Never lose your line again
Keep your eyes
A reading guide and screen tint that follow you down the page — so long reads stay easy and your focus stays put. Four one-tap Modes, endlessly tunable.
This demo is the real thing — move your pointer over the page, switch Modes, tune the look.
On reading slowly
There is a particular kind of tiredness that comes not from reading too much, but from reading without an anchor. The eye drifts, the line is lost, and the same sentence is read three times before the mind catches up.
A guide changes that. A quiet line under the words gives the eye something to rest against, and the page stops sliding. Dim the rest of the screen and the world narrows to a single thought at a time.
None of this is new — it is how a finger under the line has always worked. Focusline simply lends you one that never tires, in whatever shape and colour reads best to you.
Try it: glide down this paragraph and watch the guide keep pace. Change the Mode in the app panel, pick a colour, widen the band. Make it yours.
Four Modes
One tap sets everything up.
Each Mode pairs a reading guide with a screen tint, tuned to a job. Switch from the menu bar or a keyboard shortcut.
Reading
A clear line guides every line you read — thin bar or wide highlight, your colour, your width.
Focus
Everything but your app fades away. The page you're on stays bright; the clutter behind it dims.
Spotlight
A spotlight on the line you're reading. Round, square, or a full-width band — it follows your cursor.
Night
A warm, dim wash that's easy on the eyes — low glare and less blue light for late reading.
Tune anything
Colour, opacity, thickness, width, position, dim strength. Each Mode remembers its own look.
Multi-display
Choose which screens Focusline runs on. Lives quietly in the menu bar, out of your way.
Keyboard shortcuts
Toggle the reading bar or screen tint with your own global hotkeys — no clicking required.
Distraction-Free tint
Tint the whole screen, or leave the app you're working in fully clear while everything behind it dims.
Spotlight shapes
Round, rectangle, square or a full-width band — pick the cut-out that frames your line best.
Per-Mode memory
Every Mode keeps its own bar and tint. Switch between them and your setup is restored exactly.
Launch at login
Start Focusline automatically and let it sit in the menu bar, ready the moment you open your Mac.
Private by design
It only reads your cursor position to place the guide — never what's on your screen or what you read.
Precise placement
Nudge the bar up or down from the cursor line, set its width, and keep it centered or following along.
Up and reading in a minute.
Install
Download from the Mac App Store. Focusline appears in your menu bar.
Pick a Mode
Reading, Focus, Spotlight or Night — one click. The guide and tint set themselves up.
Make it yours
Open Customize to fine-tune the look, or just start reading. It follows your cursor everywhere.
What's new
Release notes
v0.1 First release
- Four one-tap Modes: Reading, Focus, Spotlight and Night.
- Reading guide in Bar, Highlight and Spotlight styles, fully customisable.
- Screen tint — whole-screen or distraction-free (active app stays clear).
- Warm Night wash for low-glare late reading.
- Per-Mode memory, multi-display selection, menu-bar control and keyboard shortcuts.
Questions
Does Focusline see what's on my screen?
No. It reads only your cursor position so the guide can follow it. It has no way of knowing what's under the bar or on the page.
Will it work in any app?
Yes. The guide and tint are a passive overlay drawn on top of everything, so they work in your browser, PDF reader, editor — anywhere.
What does it need?
macOS 13 or later. Focusline runs sandboxed in your menu bar.
Is my data collected?
Focusline uses privacy-respecting analytics and crash reporting to improve the app. No reading content or screen contents are ever collected. See the Privacy Policy.
Read easier, starting today.
Free to try. Lives in your menu bar, follows you everywhere.
