Bluegrams Blog

Version 0.9.0 (2021-08)

The first major feature update of Screen Ruler in a few months brings a whole range of new features that broaden the range of possibilities of working with Screen Ruler. Most of the new features were implemented based on user feedback, to add your own feedback or suggestions, always feel free to open an issue on GitHub or start a discussion on SourceForge.

What's new

Ruler flipping

The first major new feature is the possibility to flip the ruler scale horizontally or vertically. In 1D horizontal or vertical mode, this flips the measurement scale to allow measuring from right to left or from bottom to top. In 2D mode, it additionally allows to change the orientation of the right angle of the ruler. By flipping horizontally, the vertically ruler moves to the right of the horizontal ruler. By flipping vertically, the horizontal ruler moves to the bottom of the vertical ruler. Using keyboard shortcuts, horizontal flipping can be achieved by pressing F, vertical flipping by pressing Shift+F.

Hypotenuse and angles

Secondly, v.0.9 adds the option to show the length of the hypotenuse in 2D mode as well as the size of the angles enclosed by the ruler triangle. There are two options here: either the right-angled triangle is defined by the horizontal and vertical ruler lengths or by the cursor position. Hypotenuse measuring can be toggled using H via keyboard shortcuts.

Command-line arguments

Next, the new version of Screen Ruler introduces command-line arguments. You can view them by executing screenruler.exe --help from a terminal. To give some examples, screenruler.exe -x 10 -y 10 --width 600 --height 400 sets a startup position and size for Screen Ruler. screenruler.exe --title "Mozilla Firefox" directly measures the window titled "Mozilla Firefox" on startup.

More

All changes of this version, including minor new features:

• New: Horizontal and vertical flipping of ruler scale
• New: Optionally show hypotenuse ("H") and angles in 2D ruler mode
• New: Command-line arguments to set startup location or measure opened window
• New: Add shortcut ("X") to set marker at cursor position
• New: Allow changing of units in marker list
• New: Setting to snap ruler scale to screen edges
• Updated: Chinese translation

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:

• CloverGit for updates to the Chinese translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.9.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.9.0

Version 0.5.0 (2021-06)

A new version of Vividl has been released today and is now available for download via SourceForge and Chocolatey. Besides UI improvements, the new version 0.5.0 mainly brings more flexibility in configuring video downloads.

What's new

The main addition in v.0.5.0 is the new "Configure Download" window which allows a detailed configuration of the downloaded video formats and format conversions. The new window can be opened by clicking the "Configure Download" button on a video list item or by selecting "Custom Download" in the format drop-down. It shows all available video, audio and audio+video tracks available for download for a certain video. By selecting entries from the lists, you can freely configure the format and quality to download. Additional controls show conversion options as well as approximated download size.

Besides this, v.0.5.0 also brings some UI improvements. For example, video thumbnails are now shown on the main video list and a quick access to the app settings was added to the toolbar.

The included youtube-dl version has been updated to 2021.06.06.

The full list of changes, including minor improvements:

• New: Customize download in "Configure Download" window
• New: Show download size and resolution in "Configure Download" window
• New: UI improvements: show video thumbnails; add settings to toolbar
• New: Add mode to re-download videos with new name (issue 28)
• New: Simple automatic update checking for youtube-dl
• New: Add command to reload all videos
• Changed: Put youtube-dl into AppData folder by default (issue 26)

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vividl/files/v.0.5.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Vividl/releases/tag/v.0.5.0

Version 0.8.1 (2021-01)

The first Screen Ruler update of 2021 brings some minor new features and bug fixes, most of which are implemented based on user feedback. To add your own feedback or suggestions, always feel free to open an issue on GitHub or start a discussion on SourceForge.

What's new

The changes of this version:

• New: Slovak translation
• New: Increase precision of screen DPI setting
• New: Keyboard shortcuts for toggling theme and setting opacity
• Fixed: Position of marker labels on ruler

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:

• Peter Ditrich for the Slovak translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.8.1/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.8.1

Version 0.4.0 (2020-11)

The Vividl project participated in this year's Hacktoberfest, a month-long event on GitHub every October to encourage and promote contributions to open-source software development. With the start of Hacktoberfest in early October, we asked for help with translation of this app to other languages. This new version includes all Hacktoberfest contributions of the last month.

