Zoom and center on mouse pointer

[pson]

Never had the need to move on from PSP9 but thought it was about time I'd at least try a new version so tried the 2019 version.
But I'm about to delete it after 5 minutes...

Maybe I'm completely blind or are their no setting to make the zoom center on the mouse pointer? And/Or at a whole make it behave like in v9.0 cause this is driving me mad

Using the scroll to zoom in/out is the way I'm used to move around in a picture, and how do you zoom in on a corner without zooming out so the whole picture is visible first?

The way the scroll-zoom behaves now seem more random than like a well thought out solution that I highly doubt I would ever get used to work with.

Tried search but couldn't find anything so maybe it's just me that think it's odd

[ehume]

I kind of see what you mean. I'm using PSP 2018 and -- to test out your complaint -- PSP 9. When you zoom in with PSP 9, you zoom precisely where your cursor is. With PSP 2018, which I love (it got me to give up PSP7) you zoom in more or less where your cursor is -- you zoom in a little in from the edge when you zoom on the edge.

I see the difference, but it is not enough to make me give up PSP 2018. I don't see any downgrade in PSP 2019, so go ahead and keep it: the more you use it, the more you will like it. PSP 2018 got me to give up PSP 7; it's that good. I have PSP 9 on disk, but I never felt the need to move on from PSP 7 until I used PSP 2018 for a while. And now PSP 2019 has slightly more features than the 2018 version. Certainly, it has enlargeable fonts on the menus. Worth keeping, IMO.

Just recall the PSP 9 was a JASC product and PSP 2019 is a Corel product, so there are differences.

[hartpaul]

The ability to follow the cursor when zooming in and even to the corner was lost when Corel changed a lot in PSP X4.
It was there in x2 and X3 but since X4 they have removed the ability to zoom right into a corner.
Now you can roughly zoom it to follow the cursor by zooming in and out and moving the cursor but to get that last pinpoint accuracy in the corner you have to use the scroll bars.
A step backward I believe .

[pson]

Thanks for answering.
So this madness is made by design and no way around it? Have Corel ever explained the thought behind this because I sure can't be the only one thinking this is odd?

I'll never like or get used to this illogical behavior so if I upgrade I'll have to go for a completely other program then cause not being able to navigate in the image easily is a deal breaker.

[ehume]

The ability to follow the cursor when zooming in and even to the corner was lost when Corel changed a lot in PSP X4.
It was there in x2 and X3 but since X4 they have removed the ability to zoom right into a corner.
Now you can roughly zoom it to follow the cursor by zooming in and out and moving the cursor but to get that last pinpoint accuracy in the corner you have to use the scroll bars.
A step backward I believe .

Thanks for the info. I missed PSPx2 through PSPx5.

[ehume]

Thanks for answering.
So this madness is made by design and no way around it? Have Corel ever explained the thought behind this because I sure can't be the only one thinking this is odd?

I'll never like or get used to this illogical behavior so if I upgrade I'll have to go for a completely other program then cause not being able to navigate in the image easily is a deal breaker.

At this point, you probably should wait to August, when PSP 2020 will be released. If the same bug is there, you can bite the bullet and either get used to it, or you can wait for PSP 2021 to see if they fix it. Personally, I find the improvements in the 10 years since PSP 9 to be worth one regression, but if you find the behavior intolerable, save your money.

[hartpaul]

Thanks for answering.
So this madness is made by design and no way around it? Have Corel ever explained the thought behind this because I sure can't be the only one thinking this is odd?

I'll never like or get used to this illogical behavior so if I upgrade I'll have to go for a completely other program then cause not being able to navigate in the image easily is a deal breaker.

Trouble is that that ability to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel and also to chase the cursor I think was unique to PSP so good luck finding another program that will do that.
Best you can do is use it to get close to what you want and then hold the Spacebar down and drag the rest of the way.

I know in Photoshop you had to change a setting inside to allow the image to zoom in and out with the mouse wheel , but from memory the window did not follow in windowed mode.

ACDSee uses something the same as using Overview in PSP (F9). Zooming in is done by a slider.

Affinity Photo - rolling the mouse wheel is like using the scroll bars. You use the Zoom tool in the Develop Persona and the cusor changes to a magnifying glass with a + inside or a - if you hold the control key down. Moving the cursor to a position and clicking magnifies and zooms in on the cursor position.

[ehume]

I was just playing around with Silkypix 9, a powerful raw developer which can port TIF and JPG files directly to PSP. What I discovered was this: if you double-click a spot on the preview image that has been resized down to the window width, not only will it expand to 1:1 (the image will be larger than the window) but it also centers to the spot where you double-clicked. True, it does not respond to a mousewheel, but it expands the image to 1:1 and centers it where you click. This is like the old PSP, so you know it can be done.

[corampersand]

The old behavior would mouse-zoom IN with the zoom-center at the cursor, but mouse-zoom OUT with the zoom-center at display-center. The newer behavior has the zoom-center for both mouse-zoom in and out at the cursor. With the old behavior, pointing the mouse in the direction you wanted to Scroll and then mouse-zooming in-then-out would result in scrolling the image in that direction. With the newer behavior, doing that action only leaves you were you started.

The old behavior can still be simulated by mouse-zooming in (with the wheel) and then keyboard-zooming out (that is, hitting the number pad minus sign which zooms out from display-center). However, the simulated method can be hard to quickly coordinate (like patting one's head while rubbing one's tummy), and does not feel like a real option for people who do not like using their keyboard.

In order for zoom to also be used for scrolling, one must be able to set the mouse-zoom IN to have a zoom-center at the cursor while the mouse-zoom out has a zoom-center at display-center, or vice versa. Basically, PSP would need to be able to set which zoom center (cursor or display-center) that the user wants for zoom in and which they want for zoom out.