# Crosshair

A simple way to locate and align points on your screen.

The final tool in the xScope bag of tricks is the Crosshair. This is a simple tool that helps you locate and align points on screen.

By default, the Crosshair reports positions relative to the upper left-hand corner of the screen. You can, however, set any point as the origin—this allows you to get positions that are relative to an arbitrary point on the screen.

A good example of this is getting a point within the bounds of the ruler. If you have the Rulers tool displayed, you can select Center Follows Ruler from the Crosshair menu. After enabling this option, the position of the crosshair will always be relative to the point where the rulers are joined.

Alternatively, you can use ⌘0 (Set Center Now) to set the Crosshair origin using the current mouse position. After the new origin is set, the tool will display the offset from that position.

If you're a Mac software developer, you may want to adjust the origin of the Crosshair. By default, it's in the upper-left corner of the screen, but there is a preference to make it in the lower-left (and compatible with AppKit's coordinate system.)

The color of the Crosshair tool can be set using the preference panel. If you're working on a design that contains both light and dark elements, try using Adjust color automatically for maximum contrast. When this option is selected, the colors near the mouse cursor are analyzed and black or white is chosen so the line can be seen easily.

Finally, you'll find that the Crosshair tool is most effective when used in conjunction with the other tools. In addition to using it with the Rulers (as described above), try turning on the Loupe to get a close up of the current position. The Guides and Frames tools can also benefit from a crosshair—allowing quick position measurements without creating a new guide or frame.