Scrubby Zoom

What features would you like to see in Pixelmator Pro?
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2020-12-19 12:11:55

Long time PS user trying to switch over to pixelmator for my digital painting. First of all, thank you guys so much for adding the brush/eraser toggle on tilde! I pretty much rely on that every day!

I really miss being able to click the cursor and drag left or right to zoom out/in when using the zoom tool. I'd love to see something similar implemented so i didnt have to move the cursor over to the navigator pane and adjust the zoom slider manually while using a wacom.

Keep up the fucking awesome work guys! cheers!
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2020-12-19 14:32:06

by pritcee 2020-12-19 12:11:55 Long time PS user trying to switch over to pixelmator for my digital painting. First of all, thank you guys so much for adding the brush/eraser toggle on tilde! I pretty much rely on that every day!

I really miss being able to click the cursor and drag left or right to zoom out/in when using the zoom tool. I'd love to see something similar implemented so i didnt have to move the cursor over to the navigator pane and adjust the zoom slider manually while using a wacom.

Keep up the fucking awesome work guys! cheers!
I use the Mx master 3 mouse and the second scroll wheel is set up for zooming. I don’t need to move the cursor at all
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2020-12-22 11:39:19

by ResLes 2020-12-19 08:32:06
I use the Mx master 3 mouse and the second scroll wheel is set up for zooming. I don’t need to move the cursor at all
Thats essentially how I'm doing it right now (all hail SteerMouse!), but that still means I have to put the wacom pen down, switch my hand to the mouse, zoom in/out and then come back to the pen – hence the feature request :)
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2020-12-22 12:13:02

by pritcee 2020-12-22 08:47:34
Thats essentially how I'm doing it right now (all hail SteerMouse!), but that still means I have to put the wacom pen down, switch my hand to the mouse, zoom in/out and then come back to the pen – hence the feature request :)
Yeah, I just checked this out and, with a graphics tablet, being able to drag to zoom in and out is super useful for sure. We'll look into this.
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2022-04-13 12:33:59

Hey pritcee, not sure if you've been painting much recently (or even using Pixelmator Pro), but recently when thinking of little quality of life things to add, we remembered your scrubby zoom request – it's now available in the app. :wink:
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2022-04-21 17:35:49

I see we've incorporated the scrubby zoom feature. Unfortunately, I hate it! I use Mac and a mouse, and don’t use a tablet. For users like me, the ability to create a bounding box to which the window is zoomed in was a godsend. It was yet another advantage unique to Pixelmator Pro! And now it’s inexplicably gone.

The former method allowed users to instantly and precisely specify the area and degree of magnification. In comparison, the tool is now a sloppier matter of guesswork that wastes time, as the user zooms back and forth in an attempt to get the magnification and placement right.

Was it necessary to take the former method away when incorporating the new method? Since at least one user prefers scrubby zoom, why not keep the old code and incorporate the new code by having the user hold down a modifier key? Given that scrubby zoom may be most useful for tablet users, it would make sense for Mac users to have to make this accommodation. Personally, I’m fine with that.
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2022-04-22 08:26:12

by Jim Hofweber I see we've incorporated the scrubby zoom feature. Unfortunately, I hate it! I use Mac and a mouse, and don’t use a tablet. For users like me, the ability to create a bounding box to which the window is zoomed in was a godsend. It was yet another advantage unique to Pixelmator Pro! And now it’s inexplicably gone.

The former method allowed users to instantly and precisely specify the area and degree of magnification. In comparison, the tool is now a sloppier matter of guesswork that wastes time, as the user zooms back and forth in an attempt to get the magnification and placement right.

Was it necessary to take the former method away when incorporating the new method? Since at least one user prefers scrubby zoom, why not keep the old code and incorporate the new code by having the user hold down a modifier key? Given that scrubby zoom may be most useful for tablet users, it would make sense for Mac users to have to make this accommodation. Personally, I’m fine with that.
Hi Jim, if you turn off Scrubby Zoom in the Zoom tool, you'll be able to draw bounding boxes just like before – that functionality hasn't gone anywhere. I will say that a checkbox isn't always the best choice when disabling a certain feature enables a different one, but here we were inspired by a certain rather popular layer-based image editor that rhymes with Schmotoshop. In hindsight, a pop-up with two options or a radio button UI might have been better.
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2022-05-05 19:30:15

by Andrius 2022-04-22 13:26:12
Hi Jim, if you turn off Scrubby Zoom in the Zoom tool, you'll be able to draw bounding boxes just like before – that functionality hasn't gone anywhere. I will say that a checkbox isn't always the best choice when disabling a certain feature enables a different one, but here we were inspired by a certain rather popular layer-based image editor that rhymes with Schmotoshop. In hindsight, a pop-up with two options or a radio button UI might have been better.
Today I happened to glance up to the right while using the mag glass and spotted the checkbox. I’d missed it and couldn't find a reference to it anywhere. No apologies necessary—there was plenty of room for the checkbox; your choice was between a checkbox and a preference item; and (for whatever reason) the team chose to keep the preferences area sparse long ago. I think Pixelmator could make more use of its preferences dialogs, as most large apps and developers do, but that’s my preference, not necessarily a universal benefit.

Anyway, I could have known the team would have proactively addressed this, as usual. Thanks for your prompt support.