Easier zooming in images.

R

rockenrog

Well-known member
Hi,
Many thanks PI team for an awesome set of tools for us imagers. Improvement suggestion.....
When scrolling to zoom an image, it would be great if the center of zoom can be based on the mouse pointer position.
Maybe there is a way to make this happen, but I don't know it.

John Murphy's new NormalizedScaleGradient has this great zooming method in his image displays such as photometry and sample generation.
Thanks,
Roger
 
It does not bother me to select the zoom by means of a frame or manually with the movement of the middle button. The problem is when you repeatedly alternate between different zoom views of a specific area. When zooming out, the center of reference is lost as the image is aligned to the window. So having to select the desired zoom zone again is annoying.

I think the best solution for me, the simplest and fastest, is for the center to remain held until pressing the middle button, or move the window. So I can zoom in and zoom out as many times as I want, that I will always return to the chosen area. In other words, pressing the middle button will permanently set the actual zoom center. I believe that this does not cause any conflict or confusion in the interaction, since, when the image is zoom to fit it will be enough to press the middle button to recover the center of the image as the zoom center. In either case, this could be optional. just a checkbox that says "retain the center of the last zoom" or something similar.
 
neostronom said:
It does not bother me to select the zoom by means of a frame or manually with the movement of the middle button. The problem is when you repeatedly alternate between different zoom views of a specific area. When zooming out, the center of reference is lost as the image is aligned to the window. So having to select the desired zoom zone again is annoying.

I think the best solution for me, the simplest and fastest, is for the center to remain held until pressing the middle button, or move the window. So I can zoom in and zoom out as many times as I want, that I will always return to the chosen area. In other words, pressing the middle button will permanently set the actual zoom center. I believe that this does not cause any conflict or confusion in the interaction, since, when the image is zoom to fit it will be enough to press the middle button to recover the center of the image as the zoom center. In either case, this could be optional. just a checkbox that says "retain the center of the last zoom" or something similar.
Click to expand...

Use of the Preview windows will give you ultra-fine control of zoom levels in different areas of interest.
 
1DegreeN said:
Press the Ctrl key as you zoom.
Click to expand...
There is some difference in zooming with Ctrl key pressed (or not pressed), whether zooming with zoom icon, or with scroll button on mouse. But it is still difficult to zoom in/out on the thing you want and keep it on the screen. It gets 'lost' off screen very easily.
If you review John Murphy's new NeutralizeGradientScript and open any of the screens showing the image (within the script), you can zoom with the roller wheel very nicely.
 
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the most logical solution would be to be able to define the center of the zoom with the middle button (it does not interfere with the pan since if there is a displacement it would have no effect)

Then it would be as easy and fast as clicking and rolling to the exact location, being able to zoom out at any time to have a global view and return without losing the reference, and without having to keep other keys pressed.
 
neostronom said:
the most logical solution would be to be able to define the center of the zoom with the middle button (it does not interfere with the pan since if there is a displacement it would have no effect)
Click to expand...
I believe this is the same (or very close) to my original post. Have you tried the NSG script zooming?
 
I write a CAD program and ran into the same issue that I and others are having. When the user Ctrl+Zooms, PI centers the pixel at which the zoom was made. That's the way 3rd PlanIt worked at first. A large number of my users complained, so I changed it to the more familiar zoom: center the chosen zoom pixel on the mouse cursor (its original screen X/Y). I provided an option to "Center on zoom" the defaults to Off. My customer complaints evaporated.

You could do this without a settable option by including the Shift key. Ctrl+Zoom centers on the cursor (new behavior), Ctrl+Shift+Zoom centers the image on the zoom pixel, the current behavior. I strongly recommend changing. As a customer said to me: "Every other app zooms at the cursor. Why would you re-center the image? That isn't what I want."
 
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