Rectangle

Rectangle is an application for managing and organizing windows in macOS. It allows moving and resizing windows using keyboard combinations or by dragging them to the edges of the screen. The program is free, open-source, and serves as a modern successor to the Spectacle application.

★★★★★

5.0(1 ratings)

• Move to screen halves. With keyboard shortcuts, you can send a window to the left, right, top, or bottom half of the screen. This feature organizes two windows side-by-side for comparing content or working on parallel tasks. The default shortcuts use combinations with the Command, Option, and arrow keys.
• Move to corners and quarters. The application allows you to place a window in any of the four corners of the screen. It can also resize a window to occupy a quarter of the screen, in the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, or bottom-right corner. This positioning is effective for monitoring background applications like messaging clients or music players.
• Move to thirds. Rectangle can resize a window to occupy the left, center, or right third of the screen. You can repeat the same shortcut to cycle the window through the left, center, and right thirds, eliminating the need to memorize multiple combinations. This arrangement is practical for working with three panels of information simultaneously.
• Maximize and center. One shortcut maximizes a window to fill the entire screen, excluding the space taken by the menu bar and the dock. Another shortcut centers a window on the screen at a predefined size. These actions provide complete focus on a single application or present a window neatly.
• Switch between displays. If you are using a system with multiple monitors, Rectangle can move a window to the next or previous display. The window maintains its size and relative position when transferred between screens. This feature streamlines the reconfiguration of your workspace in multi-monitor setups.
• Adjust via snap areas. By dragging a window and dropping it on an edge or corner of the screen, it will resize and snap to that position. The snap areas are active on all edges and the four corners. The system supports screen configurations in vertical or portrait orientation.
• Restore original size. After resizing or moving a window, a specific keyboard shortcut restores it to its original dimensions and position. This function acts as an undo command for window management operations. It is a quick way to revert changes when testing a new layout.
• Cycle sizes by repeating shortcuts. For functions like moving to thirds or halves, repeating the same keyboard shortcut makes the window cycle through the available size options. This design reduces the number of key combinations the user needs to remember. Instead of using a different shortcut for each variation, you use one and repeat it.
• Complete shortcut customization. Each action in Rectangle can be assigned a custom keyboard shortcut from the application's settings. The user can modify the default shortcuts to suit their preferences or avoid conflicts with other applications. Shortcut recording is implemented using the MASShortcut library.
• Support for Spectacle. Upon first launch, Rectangle offers the option to use Spectacle's default keyboard shortcuts. This facilitates migration for users coming from that application, as they do not need to relearn the combinations. Rectangle presents itself as an almost direct replacement for the Spectacle project, which is no longer maintained.

Rectangle is an open-source project started in 2019 by an independent developer. The application is written primarily in the Swift programming language. It emerged as a fork and modern successor to the popular Spectacle application, which is no longer being updated.

Alternatives to Rectangle:

WindowTop

WindowTop is a Windows utility that keeps any window always on top, controls opacity, enables interactive Picture-in-Picture mode, forces dark mode on unsupported windows, crops window regions, and manages multiple windows using an anchor system.

Price: Free   Size: 25.63 MB   Version: 5.31.8   OS: Windows

Fenestrae

Fenestrae is software for Windows 11 that solves two common problems in multi-monitor setups: windows scattering whenever the display configuration changes, and the tedious manual alignment of windows.

Price: $20   Size: 45.2 MB   Version: 1.0   OS: Windows

Windownaut

Windownaut is a macOS utility that allows you to control the position and size of windows using keyboard combinations and hot zones on the screen.

Price: $4.99   Size: 4.8 MB   Version: 1.2.6   OS: MacOS

Trove File Explorer

Trove File Explorer is a file manager for macOS written in SwiftUI that replicates the Windows Explorer workflow.

Price: $4   Size: 7.6 MB   Version: 1.2.3   OS: MacOS