All major browsers come with zooming feature. This feature allows users to increase (magnify) or decrease webpage size as per their need. Now, there are two ways a webpage can be magnified: the entire page or just the text. When the entire page is magnified, everything gets larger, not just the text. In this method, the relative layout of the page remains the same for the most part, except in instances of extreme zoom, when design elements are shifted around because they can’t all fit on the page. In the latter instance, the graphic elements on the page remain static, i.e. they are unaffected with the zoom, while the text is enlarged.
Text-only zoom feature is available in browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari, but not in Chrome. Fret not, there’s an extension available that adds this functionality in your favorite browser.
To make use of the zooming functions, you’ve to use keyboard shortcuts. The default keyboard shortcuts are as follows:
- Zoom in: Alt + =
- Zoom out: Alt + –
- Reset Zoom: Alt + 0
You can change them to anything else you want by clicking on the extension icon (magnifying lens) in the toolbar.
As you zoom-in or zoom-out, you also get a notification at the bottom-left corner of the page informing you about zoom percentage.
Custom zoom settings are saved on a per domain basis. This will save you the trouble of zooming-in each time you visit the same website or if you open multiple pages of the same domain in different tabs.
Download: Text-only zoom