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Zoom Tool

Zoom Tool is a great way to navigate on the canvas. It can be accessed via several ways that are very complementary and comfortable. Each zoom action is saved in a special history so that one can easily be zooming and unzooming without difficulties. All zooming operations via mouse preserve the point under the cursor (no centering).

How to use

Use this tool by:

  • clicking in the toolbox : ZoomTool.png

  • pressing : F3

    or : Ctrl Alt Mouse wheel 

    or : Shift Middle Mouse Button

Zooming ZoomerPlus.png

Zooming is just set the zoom factor to a higher level so that one can work more precisely. Pressing + does the same.

Unzoom ZoomerMoins.png

Unzooming can be used to have a larger view of the drawing or area. Pressing - can unzoom too.

Zoom to 1:1 Zoomer1a1.png

Just displays the drawing at real pixel size. This way a banner drawing (for example) which is 468 pixels wide, will be 468 pixels on screen. If the Inkscape window is smaller, some part of the drawing may be invisible.

Zoom to 1:2 Zoomer1a2.png

Just displays the drawing at half the real pixel size. This way a Banner drawing  which is 468 pixels wide, will be 234 pixels on screen. If the Inkscape window is smaller, some part of the drawing may be invisible.

Zoom to 2:1 Zoomer2a1.png

Just displays the drawing at twice the real pixel size. This way a Banner drawing which is 468 pixels wide, will be 936 pixels on screen. If the Inkscape window is smaller, some part of the drawing may be invisible.

Adjust selection to window Zoomer2Select.png

The selected area will fill the entire Inkscape window.

Adjust drawing to window Zoomer2Dessin.png

The existing current drawing will be displayed to fit the window size.

Adjust page to window Zoomer2Page.png

Best to have a complete overview of the page and work on a layout, makes the whole page fit the window size depending on the orientation. Pressing 5 does the same action.

Adjust page width to window Zoomer2LargeurPage.png

Same as before except the whole page may not be displayed, especially if the page is portrait oriented. Gives a better result than previous with landscape drawing. Press 6 to activate it with keyboard.

Previous zoom ZoomerPrec.png

Come back to the previous zoom factor, as saved in the zoom history. Inkscape now preserves the history of zoom settings for each document. The ` key restores previous zoom; pressing ` repeatedly will guide you through all the zoom settings you've used in this session. Shift + ` moves forward in the zoom history.

Next zoom ZoomerSuiv.png

Goes back to the next zoom factor, as saved in the zoom history, especially when previous zoom has just be used.

Hotkeys

Shift is diminishing zoom factor.

Middle click zooms in, Shift + middle click zooms out (in addition to middle button + drag which pans canvas).

Tips

  1. By default, rotating the mouse wheel scrolls the canvas vertically and Ctrl+wheel zooms in and out. Now, if you turn on the Mouse wheel zooms by default checkbox in the Scrolling tab of the Inkscape Preferences dialog, this behavior is reversed: mouse wheel zooms without Ctrl and scrolls with Ctrl. This new mode should be familiar for users of AutoCAD and CorelDraw.
  2. Now you can use Shift+middle button drag, in any tool, to zoom into an area. This works the same as simple drag in Zoom tool, but is faster because it does not require switching away from your current tool. Together with middle button drag (panning), middle button click (zoom in) and Shift+middle button click (zoom out), this completes the set of canvas navigation shortcuts available in any tool or context.
  3. In the Zoom tool, right mouse button always zooms out instead of calling the context menu