A Smarter Z key

[Ed Wolfstein]

OK, Kirk has heard me talk about zooming features for years now, and there has been much discussion on having a loupe, or (my favorite) a smoother scrolling zoom (i.e. not just the quantified settings PM now has). But I just loaded a trial of Aperture 2, and slow as it is, and a memory hog as it is, I like the z-key as a context sensitive instant zoom. Yes, I know Photo Mechanic kind of has that feature as well, and I use it all the time, BUT, what I'd LOVE to see is a zoom centered on where your cursor arrow lies on screen. So you're always zooming in on your subject and not just a centered zoom. Aperture has that very feature, and it can be a real time saver for quickly checking sharpness as you move through a shoot of hundreds of images. Right now, if my area of interest (I set it at zoom 100%) is anywhere off center, and this happens often with the higher rez files we're shooting these days, I have to grab the image and pan over to my area of interest. It's a pain each time.

So there I go again, asking for another zoom feature... next up: a better crop/rotate tool , but I'll settle for the speed of PM. Nothing can touch it. Nothing.

Cheers!

- Ed.

[Kirk Baker]

Ed,

OK, Kirk has heard me talk about zooming features for years now, and there has been much discussion on having a loupe, or (my favorite) a smoother scrolling zoom (i.e. not just the quantified settings PM now has). But I just loaded a trial of Aperture 2, and slow as it is, and a memory hog as it is, I like the z-key as a context sensitive instant zoom. Yes, I know Photo Mechanic kind of has that feature as well, and I use it all the time, BUT, what I'd LOVE to see is a zoom centered on where your cursor arrow lies on screen. So you're always zooming in on your subject and not just a centered zoom. Aperture has that very feature, and it can be a real time saver for quickly checking sharpness as you move through a shoot of hundreds of images. Right now, if my area of interest (I set it at zoom 100%) is anywhere off center, and this happens often with the higher rez files we're shooting these days, I have to grab the image and pan over to my area of interest. It's a pain each time.

So there I go again, asking for another zoom feature... next up: a better crop/rotate tool , but I'll settle for the speed of PM. Nothing can touch it. Nothing.

You may have missed it, but Command-clicking on the area you want to see zoomed will cause the zoomed image to be centered around where you clicked.  Command-click again to go back to 'to fit' mode.

Windows users should substitute the Control key.

Is that what you wanted Ed, or am I not quite understanding your request?

HTH,

-Kirk

[Ed Wolfstein]

Yes! That's it! Goodbye Z-Key! Now don't stop working on smooth zooming...

Thanks, Kirk.

- Ed.

[Kirk Baker]

Ed,

Yes! That's it! Goodbye Z-Key! Now don't stop working on smooth zooming...

What is "smooth" zooming?  Just scale ratios in between the current ones, like 125%, 130%, 135%, etc.?

-Kirk

[vAfotoriporter]

Ed,

Yes! That's it! Goodbye Z-Key! Now don't stop working on smooth zooming...

What is "smooth" zooming?  Just scale ratios in between the current ones, like 125%, 130%, 135%, etc.?

-Kirk

As I understand the request "smooth zooming" would be not to strict to steps in zoom but continously zooming the image if you pull the slider.

[Ed Wolfstein]

About the smooth zooming: Some time ago we chatted about how Photoshop allows the user to employ the scroll wheel to zoom in on an image. I thought this feature would be great to have in PM. Note that it is not the default for Photoshop, but has to be enabled in Preferences and also, it works both with a scroll wheel mouse, and on a track-pad that is 2-finger gesture capable.

[vAfotoriporter]

It might be a help for some people. I don't use zooming that much in PM as in PS.

On the other hand mentioning Aperture Loupe I would really like to have an option to put the zoomed image on a second monitor. It would help a lot for example have a zoomable full screen image still while filling the IPTC on the other.