Enable Screen Zoom in Mac OS X Lion
Screen zoom is a useful feature of Mac OS X that zooms into the screen where ever the cursor is located. The feature was enabled by default in prior versions of Mac OS X whenever the control key was held down, but in OS X 10.7 Lion it has been turned off by default and is now a feature of Universal Access.
How to Enable Screen Zoom in OS X Lion
- Open System Preferences from the Apple menu
- Click on “Universal Access” and then click on the “Seeing” tab
- Check the box under “Zoom” to “ON”
Now with Screen Zoom turned on, the feature can be accessed with either the trackpad, mouse, or keyboard:
Zoom with Trackpad or Mouse
For trackpads, scrolling is achieved with two fingers gesturing up or down, with a mouse it’s simply the scrollwheel in either direction, with both you need to hold down the Control key to access.
- Control+Scroll Up to zoom in
- Control+Scroll Down to zoom out
Zoom with Keyboard
New to Screen Zoom in OS X Lion are keyboard shortcuts to zoom in and out:
- Command+Option+= to zoom in
- Command+Option+- to zoom out
Just like other versions of Mac OS X, you can still toggle anti-aliasing on and off within the Zoom feature by hitting Command+Option+/.
FYI I am not sure about Lion, but in Snow Leopard toggling anti-aliasing was
Command+Option+\
(notice the back slash instead of forward)
its in accessibility then zoom
it’s in zoom options
Finally! I thought they had pulled this feature out of Lion completely.
Confusion is caused by adjusting settings after habits have become established. I question why Apple developers made the decision to disable such a function, causing one to dig for the solution.
[...] via OSXDaily [...]
I don’t know why but I seem to be able zoom in and out using the ctrl and two finger trackpad gesture or scroll wheel without turning Zoom on, although it needs to be on for the Zoom with Keyboard options to work.
(2009 MacBook, OSX 10.7.2)
That is because in settings in the Zoom Pane under the options tab you have checked the last option that controls zooming with mouse or trackpad. This works irrespective you turn Zoom on or off
Hope this helps!!
Spot on. Thanks for that.
I wonder why the article didn’t mention that?
A case of Apple giving us too many options?
[...] option when enabling zoom in OS X Lion is to use a smaller floating zoom window, rather than zooming into the entire [...]
[...] has additional system wide zoom abilities accessible by a gesture, much like OS X’s zoom feature. To use the extra zoom gestures on an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, first you’ll need to [...]
In Mac Lion, you can disable anti-aliasing by “System Preferences > Universal Access > Seeing” Make sure Zoom is on; choose Options; and uncheck “Smooth Images”
Cheers!
For some reason this is not working on my MBP running Lion. Even with the zoom set to on, holding down ctrl whilst 2 finger track pad scrolling does nothing. (But checking the zoom in window box works)
However regardless of having zoom set to on or off using CMD+= or CMD+- still seems to zoom the screen as it has always done
Go to System Preferences
Click Universal Access
Click Zoom; On
Then on the right click Options
Set max zoom to 20
Set minimum zoom to 2
Then go down to the last line and check the box:
Use scroll keys with modifier to zoom
Set your modifier key in the box(I use Command)
Then click DONE
It works with my trackpad and mouse.
many thanks. it worked out for me
[...] settings list includes enabling zoom from keyboard or scrolling, enabling and disabling VoiceOver, toggles for sticky keys, slow keys, [...]
[...] zoom features are somewhat independent of the slideshow and must be enabled in order to work, this is very easy in OS X Mountain Lion since it can be activated with a keyboard [...]
when I enable it, it zooms in automatically and I can’t either zoom in or out. already tried pressing control or cmd + scroll. can someone help me?
Thanks so much! Very helpful! I was frustrated I couldn’t use the zoom feature like I had on my old mac. Now it works great!
[...] can still zoom into webpages by using the traditional keyboard shortcuts, and you can still use the two-finger screen zoom as well, which is activated with a scrolling motion and hot [...]