OpenBar documentation

Overview

OpenBar is a compact dock that floats above your workspace and never steals focus. Click a tool to open its popover, use it, and the popover collapses the bar back to its slim resting state. Every tool works at the screen level, so it operates on anything you can see — your design app, a live website, a native window, a reference image, or a video frame.

The five tools are Screen Measure, Color Picker, Screen Capture, Special Characters, and Clipboard History, accompanied by an always-on-top toggle and an options panel. Everything OpenBar stores — clipboard history, color swatches, and settings — stays local to your machine.

Installing OpenBar

OpenBar ships as a Windows installer (.msi). To install:

1. Download OpenBar-1.0.0.msi from the download section.
2. Double-click the installer and accept the End User License Agreement (you can read it in full here).
3. Choose an install location, or accept the default, and let the installer finish.
4. Tick Launch OpenBar on the final page, or open it later from the Start menu.

On first launch, the dock appears centered in the lower third of your primary display. After that it remembers wherever you leave it.

The dock

The dock is the heart of OpenBar — a frameless, rounded capsule that stays on top of your other windows. From left to right it holds a drag handle, the five tools, a divider, the always-on-top toggle, and the options button.

Moving it

Grab the drag handle (the six-dot grip on the left) — or any empty space on the bar — and drag to reposition. The dock is anchored to its bottom edge, so popovers grow upward and the bar never runs off the bottom of the screen. Its position is remembered between sessions.

Always on top

The toggle to the right of the divider keeps OpenBar above other windows, including full-screen apps. It glows in your accent color when active. Turn it off when you'd rather the bar sit in the normal window order. Your preference is saved.

Staying out of the way

OpenBar never takes keyboard focus from the app you're working in. Opening a tool expands a popover above the bar; finishing (or pressing Esc) collapses it back to the compact dock.

Keyboard shortcuts

OpenBar is built to be driven from the keyboard. The same reference is available any time from Options → Keyboard Shortcuts.

The number keys both select a mode and activate it, so pressing M then 4 jumps straight into a diagonal measurement.

Measure anything on screen and read the result in your preferred unit. Pick a mode from the segmented control, then drag on screen:

• Area — drag a rectangle to read its width × height.
• Horizontal distance — drag a single horizontal span.
• Vertical distance — drag a single vertical span.
• Diagonal distance — drag freely in any direction for a straight-line measurement, with a live length and angle readout.

Switch the result between any of these units on the fly:

• px
• pt
• rem
• em
• vw/vh
• %

Press the copy button to put the measurement on your clipboard — it's also recorded in Clipboard History so you can re-use it later. vw/vh and % are relative to your screen size (the diagonal mode uses the screen's diagonal).

Sample the exact pixel under your cursor anywhere on screen. A magnifier loupe shows the pixels around the cursor so you can land precisely; click to pick. Picking is HiDPI-accurate.

Read and copy the value in any of four formats:

• hex
• rgb
• hsl
• hsv

Every pick is added to a 9-swatch history below the picker. Click any swatch to re-copy it, or press keys 1–9 to copy the matching swatch without reaching for the mouse.

Grab exactly the region you want, straight to your clipboard — no save-dialog detour. Choose a mode:

• Area — drag to select any rectangle of the screen.
• Full screen — capture the entire display under the cursor.
• Active window — capture the foreground window.

An optional delay (0, 3, 5, or 10 seconds) with an on-screen countdown gives you time to set up the shot. Selecting Active window sets a 3-second delay automatically, so you have a moment to bring the target window forward.

After capture you get a live thumbnail — then Copy the image to the clipboard or Save PNG to disk. Captures are recorded in Clipboard History as real images, so clicking the entry re-copies the picture, not just a label.

A curated, categorized palette of the symbols that aren't on your keyboard. Browse the categories — Business marks, Currency, Text formatting, Units, Brackets, Arrows, Stars, Circles, Shapes, and Blocks — and click any glyph to copy it.

Drop the right symbol (© ® ™ → • § ₹ € £ ★ ✦ ▶ ●, and many more) into UI copy, labels, specs, or annotations without memorizing alt-codes or hunting through the OS character map. Copied glyphs are recorded in Clipboard History.

OpenBar keeps a local history of recent clipboard text and image captures. It de-duplicates entries, shows one-line previews and image thumbnails, and re-copies any item on click — so you never have to redo a copy you just lost.

Measurements, picked colors you copy, captured images, and special characters all flow into the history alongside anything else you copy. You can adjust the maximum number of items (or turn history off entirely) in Options, and clear the whole list with one button.

The options panel collects every preference:

• Launch at startup — open OpenBar automatically when you sign in.
• Theme — choose from 10 themes (see Themes).
• Interface shadows — show or hide the drop shadow on the bar and popups.
• Measure magnifier — enable the zoom loupe for the Measure tool.
• Clipboard history — turn local history tracking on or off.
• Max history items — cap the list anywhere from 5 to 200 entries.
• Keyboard Shortcuts — open the full shortcut reference in a popup.
• Clear all stored data — reset settings and wipe clipboard & color history.

Themes

OpenBar ships with 10 themes — three base looks plus seven accent themes that retint the dock, popovers, and controls:

• Dark#F4C14B
• Dark High Contrast#FFCF5C
• Light#D99C12
• Tech Blue#4D8FE0
• Pink Martini#FF0080
• Green Hawaii#00FFC3
• Fresh Lime#90FF00
• Citrus Orange#FF4E00
• Blue Curaçao#00C8FF
• Purple Rain#A83FD9

Pick one under Options → Theme; the change applies instantly.

Privacy & data

OpenBar is private by default. Clipboard text, picked colors, and your settings are stored locally in your operating system's per-user application data folder. Nothing is ever synced, uploaded, or transmitted, and no account is required.

Screen capture and clipboard access are used solely to provide the tools' features on your device. You can erase everything OpenBar has stored at any time with Options → Clear all stored data. For the full picture, read our Trust & privacy overview, or see the End User License Agreement for the legal terms.

Troubleshooting

The dock isn't staying above a full-screen app

Make sure the always-on-top toggle (right of the divider) is on — it glows in the accent color when active. Some exclusive full-screen games take over the entire display; switching the app to borderless/windowed mode lets OpenBar float above it.

A capture or color pick looks shifted or off

OpenBar calibrates to each display's scale factor, so captures stay pixel-true on HiDPI and multi-monitor setups. If something looks off, make sure you're picking on the display where the cursor currently is — the overlay opens on the screen under your pointer.

The Capture popover closed unexpectedly

Full-screen and active-window captures briefly hide the dock so it stays out of the shot. The popover is kept alive through the whole capture and the result is preserved — give the countdown a moment to finish.

Measurements need to be more precise

Enable the Measure magnifier in Options. The loupe zooms the pixels under the cursor so you can align the selection to exact edges.

Uninstalling

OpenBar uninstalls like any Windows app: open Settings → Apps → Installed apps (or Programs and Features), find OpenBar, and choose Uninstall. To remove your local data as well, run Options → Clear all stored data before uninstalling.

Still have a question? Visit ctrlcolab.com or check the FAQ.