My mac can zoom... and so can yours!
© I just discovered a little known feature of my MacBook: it has a zoom!
This feature has probably been around on Macs for ages, I just did not happen to know about it until I bumped into this article today.
What just seems like an accessibility-only feature is actually a godsend for web-designers. I you have ever felt the pain of checking CSS designs for pixel-perfection on a web browsers, you will instantly fall in love with this feature.
Furthermore, it’s dead easy to activate, and totally intuitive to use.
Activation
To activate the zoom:
System Preferences –> Universal Access –> Seeing –> then, well, turn Zoom on!
While you are at it, and if you are going to use the zoom to check your CSS (rather than to cope with a sight impairment), deactivate the Smooth Images options in the Zoom’s option menu: antialiazing is a pain when it comes to checking pixels.
Keyboard Shortcuts
To zoom in just use:
⌥ + ⌘ + ^To zoom out:
⌥ + ⌘ + 'Once you have selected a zoom factor you can toggle the zoom on and off in a breeze with:
⌥ + ⌘ + 8I just cannot believe that I have been missing such a great feature for so long.
If you know of any other jewels on your mac some of us could be missing, please share!
Comments
-
says:
You can also zoom using ctrl+scroll wheel or ctrl+two-finger scroll on trackpad. (At least the former works, as that’s what I have here.)
Mon, October 09 at 12:05 PM
-
says:
@ Jonathan: I don’t have a mouse, but ctrl+two-finger scroll on trackpad does not seem to work here.
Mon, October 16 at 04:28 AM
-
says:
Don’t forget ⌘⌥⌃8 (command-option-control-8) to invert the screen colors.
Very handy if you feel the need to pretend you have just ingested massive quantities of funny mushrooms. (not that I would know)
Mon, January 01 at 00:17 AM
-
says:
Thanks Thomas,
Didn’t know about that trick either… don’t really know when it could become useful. But fun anyways.
Mon, January 01 at 03:37 AM
