Page zooming

Page zooming is the ability to zoom in and out at page level. It is usually found in application related to document layout and publishing, e.g. word processing and spreadsheet programs, but it can also be found in some web browsers as it improves accessibility for people with visual impairment and people using handheld devices which have a relatively small screen.

While most web browsers have the ability to resize the text, they cannot zoom a page. Page zooming and text resizing are two very different things: In page zooming, not only text, but also images, other multimedia objects, viewport are all resized. When zooming in, a horizontal rule will appear when the screen is not large enough to hold the page content. In contrast, text resizing is analogous to just increasing the font size in a word processing application.

Example programs

Web browsers

• Opera
• iCab
• Amaya

Office suites

• Microsoft Office
• OpenOffice.org