After having searched the Web for quite a while I came to the conclusion that GIMP definitely lacks a clever method to zoom in and out smoothly. Somewhere I read, that new features or bugs are discussed in this forum. That's why I post my question here although I'm rather a user than a developer.
The problem is that when I'm in the flow of drawing (I'm using a tablet and a pen) I have to zoom in and out or to pan zoom all the time. Panning is no problem as I can simply hold down the shift key and move the pen. But zooming in and out is a real pain in the ass. When using the short-cut keys assigned to"view-zoom-in" and "view-zoom-out" the zoom steps are hardly ever appropriate and using the navigation window forces me to "leave" the drawing pane and move the navigation controls which breaks the flow of drawing.
Why is there no possibility to zoom in and out just the same way like panning? Why are the zoom steps for "view-zoom-in" and "view-zoom-out" so big?

Hi Jason,

that's exactly the point! The zoom steps should be proportional to the current zoom level. And IMHO they could easily be as small as one hundredth of the current zoom level (e.g. 1%-steps at 100%). For me the super-duper solution was to have two configurable zoom steps in the presets: 1) a "fine zoom" step and 2) a "standard zoom" step. The zoom-step-values would represent a fraction of the current zoom level (e.g. "100" for "fine zoom" and "10" for standard zoom). The existing functions/macros "view-zoom-in" and "view-zoom-out" would use the zoom step defined for "standard zoom" and a new pair of functions/macros e.g. "view-zoom-in-accurate" and "view-zoom-out-accurate" would use the zoom step defined for "fine zoom".
By assigning the macros to the appropriate keys or mouse actions everybody could adapt the zoom behaviour exactly to his/her needs. E.g. by using the currently defined key shortcut presets "+" for "view-zoom-in" and "-" for "view-zoom-out" and adding the new shortcuts "shift +" for "view-zoom-in-accurate" and "shift -" for "view-zoom-out-accurate" would allow to quickly change the zoom level by a large amount using +/- keys and then allowing to adjust it very accurately by using "shift" together with the +/- keys.
Very simple, very comfortable, very accommodative!

Cheers, Bot

2012/10/27 Jason Simanek

Hi,

On 10/27/2012 02:55 PM, Bot Obi wrote:

When using the
short-cut keys assigned to"view-zoom-in" and "view-zoom-out" the zoom steps are hardly ever [the] appropriate [amount]

Why is there no possibility to zoom in and out just the same way like panning? Why are the zoom steps for "view-zoom-in" and "view-zoom-out" so big?

I think Bot Obi is specifically referring to the preset "zoom steps". They seem to be fixed at: 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 66.7%, 100%, 150%, 200%, 300%, etc. regardless of the method used to zoom in and out (zoom tool, keyboard + arrows, keyboard + scrollwheel)

I have Photoshop 7 running in Wine. It has the same or very similar preset steps using the Zoom tool. However, using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + scroll (or Ctrl + Alt + Shift + scroll) you get a sort of proportional step. When you are zoomed out below 50% the steps go from 5% down to 3% and 2%. Above 100% the steps go from 10% to 14%. Beyond 300% the steps are a little over 30%.

So the steps are something like 10% of the current zoom state rather than the fixed steps. It makes for a very “smooth” zooming sensation.

Granted, Photoshop 7 was released in 2002. At work I have CS3 and will have to experiment with that when I get to the office.

It certainly would be cool to have this proportional step zoom instead of the preset steps. Or possibly as an option. Or maybe just available via the keyboard shortcut. I wouldn't be surprised if some workflows relied on the fixed steps... for pixel-perfect icon designing maybe?

Hope this info is helpful.

Jason Simanek

Adding a new "custom zoom" mode with adjustable zoom steps in the presets wouldn't remove anything that anybody got used to. I don't think the programmatic complexity would increase dramatically as everything that's needed for the feature is already implemented (already by now the zoom level can be set to any value using the edit box in the status bar - it's just very inconvenient).
The main complexity will be the rendering when zooming very quickly with very fine zoom steps. But I think problems like this are common in GUI applications and could easily be handled (if not already done) by updating the view on a timely basis (e.g. ten times per second) instead of redrawing the whole view on every "zoom changed" event that might occur much more often.

2012/10/28 Jason Simanek

On Sun 28 Oct 2012 08:04:08 AM CDT, Bot Obi wrote:

IMHO they could easily be as small as one hundredth of the current zoom level (e.g. 1%-steps at 100%).

That would be too fine of increment for me.

For me the super-duper solution was to have two configurable zoom

steps in the presets: 1) a "fine zoom" step and 2) a "standard zoom" step.

Agreed. It would be great to have a "fine" and "coarse" zoom keyboard shortcut. But – in reference to your 1% steps – it might be better to have two modes: "standard" and "custom". Standard mode would keep the pre-defined steps. Custom would allow you to set a percentage in the preferences.

Inkscape allows you to set a custom zoom step as a percentage, but this affects all zooming. It seems to work well, if only Inkscape could get GPU-handled rendering, it would be a very smooth experience.

The trick of course to changing something like this – before we've even determined the programmatic complexity of making it work – is to make sure the new feature doesn't replace a feature that certain users have grown to love. I personally can't see how anyone would prefer the preset steps to a customizable percentage step, but you never know.

Jason Simanek