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Spectacle 2

Latest release macOS Universal MIT License

Spectacle 2 is a lightweight menu-bar utility for arranging and resizing macOS windows with global keyboard shortcuts. It is a maintained continuation of the original Spectacle, modernized for current macOS versions and universal Apple Silicon/Intel execution.

Highlights

  • Native universal binary for Apple Silicon (arm64) and Intel (x86_64).
  • Fast keyboard-driven halves, corners, thirds, displays, resizing, undo, and redo.
  • Eight independent edge actions that move only the selected window edge.
  • Customizable shortcuts and optional launch at login.
  • 23 interface languages, with English first, Ukrainian second, and Belarusian third. Russian is intentionally not included.
  • No analytics, advertising, user accounts, or network activity except links explicitly opened by the user.

Install

Download Spectacle2-2.0.dmg from the latest release, open it, and drag Spectacle2.app to Applications.

Pay attention before installation

⚠️ macOS will block the first launch — this is expected

This build uses a stable self-signed identity but is not notarized by Apple, because notarization requires a paid Apple Developer account. macOS may say that Apple could not verify Spectacle 2 and initially offer only Done and Move to Bin.

Choose Done, then open System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll to Security, and select Open Anyway for Spectacle 2. Confirm the prompt with your login password. This exception is normally required only once for that build. Apple documents this process in Open a Mac app from an unknown developer.

Only bypass Gatekeeper after downloading Spectacle 2 from this repository and verifying the supplied SHA-256 checksum. As an advanced alternative, xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Spectacle2.app removes the quarantine attribute from the installed app. Building from source does not add the download quarantine attribute.

Universal binary — runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs; Rosetta is not required.

Spectacle 2 also needs Accessibility permission to move and resize other applications' windows. The first-run dialog opens the correct Privacy & Security → Accessibility section directly.

Default shortcuts

The defaults in version 2.0 match the maintained project's reference configuration. Every shortcut can be changed or cleared in Settings.

Action Shortcut Action Shortcut
Left half ⌥⌘← Right half ⌥⌘→
Top half ⌥⌘↑ Bottom half ⌥⌘↓
Upper left ⌃⌘← Upper right ⌃⌘→
Lower left ⌃⇧⌘← Lower right ⌃⇧⌘→
Center ⌃⌥⌘C Fullscreen ⌃⌥⌘F
Next third ⌃⌥→ Previous third ⌃⌥←
Next display ⌃⌥⌘← Previous display ⌃⌥⌘→
Make larger ⌃⌥⇧→ Make smaller ⌃⌥⇧←
Undo ⌥⌘Z Redo ⌥⇧⌘Z

Independent edge resizing

Action Shortcut Effect
Expand right edge ⌃⌥⌘End Moves the right edge right
Shrink right edge ⌃⌥⌘Home Moves the right edge left
Expand left edge ⌃⌥⇧⌘← Moves the left edge left
Shrink left edge ⌃⌥⇧⌘→ Moves the left edge right
Expand bottom edge ⌃⌥⌘Page Down Moves the bottom edge down
Shrink bottom edge ⌃⌥⌘Page Up Moves the bottom edge up
Expand top edge ⌃⌥⇧⌘↑ Moves the top edge up
Shrink top edge ⌃⌥⇧⌘↓ Moves the top edge down

Languages

English is the default. The language can be selected from the globe submenu in the status menu or from Settings. The order is English, Ukrainian, Belarusian, then the remaining languages in localized alphabetical order.

Arabic, Bengali, Simplified Chinese, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese are included in addition to English, Ukrainian, and Belarusian.

Build from source

A full Xcode installation is required.

git clone https://github.com/vertusdesign/spectacle2.git
cd spectacle2
./scripts/validate-project.sh
./scripts/create-local-signing-identity.sh
./scripts/build-release.sh

The build produces:

  • dist/Spectacle2.app
  • dist/Spectacle2-2.0.dmg
  • dist/Spectacle2-2.0.zip
  • dist/Spectacle2-2.0.sha256

The local signing script creates or reuses Spectacle2 Local Signing in a dedicated keychain. A stable local identity prevents macOS from treating every rebuild as an unrelated application. Apple notarization still requires a paid Developer ID certificate and is not available to this project.

Project documentation

Original Spectacle

The original Spectacle was created by Eric Czarny, with icons and artwork by Iiro Jäppinen. Its historical credits are preserved in the app and this repository. Spectacle 2 is a community-maintained continuation and is not an official release by the original author.

Original source: eczarny/spectacle

License

Spectacle is distributed under the MIT License. Copyright © 2017 Eric Czarny. Spectacle 2 changes © 2026 Spectacle 2 contributors.

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Keyboard-first macOS window management, modernized for Apple Silicon and Intel.

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