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Ask HN: Do people use the zoom functionality in browsers?

2 points by websitescenes 13y ago

Using some CSS3 shapes that distort if the user zooms in. Looks fine zoomed out and 100%. Is this a concern?

georgemcbay 13y ago
Of course people zoom in with their browsers, especially older people or those otherwise sight-impaired, but the set of zoomers isn't limited to just them... in a universe of an increasing number of very high DPI screens (but where you still can't expect those to be the standard), zooming is pretty commonplace. I zoom myself when a designer decides to use some stupidly small font and then often don't even notice the zoom is on until some other website is using a larger than normal font. So, yes, people do zoom. Does it matter that this breaks your CSS3? I don't know, I'd have to see the breakage to know if it is a showstopper or merely a visual annoyance.
- websitescenes 13y ago
  Definitely just visual but I am not happy about it. I for sure want to fix it, just not sure if it's really a priority.
evan_ 13y ago
I have great eyesight and I still zoom on a lot of websites- I often read webpages while I eat lunch, so I put the laptop a little further away than you normally might. Zooming even 10-20% makes it just that much more comfortable to read.
hollerith 13y ago
I zoom all the time. Saves me from having to put on my glasses.
- websitescenes 13y ago
  Wow, I never realized this was such a heavily utilized feature. Do the devs out there test for zoom compatibility? I kinda have on and off but hadn't given it much thought.
  - grumps 13y ago
    I think browsers all do it differently. I know we don't... some things just flat out break on zoom.
gknoy 13y ago
I zoom on any website that has ridiculously small font sizes. A few of the blogs linked here have such small text for their content that I will crank Chrome's zoom up to 150%. (For most browsing, I use 100%.)
ElongatedTowel 13y ago
Absolutely. I actually use a Firefox Addon to rebind some of the keys so I can zoom by pressing +, - and reset it with *. Text is usually not the problem, but images and thumbnails are. I rather zoom in to see the thumbnail up close instead of browsing to every site that is linked via one.
marssaxman 13y ago
Oh heck yeah. For some reason fonts are often set too large and they spill out of their boxes leaving no left margin, and zooming out one step fixes this. I wonder if it has something to do with this machine's retina display?
rachelbythebay 13y ago
Yep, I keep HN itself one click higher in fact. I don't think I zoom any other sites... just this one.
bowerbird 13y ago
not only do i zoom, but i have set the minimum font-size in safari to 18-point, causing many "pixel-perfect" sites to fail, often just a bit, sometimes spectacularly. -bowerbird
mooze 13y ago
I zoom out on tiny text, yes, but I also do so on websites with interesting semi-covered backgrounds.
factorialboy 13y ago
I do, all the time. And I'm not even old. Some pages are just unreadable.
thesmileyone 13y ago
I actually only zoom on HN, if I want to sit back with my feet up at my desktop I can do so. Don't be lazy and just think people won't. I was on a website the other day where the shopping cart, category and price filters all disappeared completely if you zoomed in, which was a shame because they had size 6 text and great products; it was enough to put me off buying anything from that website.

2 points by websitescenes 13y ago

Using some CSS3 shapes that distort if the user zooms in. Looks fine zoomed out and 100%. Is this a concern?

Of course people zoom in with their browsers, especially older people or those otherwise sight-impaired, but the set of zoomers isn't limited to just them... in a universe of an increasing number of very high DPI screens (but where you still can't expect those to be the standard), zooming is pretty commonplace. I zoom myself when a designer decides to use some stupidly small font and then often don't even notice the zoom is on until some other website is using a larger than normal font. So, yes, people do zoom. Does it matter that this breaks your CSS3? I don't know, I'd have to see the breakage to know if it is a showstopper or merely a visual annoyance.

websitescenes 13y ago
Definitely just visual but I am not happy about it. I for sure want to fix it, just not sure if it's really a priority.

evan_ 13y ago

I have great eyesight and I still zoom on a lot of websites- I often read webpages while I eat lunch, so I put the laptop a little further away than you normally might. Zooming even 10-20% makes it just that much more comfortable to read.

hollerith 13y ago

I zoom all the time. Saves me from having to put on my glasses.

websitescenes 13y ago
Wow, I never realized this was such a heavily utilized feature. Do the devs out there test for zoom compatibility? I kinda have on and off but hadn't given it much thought.
- grumps 13y ago
  I think browsers all do it differently. I know we don't... some things just flat out break on zoom.

gknoy 13y ago

I zoom on any website that has ridiculously small font sizes. A few of the blogs linked here have such small text for their content that I will crank Chrome's zoom up to 150%. (For most browsing, I use 100%.)

ElongatedTowel 13y ago

Absolutely. I actually use a Firefox Addon to rebind some of the keys so I can zoom by pressing +, - and reset it with *. Text is usually not the problem, but images and thumbnails are. I rather zoom in to see the thumbnail up close instead of browsing to every site that is linked via one.

marssaxman 13y ago

Oh heck yeah. For some reason fonts are often set too large and they spill out of their boxes leaving no left margin, and zooming out one step fixes this. I wonder if it has something to do with this machine's retina display?

rachelbythebay 13y ago

Yep, I keep HN itself one click higher in fact. I don't think I zoom any other sites... just this one.

bowerbird 13y ago

not only do i zoom, but i have set the minimum font-size in safari to 18-point, causing many "pixel-perfect" sites to fail, often just a bit, sometimes spectacularly. -bowerbird

mooze 13y ago

I zoom out on tiny text, yes, but I also do so on websites with interesting semi-covered backgrounds.

factorialboy 13y ago

I do, all the time. And I'm not even old. Some pages are just unreadable.

thesmileyone 13y ago

I actually only zoom on HN, if I want to sit back with my feet up at my desktop I can do so. Don't be lazy and just think people won't. I was on a website the other day where the shopping cart, category and price filters all disappeared completely if you zoomed in, which was a shame because they had size 6 text and great products; it was enough to put me off buying anything from that website.