Quick Start 🚀

QuickLens has a powerful set of tools to start exploring the UI on the screen. To get you off the ground as quickly as possible, here are a few things to remember.

Table of Contents

• Permissions
• Keyboard Shortcuts
  • Shortcuts within a tool
  • Close and Reset
• Tool Palette
• Switching modes
• Colors and Light/Dark modes

When you start QuickLens for the first time, you will be greeted with this dialog. Without this permission, QuickLens will not be able to function properly.

You can assign this permission in the Security & Privacy pane of the System Preferences. It should look like below:

Restart

Once the permission is assigned, restart QuickLens and you are all set to go 🚀.

All tools have dedicated shortcuts and this is something to remember to quickly bring up tools. These are useful when the QuickLens app is active.

QuickLens also supports Global Hotkeys, which are similar in vein with the shortcuts above. Here are the default global shortcuts to bring up these tools from anywhere on your Desktop. Note that you can change these from the Preferences window.

All tools support a rich set of shortcuts. These shortcuts will work only when a tool has keyboard focus. You will know that from the presence of a primary color on the tool's interface. When not in focus, the parts of the tools will be greyed out.

You can switch keyboard focus between the various tool windows using the standard macOS shortcut: Command `. Once a tool window becomes focused, you will see its interface take on the primary color. Windows that don't have focus have some of their parts with a dimmed tone.

Every tool can be closed with Command W or using the Escape key.

There might be situations where you may want to go back to the defaults for a Tool. You can do that with the Command Option R shortcut.

If you prefer to use the Tool Palette to launch and close tools, you could do that by toggling the palette with the Command T shortcut.

Many of the tools support multiple modes of operation. For example, in the Ruler tool, you can switch modes between various units. For Crosshair, you can switch between the Crosshair, Distance, and Bounding Box modes. The tools that support multiple modes include: Ruler, Frame, Monocle and Crosshair.

Switch between these modes in these tools using the ` key.

The tools in QuickLens have a primary color, which helps it stand out against the backdrop of your Desktop and other apps. You can cycle the primary color with the Command E shortcut.

Similarly, the tools and rest of QuickLens can be toggled between the Light and Dark modes. Use the Command Option E shortcut for that.