Ruler, grid, and guide settings

The Rulers' settings let you change the rulers' measurement units, the colors of the guides or grid, the spacing between gridlines and grid subdivisions. You can also turn on or off the alignment and object spacing guides.

To open ruler, grid, and guide settings:

• Choose Pixelmator Pro > Settings from the menu bar and choose Rulers.

Change the ruler measurement unit

You can change the ruler units from pixels to percent or physical units such as centimeters, millimeters, or inches.

In the Rulers tab, click the Ruler Units pop-up menu and choose Percent, Pixels, Centimeters, Millimeters, or Inches.

Customize the color, spacing, and subdivisions of the grid

A grid is a set of nonprinting lines that help accurately position objects on the canvas. You can change the grid's color or spacing to suit a specific document.

• Change the color of the grid: Click the Grid color well to pick a color or click to open the Colors window. You can also change the brightness and opacity of the grid by dragging the Brightness and Opacity sliders.
• Change the spacing of the grid: Click the number next to Gridline Every and type in a new value. This value determines the spacing between the gridlines. You can also click the pop-up menu to choose the grid spacing unit.

• Change the subdivisions of the grid: Click the number next to Subdivisions and type in a new value. This value determines how many sub-sections there will be within the gridlines.

Change the Guides' settings

Guides are nonprinting lines that help you arrange objects and are not part of the image themselves. You can change the color of the persistent alignment guides that you add from the View menu or using Rulers.

• In the Rulers tab, click the Guides color well to pick a color or click to open the Colors window. You can also change the brightness and opacity of the alignment guides by dragging the Brightness and Opacity sliders.

Change the Smart Guides settings

Smart Guides are nonprinting lines that temporarily appear to help you space and arrange objects and are not part of the image themselves. Customize the Smart Guides to change their color or to turn specific Smart Guides on or off.

• Change the color of smart guides: Click the Smart Guides color well to pick a color or click to open the Colors window. You can also change the brightness and opacity of the smart guides by dragging the Brightness and Opacity sliders.
• Turn Smart Guides on or off:

  • "Show guides at object center" shows smart guides when the center of an object aligns with the center of another object or the center of the image.

  • "Show guides at object edges" shows smart guides when the edges of an object align with the edge of another object or an edge of the image.

  • "Show guides for relative sizing" shows smart guides when an object matches the size of another object.

  • "Show guides for relative spacing" shows smart guides when three or more objects are placed equally apart in a line.