Zoom

When VoiceOver is off, several apps allow their screen to be magnified (zoomed) with a two finger pinch gesture. Place two fingers on the screen and slide them apart to zoom in and slide the fingers together again to zoom out. This pinch gesture works in the Mail app, Photos and several others, but it isn’t available everywhere.

People with sight loss may need to be able to magnify every screen and that is just what Zoom does. Zoom is easier to use if you need only a small amount of magnification. If you need lots of magnification, then VoiceOver, the speaking interface for people with sight loss, may be a better choice for you.

Zoom must be enabled in Settings before it can be used. Please get help if necessary to set up Zoom according to my  Suggested Zoom settings.

Zoom gestures can be performed anywhere on the screen. I suggest you aim for somewhere near the centre of the screen to ensure all three fingers are well within the screen. 

The Zoom gestures are as follows:

• To turn Zoom on or off - double tap with three fingers.

• To pan, that is to move around a zoomed screen - rest three fingers on the screen and slide them around; the screen will be dragged following your fingers.

• To change the amount of magnification - double tap with three fingers and leave your fingers resting on the screen, then slide up or down with all three fingers to increase or decrease magnification. Lift your fingers when you have the desired amount of magnification. This will be remembered until you change the amount of magnification again with this gesture.

• To display the Zoom menu (which I do not recommend, see below) - triple tap with three fingers. Please note that this doesn't work if you also have VoiceOver turned on.

I discourage use of the Zoom menu which is a dark rectangular menu that appears on screen. The problem is that its text is quite small and it cannot be magnified! However, you may find it useful, so by all means try it.

If you accidentally perform a three finger triple tap, which brings up the Zoom menu, the Zoom menu can be dismissed by tapping with one finger anywhere outside the dark rectangle of the Zoom menu.

Please note that enabling Zoom in settings will both change some VoiceOver 3 finger gestures and stop some VoiceOver features from working. Neither handwriting nor Braille screen input can be used if Zoom is enabled in Settings.

If you are a VoiceOver user who occasionally needs to use Zoom then you may find my Zoom on and Zoom off Siri shortcuts useful. These enable you to turn Zoom on and off quickly with the Siri commands "Zoom on" and "Zoom off".

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