NetSpeed 1.31

The figures come first now

The indicator moved to the right of them, which closed a hole nobody could
place. The rates are padded to a constant width, so a short one carries leading
spaces — and with the icon on the left those spaces sat between the two,
opening and closing with the traffic. On the right they fall at the outer edge,
where nothing tells them apart from the gap to the next item in the menu bar.

The icon also carries its own seven points of space now. A button sets its image
against its title with nothing between them, and the s of KB/s was touching
the first chevron.

Three type sizes, measured rather than guessed

The figures are 13 point, two up: they are the whole message, and they sat
smaller than the clock beside them. The unit is 77% of that and sits half a
point of ink below them.

Reaching even that takes a lift, not a drop — on a shared baseline the smaller
type already hangs a point lower, partly its metrics, partly the slash in
KB/s, which descends. A deliberate drop was tried first, after a speedometer,
and does not carry at this size: there the number is forty points tall.

Both numbers were measured on the rendered strip. The font's metrics say nothing
about the slash.

Tenths where they decide something

Gone from kilobytes, where the last digit changed every tick without ever
changing a decision — nobody acts on 52.9 against 53.1 KB/s.

Kept in megabytes while they fit, where dropping them costs a whole decade of
resolution: 1.1 and 1.9 MB/s would both read 1.

Always kilobytes

A new setting under Menu bar display, off by default.

Scaling is work the reader has to undo: 1.2 MB/s and 980 KB/s arrive a
second apart, and comparing them means converting one in your head. Pinned to
kilobytes, the figure only ever grows.

It is off by default because a gigabit link then reads 125000 KB/s — six
digits, sixteen points wider. On a mobile link the scale never leaves kilo
anyway, so there it costs nothing.

---

Universal build — Apple silicon and Intel in one image.

Gatekeeper will not open an unsigned app from the internet on the first try:
drag NetSpeed to Applications, then right-click it and choose Open.