---
name: "zoom"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "xscreensaver"
version: "3.34-3"
release: "Debian 3.0 (Woody)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/zoom"
---

# zoom(1)

wander around magified desktop

## NAME

zoom - wander around magified desktop

## SYNOPSIS

**zoom** \[-display *host:display.screen*\] \[-foreground *color*\] \[-background *color*\] \[-window\] \[-root\] \[-mono\] \[-install\] \[-visual *visual*\] \[-delay *usecs*\] \[-lenses\] \[-pixwidth *pixels*\] \[-pixheight *pixels*\] \[-pixspacex *pixels*\] \[-pixspacey *pixels*\] \[-lensoffsetx *pixels*\] \[-lensoffsety *pixels*\]

## DESCRIPTION

The *zoom* program takes an image, magnifies it, and scrolls around it, fatbits-style.

The image that it manipulates will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk, as indicated by the *grabDesktopImages*, *grabVideoFrames*, and *chooseRandomImages* options in the *~/.xscreensaver* file; see [**xscreensaver-demo**(1)](/xscreensaver-demo/1.md) for more details.

## OPTIONS

*zoom* accepts the following options:

- **-window**

  Draw on a newly-created window.  This is the default.

- **-root**

  Draw on the root window.

- **-mono**

  If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display.

- **-install**

  Install a private colormap for the window.

- **-visual *visual***

  Specify which visual to use.  Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.

- **-delay *microseconds***

  Slow it down.

- **-lenses**

  Instead of doing magnification we just copy an offset region from the original image.  If lensoffsetx \< pixwidth (and similarly for Y) then consecutive regions will overlap, giving the effect of looking through an array of lenses.

- **-pixwidth *pixels***

  Width of the magnified pixels.

- **-pixheight *pixels***

  Height of the magnified pixels.

- **-pixspacex *pixels***

  Amount of black space between magnified pixels (X direction).

- **-pixspacey *pixels***

  Amount of black space between magnified pixels (Y direction).

- **-lensoffsetx *pixels***

  Distance in X direction between consective copied regions (only effective when  *-lenses* used).

- **-lensoffsety *pixels***

  Distance in Y direction between consective copied regions (only effective when  *-lenses* used).

-

  ## ENVIRONMENT

- **DISPLAY**

  to get the default host and display number.

- **XENVIRONMENT**

  to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE\_MANAGER property.

## SEE ALSO

**X**(1), [**xscreensaver**(1)](/xscreensaver/1.md), [**xscreensaver-demo**(1)](/xscreensaver-demo/1.md), [**xscreensaver-getimage**(1)](/xscreensaver-getimage/1.md)

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2000 by James Macnicol.  Permission to use, copy, modify,  distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is  hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear  in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation.  No representations are made about the  suitability of this software for any purpose.  It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

## AUTHOR

James Macnicol \<james.macnicol@mailexcite.com\>, 20-Nov-2000.  Much code was shamelessly stolen from the  **spotlight** hack and a few others.