XnView Software

I want to suggest 6 ways to improve the zoom (for when you use the mouse wheel to zoom in/out)...

1. More zoom stages.
This is my main complaint: There are nowhere near enough stages for the zoom. It goes from 100% to 200% to 300%. This is way too abrupt.

I have done some experimentation and determined that the optimum magnification increment is around 15% of the previous, thus I would like to recommend the following zoom factors:

Recommended zoom factors:

29%, 33%, 38%, 43%, 50%,
57%, 65%, 75%, 87%, 100%,
115%, 132%, 150%, 175%, 200%,
230%, 265%, 300%, 350%, 400%,
460%, 530%, 610%, 700%, 800%,
925%, 1060%, 1220%, 1400%, 1600%

(note that the size doubles every 5 steps)

2. Zoom levels should include 'Fit to window height' and 'Fit to window width'
The range of zoom levels really should include fit to width or fit to height. Currently, if the viewer is set to "fit to window", then you zoom in, then back out again, it doesn't return to original "fit to window" size.

3. Snap to 'fit to window'
If the magnification level is close to the size of fit to width or fit to height, it should automatically "snap" to that size. (Unless it's at 50%, 100% or 200% in which case snapping should never occur)

4. The control is backwards!
When you scroll the mouse wheel away from you, the picture gets closer. But that is the opposite of how the pan works: with the pan tool, the picture moves in the same direction you move the mouse. The zoom should follow the same convention and get closer when you bring the mouse wheel towards you.

5. Zoom displayed on screen
It would be nice if whenever you zoom, the new zoom level was briefly displayed in the corner of the screen, especially if you have reached 50%, 100%, 200% fit to height, or fit to width.

6. Drag zoom control
Finally, it would be really good if you could hold down Ctrl + left mouse button, and move the mouse left and right to change the magnification level. That is my favorite way of zooming. It's so much easier and simpler than any other way of zooming.

Please would you consider implementing my requests, especially #1 or #6. Zooming is really important to me and it bothers me that I have no way to zoom properly. The "selection zoom" function still doesn't work when you're fullscreen.

Is there any way to know if suggestions are being considered, or if this issue will ever be addressed?

Lee James wrote:Is there any way to know if suggestions are being considered, or if this issue will ever be addressed?

Thank you very much for your suggestions, Lee James. I'd say as long as there was no confirmation and/or discussion, your issue won't be addressed. So let's start a discussion...

When speaking of Zoom levels, I want to first point you to the setting "Zoom step" in View > View. Here you can fine-tune zooming. Set Zoom step to "Relative" and the factor to 1.2 and you'll have about the zooming that you suggested in your initial post.

Lee James wrote:2. Zoom levels should include 'Fit to window height' and 'Fit to window width'
The range of zoom levels really should include fit to width or fit to height. Currently, if the viewer is set to "fit to window", then you zoom in, then back out again, it doesn't return to original "fit to window" size.

3. Snap to 'fit to window'
If the magnification level is close to the size of fit to width or fit to height, it should automatically "snap" to that size. (Unless it's at 50%, 100% or 200% in which case snapping should never occur)

Hmm, not sure with this one. User a might want to zoom 50%, 100%, 200% on purpose but XnView might snap to 99%. I think there should be more snapping zoom levels: Fit to window with, Fit to Window height, zoom 100%, for example. But this "snapping" to standard sizes should be optional.

Lee James wrote:4. The control is backwards!
When you scroll the mouse wheel away from you, the picture gets closer. But that is the opposite of how the pan works: with the pan tool, the picture moves in the same direction you move the mouse. The zoom should follow the same convention and get closer when you bring the mouse wheel towards you.

XnView Classic has no pan tool - are you speaking of XnView MP or XnView Classic? The mouse wheel changes zooming like in most graphic programs (e.g. Corel Draw, Adobe Reader). When you scroll the mouse towards the screen, you virtually get closer to the screen and therefor the picture gets larger.

Lee James wrote:5. Zoom displayed on screen
It would be nice if whenever you zoom, the new zoom level was briefly displayed in the corner of the screen, especially if you have reached 50%, 100%, 200% fit to height, or fit to width.

The Zoom level is displayed in the status bar.

Lee James wrote:6. Drag zoom control
Finally, it would be really good if you could hold down Ctrl + left mouse button, and move the mouse left and right to change the magnification level. That is my favorite way of zooming. It's so much easier and simpler than any other way of zooming.

Special key / mouse button combinations that allow for more actions would be indeed good and are a good future enhancement.

helmut wrote:I want to first point you to the setting "Zoom step" in View > View. Here you can fine-tune zooming. Set Zoom step to "Relative" and the factor to 1.2 and you'll have about the zooming that you suggested in your initial post.

Thank you so much!!! This is great! That was my main problem which is now solved. The other things I wanted would be nice but not essential.

helmut wrote:XnView Classic has no pan tool - are you speaking of XnView MP or XnView Classic?

When I hold down the left mouse button, the cursor changes to a "hand", then when I move the mouse around, it moves the picture around. My point is that the "zoom" works the opposite way to this. So panning moves the picture, while zooming moves the "camera". I think they should both be the same.

Lee James wrote:4. The control is backwards!
When you scroll the mouse wheel away from you, the picture gets closer. But that is the opposite of how the pan works: with the pan tool, the picture moves in the same direction you move the mouse. The zoom should follow the same convention and get closer when you bring the mouse wheel towards you.

The pan tool moves the picture in the plane of the image, the pan tool in effect moves the picture on an axis at right angles to the image, so is it possible for the tools to follow the same convention??

Lee James wrote:

helmut wrote:I want to first point you to the setting "Zoom step" in View > View. Here you can fine-tune zooming. Set Zoom step to "Relative" and the factor to 1.2 and you'll have about the zooming that you suggested in your initial post.

Thank you so much!!! This is great! That was my main problem which is now solved. The other things I wanted would be nice but not essential.

You're welcome, Lee. Good to read that this solved your main problem.

Lee James wrote:

helmut wrote:XnView Classic has no pan tool - are you speaking of XnView MP or XnView Classic?

When I hold down the left mouse button, the cursor changes to a "hand", then when I move the mouse around, it moves the picture around. My point is that the "zoom" works the opposite way to this. So panning moves the picture, while zooming moves the "camera". I think they should both be the same.

Ah, o.k., you mean dragging an image using the hand cursor. An option "Inverse scroll wheel" which applies for all choosable scroll wheel actions (Zoom/Scroll/Navigate) would be most flexible and solve your issue. As written above, most applications that support zooming with the mouse wheel zoom in the way XnView does; so such an additional option has low priority, I guess.

Thanks again, Helmut Glad I bumped this thread yesterday! I am so grateful for your help.

The only remaining feature I think would vastly improve XnView is my idea for Equal height thumbnails, but there hasn't been any activity on that thread since I posted the idea in February so I assume it's not going to happen.