Use Magnify

Magnify is a native tool available by default with Haiku.

It displays an enlarged version of an area around the pointer. Hence you can check the pixels details on the screen, but also the pixels alignement or distance.

Magnify is available in the Applications menu under the Magnify name. When you launch it, the below window will be displayed :

At the top, you can see :

• The size of the zone displayed : 49x49 pixels
• The magnify level : 1 pixel is enlarged by a factor of 8
• The color of the current pixel in RGB format (identified by the little red square)

Below, Magnify is used to display the details of Iceweasel browser displaying a draft version of an article for Haiku Insider :)

By clicking in the magnified area, you can change the reference for the current pixel :

If you click on the little icon on the top left, or if you do a right click, the below menu will be displayed :

You can have two versions of a magnified zone :

• Without a grid

• With a grid :

You can also decide to "freeze an image" or to use "stick coordinates".

Freezing an image is just making a snapshot of the current magnified area :

It means it will stop updating the magnified area (for instance if an animation is displayed, it will be frozen in the magnified zone). However in that case, the pointer is visible. If you don't want the pointer, the best is to use "stick coordinates" :

In that case, it keeps updating the magnification area, but it doesn't follow the mouse pointer any more. Once you're happy with the result, you can save the image like below :

Indicate the name of the PNG picture or let the default name :

If you open the PNG image, it will correspond to the exact size which has been captured (49x49 pixels in this example).

If you need to compute distance or to verify pixels alignment, you can use the "crosshair" feature.

When you "Add a crosshair" the first time, it will define the top left of a blue square.

The second "Add a crosshair" will define the bottom right of a blue square.

As you can see the width and height of the blue square is now displayed (34 x 37). If you want to remove the crosshair, just use 2 times the "remove crosshair" :

Magnify can be quite useful in some situations, when you want to have the details on a screen area like the pixels alignement, the distance or the color.

Below are the details of the HaikuDepot icon (32x32) sticked on the LaunchBox:

Do you use Magnify also in some situations ?

You can put a comment below to share your usage.