PixelGlass is a native macOS menu bar app for measuring, capturing, annotating, and exporting precise screen references. It is built for designers, developers, QA engineers, and anyone who needs pixel-accurate screenshots without sending screen content to a cloud service.

PixelGlass is an open-source project by Bloxy Studios, distributed under the MIT license.

• Capture and measure a selected screen area with live pixel, point, coordinate, and aspect-ratio feedback.
• Capture full-screen references and keep recent captures in an in-memory floating shelf.
• Copy or save polished exports with measurement labels, rulers, configurable backgrounds, corners, shadows, and scales.
• Open captures in a lightweight annotation editor; richer drawing and composited annotation export are part of the 1.0 build-out.
• Inspect permission state for Screen Recording and Accessibility from the menu bar and Settings.
• Run as a quiet menu bar utility with optional Dock visibility.

PixelGlass is designed for local-first screenshot work.

• No telemetry.
• No analytics SDK.
• No cloud backend.
• No account system.
• No automatic upload of screenshots or measurements.
• Captures stay in the app's in-memory shelf until you copy, save, delete, or quit.

See Permissions and Privacy for the full rationale behind the macOS permissions PixelGlass requests.

PixelGlass is being built toward a production-ready 1.0.0 release. The app already includes the core menu bar foundation, area capture, full-screen capture, export styling, recent-capture shelf, permission handling, settings, and a first-pass annotation editor.

The 1.0 release train also includes work for global hotkeys, richer window measurement, Sparkle-based in-app updates, release signing/notarization, and expanded QA/security checks.

• macOS with the project target SDK/deployment baseline available.
• Xcode capable of building the configured macOS target.
• Git.

The project currently targets macOS 26.3 in Xcode build settings.

Production releases will be published from bloxy-studios/PixelGlass once signing, notarization, and appcast publishing are complete.

Until then, build from source:

git clone https://github.com/bloxy-studios/PixelGlass.git
cd PixelGlass
./script/build_and_run.sh

You can also open PixelGlass.xcodeproj in Xcode and run the PixelGlass scheme.

Build:

xcodebuild \
  -project PixelGlass.xcodeproj \
  -scheme PixelGlass \
  -destination 'platform=macOS' \
  build

Run the focused unit test suite:

xcodebuild \
  -project PixelGlass.xcodeproj \
  -scheme PixelGlass \
  -destination 'platform=macOS' \
  -only-testing:PixelGlassTests \
  test

Use the helper script for local app runs:

./script/build_and_run.sh
./script/build_and_run.sh --verify
./script/build_and_run.sh --logs

The helper builds into the repo-local build/ directory.

PixelGlass uses two macOS privacy permissions:

• Screen Recording: required to capture selected regions and full-screen references.
• Accessibility: required for precise window bounds, future global shortcut/event-tap support, and richer window measurement.

PixelGlass does not request these permissions to monitor behavior, collect analytics, or transmit content. See Permissions and Privacy.

PixelGlass is a native SwiftUI/AppKit app. The menu bar shell is AppKit-backed, while product surfaces use SwiftUI where it fits. The app keeps sandboxing disabled for the direct-distribution 1.0 line because screen capture, Accessibility inspection, global hotkeys, direct file export, and Sparkle updates all need careful integration outside the default App Store sandbox profile. Hardened runtime remains enabled for signed releases.

Useful local commands:

git status --short
./script/build_and_run.sh --verify
xcodebuild -project PixelGlass.xcodeproj -scheme PixelGlass -destination 'platform=macOS' -only-testing:PixelGlassTests test

Contributions are welcome. Start with CONTRIBUTING.md, read the privacy and permission expectations, and keep changes scoped so parallel contributors can work safely.

For responsible disclosure, use the process in SECURITY.md instead of opening a public issue.

PixelGlass is available under the MIT License.