Zoom Tool - (Z)

The Zoom Tool as well as the zoom commands allow you to magnify and reduce the view of an image. Zooming In and Zooming Out DO NOT change the image in any way. This does not make the picture any larger or smaller but allows you to view the image differently within Photoshop. Changing the image size is a totally different aspect of Photoshop.

As in most of the options in Photoshop - there are several ways to zoom in and out.

If you have the Zoom tool selected in the toolbar, move the cursor onto the picture and you should see a magnifying glass with a plus sign move around as your cursor. You can then click on the image to zoom in and center the viewable area on the spot you clicked on. You can also zoom out by holding down the option key (you should see a magnifying glass with a minus sign) and click on the picture. The picture on the right was Zoomed In on by clicking on the M (white rocks) on the mountain.

zoomed picture

A second way to change the View is by typing a number to represent the percentage of your viewing choice. A 100% viewing would be seeing one pixel of data on one pixel of the monitor. Look at the number in the yellow rectangle (i made it yellow) on the lower left corner of the picture on the left. You can type a number in this area to Zoom In or Zoom Out.

A third way to zoom in and out is to type a (command +) to Zoom In or (command -) to Zoom Out.

A forth way to zoom in and out is to use the View menu bar to Zoom In or Zoom Out.

Using any of these zooming methods will allow you to change the view from viewing the entire picture as one pixel on the screen (really small) to 1600% of the original picture size.

The 100% view of an image will display the picture based on the resolution of the monitor. It is not displayed according to the actual image pixel size. If you have a picture scanned in at 300 pixels per inch and view at 100% the image will display about 4 times larger than it would print out at 300 dots per inch. (Monitors display at 72 dots per inch).

If you wish to view the image at print size - select the View menu and then select Print Size.

Other options from the View menu are:

Zoom In - Zooms in
Zoom Out - Zooms out
Fit on Screen - Zooms In or Zooms Out to make the picture fill the full size of your monitor
Actual Pixels - displays the picture according to the pixel size (each pixel displayed as one pixel on screen)
Print Size - displays the picture according to the Image Size (horizontal and vertical)

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