MacFace English Translation

Last Update: 2007-09-11

MacFace

MacFace is a little freeware application by Ryu (J) that acts as an activity monitor, informing you of how hard your processor is working and current RAM state. It's different from Activity Monitor and the many similar applications in that it does this by displaying a cute (and generally anime-style, though that's not technically a requirement) little face in your Dock.

It is a MacOS X application only; there is (somewhat ironically) a Windows port under development, and a Vista Gadget clone, VistaFace, but I know nothing about either and there isn't currently an English translation of them to my knowledge.

MacFace may not be the best CPU monitor out there, but it's definitely the cutest.

This isn't the official MacFace web page--that is at Ryu's site. We volunteered to translate the app and its documentation into English because Akemi immediately fell in love with it and wanted to help make it available to those who don't speak Japanese.

Download MacFace

Download MacFace 1.3.1 (277K .dmg; this is the first version with an English translation)

Since the official MacFace page is in Japanese, we've gotten permission to link directly to the download.

The download includes the application, extensive help files, more detailed information about what MacFace does and how it does it, and documentation on the .mcface file format so you can make your own face files. As of version 1.3.1, it includes an English translation of all of the above.

What Makes MacFace Worth Using

Its main purpose is to display a face in your Dock that changes its expression based on the RAM and CPU use of your computer. Exactly how it does this will depend on the face you're using--it comes with two, you can download more, and detailed instructions on how to make your own are included with MacFace.

Generally speaking, the more active the face looks, the harder your CPU is working. If the face looks stressed, it indicates that there's not much RAM available. And there's an indicator that shows if paging in or out is occurring, as well.

It also has a couple of additional features. It can display a window with a live, color-coded graph of the last minute or so of CPU and RAM use (white lines indicate pageins, black ones pageouts).

And, it also can display a window showing the historical trend of free space on your primary hard drive. It's not just a bar graph, though--it will add a trendline estimating the rate at which free space is decreasing (or increasing, rare as that might be), with an estimate of how long you've got until your drive is full.

MacFace is fully Universal and works equally well on PPC and Intel systems. It only takes about 500K on disk, and when there aren't graphs being displayed it uses essentially no CPU (under 0.1% on a 2GHz Core Duo), and well under 1% even with both graphs onscreen. What's not to love?

Installation Instructions

The installation process is easy.

1. First, download MacFace: MacFace-1.3.1.dmg (312K; that's a direct link to the installer).
2. Copy the MacFace application into your Applications folder.
   • If the MacFace-1.3.1.dmg file did not automatically mount, double click it in the Finder.
   • Go to the _MacFace-1.3.1 disk image that mounted and drag the MacFace application onto the Applications folder in the Finder.
   • If you want to use the extra face file MacFace comes with (kikiki-rin.mcface), copy it to somewhere on your drive (your Documents folder, for example).
   • Unmount (eject) the disk image when you're done.
3. You're done! Open MacFace and enjoy!

How To Make MacFace Launch Automatically

If you want MacFace to open automatically every time you log in to your account, do this:

1. Open System Preferences (under the Apple Menu), and go to the Accounts preference pane.
2. Click on the Login Items tab for the user you want it to automatically open for.
3. Add MacFace to the Login Items list (either click the + button and navigate to the MacFace application in the dialogue that appears, or just drag the application's icon into the list).

   

4. Make sure the "Hide" checkbox next to MacFace is not checked, or it will be invisible (and therefore totally useless).
5. The next time you log in, MacFace should automatically launch.

More Face Files

In addition to the default face, MacFace comes with Kikiki-rin (it's in the disk image along with the application--don't forget to copy it too if you want to use it!), but of course you want more. Here's a short list of some Face Files available on the web to get you started. They're all currently in Japanese, since the English version is brand new, but the downloads are pretty obvious even if you don't read Japanese and of course the faces themselves are in the universal language of anime.

• Noritama-kun, by Ashiberu (there are both "normal" (PNG) and "TIFF" versions to download; they're functionally identical, so you might as well use the non-TIFF one since it's smaller)
• Assorted, by Mayuki Sawatari (four different faces; download via the first link under the Download heading on each page)
• barton, by Satoshi (the barton.lzh is the file to download; .lzh is an uncommon compression format somewhat popular in Japan that you'll need Stuffit Expander to decompress)
• thoroughbred, by Satoshi (again, thoroughbred.lzh is the file, and it can be decompressed by Stuffit Expander)
• palomino, by Satoshi (once again, palomino.lzh)
• Yuki Nagato (this face was inspired by a Windows application by Mayuki Sawatari, in turn inspired by The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, but apparently due to official complaints by the copyright holder both were killed off a few weeks ago)

If you create a face file, please let us know so we can link it (or host it for you if you don't have anywhere to put it!), and if you know of any face files not on this list, please drop us a note.

If any of the instructions here are unclear, please let us know so we can revise them. Otherwise, enjoy!