Enhanced Zoom Desktop |
|
Category |
|
The Enhanced Zoom Desktop plugin allows the whole screen to be zoomed in for improved legibility. It is possible to continue working with other applications while zoomed in.
This plugin requires the Mouse position polling plugin to be enabled.
Contents
Using Enhanced Zoom Desktop
Enhanced Zoom Desktop (also known as ezoom) is a zoom plugin based on the original Zoom Desktop plugin, but with a wider scope. The target group of this plugin are visually impaired users, but most of the features developed for ezoom are highly usable for people with normal vision.
Enhanced Zoom Desktop works like a magnifying glass that allows users to zoom in on a specific portion of their desktop and move that zoomed area around to see other portions of their desktop that were "pushed" outside the zoomed area.
Unlike the Zoom Desktop plugin, Enhanced Desktop Zoom allows you to interact normally with your windows while the screen is zoomed in.
Zooming in and out
This is the basis of this plugin and is configured in the Zoom In/Out section of the plugin's settings in CompizConfig Settings Manager.
Action |
Description |
Default Mouse Binding |
Default Keyboard Shortcut |
Zoom In |
Increase the zoom |
<Super>Button4 |
Disabled |
Zoom Out |
Decrease the zoom |
<Super>Button5 |
Disabled |
Zoom Box |
Click and drag to select the region to zoom in to. |
<Super>Button2 |
N/A |
Option |
Description |
Default Setting |
|
Zoom factor |
The factor by which to Zoom In and Zoom Out |
1.15 |
|
Mouse Behaviour
The following settings are configured in the Mouse Behaviour section.
Action |
Description |
Default Binding |
Center the Mouse |
Centers the mouse on the screen |
<Super>c |
Mouse centering can be used when Enhanced Zoom is enabled, even if the desktop is not actively zoomed. Other Mouse Behavior options include:
Option |
Description |
Default Setting |
Sync Mouse |
If enabled, the zoom area is always synced to the mouse cursor's position, and vice versa. In other words, the zoom area moves to follow the mouse. |
On |
Scale the mouse pointer |
Shows a proportionally scaled mouse cursor when zooming in/out. If the zoom area is locked, then this cursor will show the correct position of the mouse (thus allowing correct mouse input when zoomed in). |
Off |
Hide original mouse pointer |
Hides the mouse cursor when zoomed. Recommended if Scale the mouse pointer is enabled; otherwise, both the original and scaled cursors will be visible. |
Off |
Restrain the mouse to the zoom area |
Prevents the mouse cursor from moving outside of the zoom area. This has no effect if Sync Mouse is enabled. |
Off |
Mouse panning |
Pans the zoom area when the (scaled) cursor touches the edge of it. See the Panning section (below) for more configuration of this behaviour. |
Off |
Mouse Restrain Margin |
The size of the margin inside the zoomed area when restraining the mouse. Only applicable if Restrain the mouse to the zoom area is enabled. |
5 |
Manipulating the zoom area
Zoom Area Movement
Panning
Because zooming in on an area may move something off the screen that is outside the zoomed area, Enhanced Zoom Desktop allows the user to move the zoomed area to see other parts of the screen. With the exception of the Mouse Panning option discussed above, these settings are found in the Panning subsection, under the Zoom Area Movement section.
Action |
Description |
Default Binding |
Toggle zoom area lock |
When locked, the zoom area (field of view) will not move to follow the mouse cursor. |
<Super>l |
Pan Zoom Left/Right/Up/Down |
Moves the zoom area (field of view) in the corresponding direction. This can be used when the zoom area is locked. |
Disabled |
Pan Factor |
determines how much to move the zoomed area when using the keybindings |
0.10 |
Mouse panning |
Pans the zoom area when the (scaled) cursor touches the edge of it. |
off |
Fitting
Some windows or objects may be larger than the zoomed area, or a user may want to use an optimized zoom level to fit a specific window or object; because of this the plugin allows the user to let Enhanced Zoom Desktop calculate the zoom level or window size for them.
Action |
Description |
Location |
Default Binding |
Fit the window to the zoom level |
Resizes the focused window so that it fills the field of view. |
General tab |
<Super>v |
Fit zoomed area to window |
Adjusts the zoom level so that the window fills the field of view. |
Zoom Movement tab |
<Super>r |
Focus Tracking
Focus Tracking is a feature of Enhanced Desktop Zoom that is an automated combination of Panning and Fitting. This feature follows the users window selection while zoomed and allows the plugin to automate the pan and fit accordingly. These settings are adjusted in the Focus Tracking section of the plugin.
Option |
Description |
Default Setting |
Enable focus tracking |
When the focus changes, move the zoom area to the focused window. |
On |
Fit zoom level to window on focus change |
When the focus changes, adjust the zoom level so that the focused window fills the field of view. |
off |
Always fit to window on focus track |
Even if not actively zoomed in, if the zoomed area moves to the focused window, then the zoom level will also adjust to fit the window in the field of view. |
off |
Follow Focus Delay |
Only attempt to center newly focused windows if the mouse hasn't moved in this amount of seconds. Use this to avoid jumping when using sloppy focus. |
1 |
Specific Zoom
Three different preset zoom levels can be configured in the Specific Zoom section and can be activated via their respective keyboard shortcuts to allow for fast switching between precise, predefined zoom levels. These are each set to a value (Factor) between 0.1 and 1.0. Dividing 1 by this number gives the zoom percentage as the result, eg. a zoom factor of 0.5 means a 200% zoom.
Option |
Default Factor |
Default Binding |
Zoom Specific Level 1 |
1.000 |
<Super>1 |
Zoom Specific Level 2 |
0.500 |
<Super>2 |
Zoom Specific Level 3 |
0.200 |
<Super>3 |
The user also has the option to allow Enhanced Zoom Desktop to automatically pan the zoomed area to the currently focused window when the user activates a Specific Zoom Level keystroke: Option Default Value Target Focused Window on Specific level On
The following settings can be configured in the Option Description Default Value Speed The speed of the transition when changing the zoom level and panning the zoom area. 25.0000 Timestep How "bouncy" the movements are when changing the zoom level. 1.2000 Filter Linear Whether or not to use a linear filter, which smooths pixels, when zooming in. On
Ezoom was developed with external applications in mind, and provides a few powerful interfaces for use by other applications to control ezoom over DBus. As these interfaces are still not widely used, they are subject for change if it is prudent to do so. If you wish to use any of these interfaces in your application, or need an adjustment, contact the Compiz Fusion developers on the developer mail list.
Ensure visibility of an area defined by x1->x2 and y1->y2 Arguments: int x1 left X coordinate int x2 right X Coordinate int y1 top Y coordinate int y2 bottom Y coordinate bool scale zoom out if necesarry to ensure visibility bool restrain Restrain the mouse cursor int margin The margin to use (default: 0) If x2/y2 is omitted, it is ignored.
Set the zoom area int x1 left x coordinate int y1 top y coordinate int x2 right x int y2 bottom y boolean scale True if we should modify the zoom level, false to just adjust the movement/translation. boolean restrain True to warp the pointer so it's visible. x2 and y2 can be omitted to assume x2==x1+1 y2==y1+1
Animation and appearance
Information for developers
Feature List
DBus interface
ensure_visibility
set_zoom_area