In total, Vividl received 10 pull requests by 10 different contributors. These contributions added translations for 9 languages, with updates for 2 more. The newly added languages are:

• Italian
• Hebrew
• Polish
• Welsh
• Portuguese
• Arabic
• French
• Dutch
• Swedish

Thanks to all the awesome contributors for their help! You can find the names and GitHub profiles of all contributors in the full list of contributors on GitHub. You can also see all of their contributions during Hacktoberfest here.

Also make sure to read about the recent unjustified takedown of youtube-dl, the tool which Vividl uses in the background. The included youtube-dl version has been updated to 2020.11.01.1.

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vividl/files/v.0.4.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Vividl/releases/tag/v.0.4.0

Version 0.8 (2020-11)

The Screen Ruler project participated in this year's Hacktoberfest, a month-long event on GitHub every October to encourage and promote contributions to open-source software development. With the start of Hacktoberfest in early October, we asked for help with translation of this app to other languages. This new version includes all Hacktoberfest contributions of the last month.

In total, Screen Ruler received 11 pull requests by 10 contributors. These contributions added translations for 8 languages, with updates for 2 more. The newly added languages are:

• Portuguese
• Russian
• Malayalam
• Polish
• Finnish
• Dutch
• Swedish

Thanks to all the awesome contributors for their help! You can find the names and GitHub profiles of all contributors in the full list of contributors on GitHub. You can also see all of their contributions during Hacktoberfest here.

The changelog of this version:

• New: Portuguese, Russian, Malayalam, Polish, Finnish, Dutch, Swedish and Thai translation
• Updated: Italian and Spanish translation
• Changed: Divide inch scale into 16 parts; minor UI fixes

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.8.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.8

Version 0.3.0 (2020-10)

A new version of Vividl with a couple of new features has been released today and is now available for download via SourceForge or Chocolatey.

What's new

Version 0.3.0 brings an extended dialog for adding new video links. You can now specify options such as the download format to be used directly when adding the URLs of videos after clicking "Add New Videos". You can now also give credentials needed to access the videos here.

This update also brings a few useful additions to the main user interface. For example, important statistics such as download size, download rate and remaining time are shown in a compact form during download beginning with this version.

At last, Spanish has been added as a new language (see Credits). If Vividl is not available in your language yet, please help translating it! Just reach out in the forum or start contributing on GitHub.

The included youtube-dl version has been updated to 2020.09.20.

The full list of changes:

• New: Extended window for adding video links.
• New: Basic authentication support.
• New: Added window showing youtube-dl download output.
• New: Download progress information in main UI.
• New: Minor improvements in UI and settings (e.g. proxy).
• New: Spanish translation

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:

• Leandro Martín Drudi: Spanish translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vividl/files/v.0.3.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Vividl/releases/tag/v.0.3.0

Version 0.3.1 (2020-09)

What's new

The latest update of Colora brings Spanish as a new language option (see Credits section) and the possibility to switch the language without restarting.
If Colora is not available in your language yet, please help translating it!

The changelog for this version:

• New: Spanish translation.
• Improved: Change language without restarting.

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:

• Leandro Martín Drudi: Spanish translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/colora/files/v.0.3.1/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Colora/releases/tag/v.0.3.1

Version 0.7 (2020-09)

The fourth update iteration of Screen Ruler in 2020 brings various smaller new features and improvements. As always, the new release can be downloaded via SourceForge and Chocolatey.

What's new

Version 0.7 brings a new window for managing all custom markers added to the ruler. You can open it via the context menu at Edit Markers or by using Ctrl+E. The new window lists all currently added custom markings on the ruler scale in a compact overview.

Based on user request, a new operating mode has been added: using W, you can toggle the ruler to automatically follow the movement of the cursor on the screen.

