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Author Topic: Image editor with a zoom reticle?  (Read 3616 times)

ConstanceJill

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Image editor with a zoom reticle?
« on: July 25, 2019, 05:46 AM »
Hey there,

I've been wondering if there is any image editor out there (or maybe a plug-in for an existing image editor), preferably freeware, where the user can press or hold a key to activate a zoom reticle over a very localized area.

The point being: while helping my users via remote control, I often want to take screenshots of a specific window to document the issues they're having, however I can't exactly do that with Alt+Printscreen due to the active window on my end being the remote control software's.
So what I do is take screenshots of my whole monitor, which I then have to crop as I want to show only the relevant window(s).

However, I'm a bit of a maniac when it comes to cropping, and as much as possible, I want to avoid having a few lines of pixels that aren't part of the window showing on the edges, or the window's picture to have missing pixels — yeah, I should probably take some kind of medication for that ^^'.

So I use the zoom feature from whichever picture editor I have at hand, so I can see the individual pixels while making my rectangular selection, but then the whole picture is zoomed in and unless it's actually quite small, I can't see both the top left and bottom right corner at the same time, which is annoying.

Thus the idea of a zoom reticle which could be activated and deactivated with a keypress (or by holding a key).

I did try using Windows' magnifying glass, but its zoom is blurry and not "pixel perfect" — I guess they wanted it to have some kind of antialiasing.

Does anyone know of an image editor which includes that feature, or has/could have a plug-in which does that?

Failing that, maybe an alternate magnifying glass software which could be enabled and disabled from the keyboard (so I don't need to move the mouse to disable it), and if possible would even allow slowing the mouse movement when it's active? Obviously, it should allow to see exactly where the mouse cursor is.

If not, then I guess that could be a coding snack…
« Last Edit: July 25, 2019, 05:52 AM by ConstanceJill »

Deozaan

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Re: Image editor with a zoom reticle?
« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2019, 10:52 AM »
Have you tried Screenshot Captor? It has a zoom view that is displayed separately from the image, so it can be viewed while the image is completely zoomed out.

ConstanceJill

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Re: Image editor with a zoom reticle?
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2019, 11:44 AM »
That could work, especially with Windows' "mouse keys" feature to help with moving the cursor a single pixel at a time. Thanks for the suggestion! :Thmbsup:

tomos

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Re: Image editor with a zoom reticle?
« Reply #3 on: July 25, 2019, 03:01 PM »
However, I'm a bit of a maniac when it comes to cropping, and as much as possible, I want to avoid having a few lines of pixels that aren't part of the window showing on the edges, or the window's picture to have missing pixels — yeah, I should probably take some kind of medication for that ^^'.
-ConstanceJill (July 25, 2019, 05:46 AM)
another Screnshot Captor recommendation:
  • it will automatically select a window within a full screen screenshot
  • you can adjust the selection frame one pixel at a time on each side -- unfortunately I can never remember which qualifier key to use:
    • Shift+Arrow | Ctrl ++Arrow | Alt+Arrow => they all work in different ways: one changes both sides (i.e. expand/contract selection); one works on bottom and left sides (I think :-/); etc.

Note that the zoomed in area shows where the mouse pointer currently is.

Screenshot - 2019-07-25 , 22_00_08.jpgImage editor with a zoom reticle?
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Tom