Zoom Tool

Basic Usage

• Left-click — Zoom in (increase magnification)
• Right-click or Shift + Left-click — Zoom out
• Drag — Drag up or right to zoom in and down or left to zoom out, about 50 pixels of travel per doubling. The right button or Shift reverses it

Both the click and the drag stay centered on where you first pressed.

Scroll Wheel Zooming

You don't need the Zoom tool to zoom. From any tool:

• Scroll up — Zoom in one preset level
• Scroll down — Zoom out one preset level

This is often the fastest way to navigate.

Preset Zoom Levels

Use number keys to jump to specific zoom levels:

Each preset zooms around the center of your view, so whatever you are looking at stays where you are looking.

Hold to peek

Tap one of the numeric presets and you move there and stay. Hold it and it is a peek: let go and you land back on the exact pan and zoom you were on. Checking true size mid-stroke costs one key press instead of zooming out, looking, and hunting your way back. Fit to view has no peek, it always stays.

Full Size Preview

1 hides every panel, the navbar and the statusbar, and fits the file to the whole window. You can still draw in it.

It taps and holds like the zoom presets. Tap to go there and stay, then tap again or press Esc to put the chrome and your camera back. Hold for a peek at the whole file, and it leaves the moment you let go.

The fit lands on a whole-number scale — pixel art resampled at 3.7x loses its pixel grid, and would misrepresent the art you opened the view to judge.

Zoom Snapping

The Zoom tool snaps to integer steps to keep pixel art crisp: 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, … above 1x, and 1/2x, 1/3x, 1/4x, … below 1x. This applies to zoom-tool clicks and drags, and the preset number keys land on exact levels. The scroll wheel steps the preset ladder itself — 100%, 200%, 400% and so on up to 6400%, halving the same way below 100% — so one notch out and one notch back leaves you on the level you started from, with square pixels throughout.

Panning

While zoomed in, navigate the canvas:

• Space + drag — Pan the canvas
• Middle mouse drag — Pan the canvas
• Shift + scroll — Pan left and right
• Ctrl + scroll — Changes the size of the active tool (or the Magic Wand's tolerance) over the canvas. It never pans or zooms, so vertical moves stay on Space + drag and the middle mouse button

Tips

• Work at 400-800% zoom for detailed pixel work.
• Regularly zoom out to 100% to see how your sprite looks at actual size.
• The Preview panel shows your art at actual size while you work zoomed in.