Also, some improvements for using Screen Ruler as a reading aid have been made: you optionally can hide the ruler scale, further decrease the opacity and customize the movement steps of the ruler.

Lastly, contributors have improved the language support: Italian has been added as a new translation and the Spanish translation has been updated. If Screen Ruler is not available in your language yet, please help translating it!

The changes of this version, summarized:

• New: Added window for listing & managing custom markers
• New: Option to hide ruler scale
• New: Let ruler automatically follow mouse pointer
• New: Italian translation
• New/ Changed: Minor changes in options & settings (opacity, markers, step size)

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:
- IlBako: Italian translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.7.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.7

Version 0.2.2 (2020-05)

A new minor update of Vividl has been released today. The new version brings translations of the UI into other languages and bug fixes.

What's new

With German and Russian, v.0.2.2 brings the first translations of Vividl into languages other than English. We need your help to translate this app to more languages. Just reach out in the forum or start contributing on GitHub to add your language to Vividl.

This version further fixes a couple of bugs reported by users.

The included youtube-dl version has been updated to 2020.05.03.

All changes are:

• New: German and Russian translation.
• Fixed: Bug preventing app start for some locales.
• Fixed: FFmpeg warning messages during stream download.

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:
- xetrin: Russian translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vividl/files/v.0.2.2/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Vividl/releases/tag/v.0.2.2

Version 0.6 (2020-04)

The third update of this year brings some major additions to Screen Ruler. Most notably, version 0.6 brings a new two-dimensional ruler mode that allows you to measure the screen in horizontal and vertical direction simultanously using a rectangular ruler scale.

What's new

You can enable the new two-dimensional ruler mode by selecting 'Ruler Mode -> Two-Dimensional' in the context menu. This allows you to resize the scale horizontally and vertically as well as settings markers in both directions. Also, when selecting a window on the screen for automatic measuring (press 'Z'), now both its width and height will be measured at the same time. For quick switching between the new two-dimensional mode and the original horizontal and vertical modes, you can also use Space.

The other major addition of this update is the new Slim Scale Mode which you can via the context menu or by pressing J. If enabled, only a reduced and slimmer ruler scale is shown, hiding less of the actual items on screen.

Lastly, the ruler application is now hidden from the task bar by default and displayed as an icon in the notification area. To disable this behaviour, uncheck the corresponding option in the settings.

These changes, and all others of this version, summarized:

• New: Two-dimensional mode: measure the width and height simultaneously
• New: Toggle ruler mode using 'Space'
• New: Slim ruler scale
• New Ruler icon in notification area instead of task bar
• New: Improved dialog for setting ruler size
• New: Chinese translation

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:
- @lzporter: Chinese translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.6.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.6

The Screen Ruler app was recently featured by AddictiveTips.com in a short video tutorial. The video gives a nice overview on how to get started with the ruler on Windows.
You can find it on YouTube at https://youtu.be/UPiqYMfwbjY.

Previously, AddictiveTips already published a review of Screen Ruler on their website at https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/add-a-ruler-to-the-screen-on-windows-10/.

EDIT: Version 0.2.0 introduced some bugs that were fixed shortly after the release with the update to v.0.2.1.

Version 0.2.0 (2020-03)

A new update of the Vividl video downloaded has been released today and is now available for download on SourceForge and Chocolatey.
The new version brings some new features and important bug fixes, so please update as soon as possible.

What's new

With version 0.2.0, you can now easily remove all unavailable or finished video downloads from the video list (Videos -> Remove). It adds a new option (Settings -> Download -> Use Download Archive) that keeps log of all videos downloaded to a folder and prevents re-downloads.

This version further fixes a critical bug that causes the app to crash when fetching some videos (e.g. for Vimeo). The included youtube-dl version has been updated to 2020.03.08.

All changes are:

• New: Use download archive.
• New: Remove all unavailable/ finished downloads.
• New: Minor UI improvements.
• Fixed: App crashes for videos from some websites (e.g. Vimeo).

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vividl/files/v.0.2.1/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Vividl/releases/tag/v.0.2.1

EDIT: Some critical bugs were fixed in two updates after the release of this version.

