Pixie 🪄

A lightweight QGIS plugin for measuring pixel distances on raster images.

Pixie is designed for workflows where scanned maps or plans need to be metricized using scale bars. It lets you quickly measure the pixel length of a known distance directly in QGIS—no external tools required.

---

✨ Features

• Click two points on a raster to measure pixel distance
• Works directly in raster pixel space (not map units)
• Automatically copies the result to your clipboard
• Minimal, fast, and purpose-built

---

🧭 Typical workflow

Pixie → Metricize → Analysis

1. Use Pixie to measure the pixel length of a scale bar
2. Enter that value into your metricization tool
3. Work with the resulting metrically consistent raster

---

🚀 Installation

Option 1 — Install from ZIP

1. Download the latest pixie.zip release
2. In QGIS: Plugins → Manage and Install Plugins → Install from ZIP
3. Select the ZIP file

---

Option 2 — Development install

Copy the pixie/ folder into:

/python/plugins/

Then restart QGIS.

---

🛠 Usage

1. Select a raster layer
2. Click the Pixie toolbar button
3. Click two points (e.g., ends of a scale bar)
4. Pixel distance is displayed and copied to clipboard

---

⚠️ Notes

• Pixie measures pixel distance, not real-world distance
• The raster must be active/selected
• Best used on unmetricized scanned images

---

🧠 Design philosophy

Pixie does one thing:

Measure pixel distance cleanly and quickly

---

👤 Author

W. Christopher Carleton

---

📜 License

MIT License — see LICENSE file for details.