worked on separately.

PlotRuler v0.1.1

PlotRuler v0.1.1

What's changed

• Much smaller executable. Spec no longer bundles every Qt module — the app only needs QtCore/QtGui/QtWidgets, so the exe drops from ~257 MB to ~46 MB while keeping the tray icon, overlay, and version metadata.
• Setup for a versioning convention: the version now lives in pyproject.toml, plotruler/__init__.py, and build/version_info.txt, which are bumped together.

Install

Download PlotRuler.exe, run it, and use the tray icon (Win+Alt+P toggles the overlay, Ctrl+N starts a calibration). No Python install needed.

PlotRuler v0.1.0

First release of PlotRuler — a translucent desktop overlay for reading (X, Y) values off any on-screen graph (browser, PDF viewer, plotting window, ...).

• Calibrate once: click two points on each axis and type their labeled values (linear or log axes)
• Hover to read coordinates, click to copy
• Global hotkey (Win+Alt+P) and system tray icon
• Calibration and window geometry persist between runs
• Aero Snap support, resizable overlay
• Stand-alone Windows executable (PyInstaller, ~250 MB, no Python required)

See README for usage and build instructions.