Version 0.2 (2020-03)

A new update of the PinWin tool has been released and is now available for download.

What's new

• New: Option to show windows list below other items in menu
• Fixed: Global hotkey input

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:
- User algod42

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinwin/files/v.0.2/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/PinWin/releases/tag/v.0.2

Version 0.5 (2020-02)

After the last update being released just one month ago, Screen Ruler v.0.5 again brings a couple of useful features that extend the possibilities of the tool. This time, most of the additions come from external contributors.

What's new

Besides automatically marking the center and thirds of the ruler, version 0.5 also adds the possibility to mark the golden ration in both direction. Press G to toggle the new markers. Also, to make the ruler markers more distinguishable, you can now switch on optional marker symbols (from Settings -> Advanced -> Show marker symbols). This option adds a different symbol next to each type of marking line, with numbering for custom markers. Both of these features were added by an external contributor (see Credits).

The new version also attempts to improve the possibilities to adapt the ruler tool to different displays with different scaling values. For this reason, a new calibration window is added. It allows setting concrete screen properties as well as dynamically adapting the scale based on a preview panel. To access calibration, press Ctrl+K. For more information about this feature, visit https://sourceforge.net/p/screenruler/discussion/howto/thread/22319514a3/.

All changes, summarized:

• New: Marker for Golden Ratio
• New: Symbols for marker lines (optional)
• New: Spanish translation
• Changed: Added window for easy ruler calibration

Credits

Special thanks for this version go to:
- Jens Bråkenhielm: goldern ratio markers & marker symbols
- Leandro Martín Drudi: Spanish translation

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.5.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.5

Version 0.1.1 (2020-01)

Thanks to user feedback, this new update fixes some bugs of the initial version of Vividl that could cause app crashes. Also, the used version of youtube-dl was updated to 2020.01.24 which fixes a few video extraction errors.

In detail, the changes to Vividl are:

• Fixed: App crashes for failed fetches.
• Fixed: Saving of settings in portable version.
• Fixed: Tooltip labeling.

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/vividl/files/v.0.1.1/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Vividl/releases/tag/v.0.1.1

Vividl - Video Downloader for Windows

Vividl is a Windows app that lets you download videos from various websites, including YouTube.
It uses the popular program youtube-dl to extract videos from several hundred websites. Just copy a video URL,
paste it in Vividl and download the video in different qualities, convert it to other formats or to an audio track.
You can also manage the parallel download of multiple videos and retrieve additonal meta information using the simple UI.

Features

• Download videos from all important websites with the help of youtube-dl
  (see all sites supported by youtube-dl)

• Select between all provided download formats

• Convert videos to MP4, AVI, WebM...

• Extract audio track as MP3, M4A...

• Download multiple videos in parallel

• See additional information before downloading a video

• Modern and powerful UI for Windows

Setup

Requirements

Vividl requires Windows 7 or newer and .NET Framework v.4.6.2 or higher.

Get Vividl

• Download the latest release from SourceForge

or

• Install from Chocolatey: choco install vividl

Feedback and Support

Please leave a feedback on SourceForge and recommend Vividl if you like it. Thank you!

Places to get help:

• Ask on SourceForge (General help, ideas etc.)
• Open an issue on GitHub (Bugs, feature requests etc.)

Version 0.4 (2020-01)

The first update of Screen Ruler in 2020 has just been released and is now available for download on SourceForge and Chocolatey.

What's new

Version 0.4 mainly adds more configuration options to existing features. For example, you can now configure the thickness of the ruler markings to use precise, one pixel wide markers. Also, you can configure the step size when resizing the ruler tool using either the keyboard or the mouse. For all this, a new page was added to the settings window. In summary, the additions of this update are:

• New: Configure marker thickness.
• New: Configure size of resize/ move steps.
• New: Minor: Tool tip and copy shortcut

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.4.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/releases/tag/v.0.4
• Chocolatey: https://chocolatey.org/packages/screenruler

Version 0.3 (2020-01)

A new version of the MPos mouse coordinates app has just been released for download on SourceForge.

What's new

The new version adds a line to show the screen resolution of the current monitor. Also, you can now configure the shown data even easier from the top menu under View. The updates in detail are:

• New: Added screen resolution of current screen.
• New: Re-show grabbed position data from log.
• Changed: Added configuration of shown data to main menu.
• Changed: Improved hotkey input.

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpos/files/v.0.3/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/MPos/releases/tag/v.0.3

Version 0.3 (2020-01)

The new year starts with a new update for Colora. The newly released version 0.3 brings some visual improvements and useful new features and is now available for download on SourceForge and Chocolatey.

What's new

Starting with this new version, the UI of Colora gets some significant updates. Part of the modernizations are new toolbar icons, a nicer main menu and cleaner UI buttons. All of this give the app a whole new look that will be further improved with the upcoming release.

On the functional side, Colora now supports sampling the average color of pixels from screen. This can be configured through Options -> Color Sampling Area.
Besides some other smaller feature improvements (described below), this version also adds a new settings window to allow the configuration of important parameters.

The changes in detail are:

• New: Modernized UI icons and improved UI.
• New: Pick average color of 3x3 or 5x5 pixels from screen.
• New: Mode for RGB values between 0 and 1.
• New: Settings window: adjust max. history length, palette window snapping.
• Improved: Screen picker maximum zoom up to 10x.
• Improved: Hot key configuration.
• Changed: Ordering in main menu bar.
• Fixed: Minor color history bug.

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/colora/files/v.0.3.0/
• Source code: https://github.com/Bluegrams/Colora/releases/tag/v.0.3.0
• Chocolatey: https://chocolatey.org/packages/colora

PinWin Released for Download

The new desktop tool PinWin has been released on Sourceforge just recently. PinWin is a lightweight system tray utility that allows you to pin any window to be always on top of the screen by one click. You can choose the window to pin from a list in the system tray menu or by directly selecting it from screen. With its minimal setup, PinWin can run quietly in background until you need it.

Reviews

Some reviews made directly after release:

"A handy utility for anyone working with multiple files and apps"

(Softpedia.com)

"PinWin is an easy recommendation"

(Rockybytes.com)

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinwin/files/v.0.1/
• Code of first release: https://github.com/Bluegrams/PinWin/tree/v.0.1

Version 0.3 (2019-07)

A new version of Screen Ruler (v.0.3) has been released today and is now available for download on Sourceforge.

What's new

Version 0.3 introduces a few useful new features, of which some are based on user feedback. First, you can now use Screen Ruler to measure the size of windows on the screen automatically. Just press 'Z' or the corresponding context menu item and use the cursor to select one window to measure. Second, the option to measure lengths relative to the width or height of the screen is added by providing a new measuring unit 'Percent'. Additionally, there are some smaller changes. In detail, all changes of this version are:

• New: Select a window from screen to measure it automatically.
• New: Measuring unit: percentage of screen width/ height.
• New: Fast resizing with mouse wheel.
• Changed: Switched shortcuts for resizing and moving (!).
• Fixed: Unclear menu label.

Links

• Binary download: https://sourceforge.net/projects/screenruler/files/v.0.3/
• Code of new version: https://github.com/Bluegrams/ScreenRuler/tree/v.0.3

Colora now is also available from the Chocolatey package manager for Windows (https://chocolatey.org).
To install Colora with Chocolatey, simply type:

choco install colora

Screen Ruler is now also available through the Chocolatey package manager for Windows (https://chocolatey.org/).
To install it from there, simply type:

choco install screenruler

A new version of Colora has been released today and is now available for download from Sourceforge. The source code, as always, is available on GitHub.

What's new

Version 0.2 mainly adds some minor features improving the usability. It also fixes a few bugs. The changes in detail are:

v.0.2 (2019-01)

• New: Change shortcut for picking colors.
• New: More configurable UI: Show/ Hide icon bar and color history.
• New: Delete single colors from history.
• New/Fixed: Set color from CMYK, fixed bug with CMYK.
• Fixed: App crashes with negative screen coordinates.