Friday 27 August 2010

Through A Glass - Electronically

Attention anyone who does NOT have the eyesight of an eagle!

For ages now, I've been looking for some screen magnification software for my computer (Really?  We thought it would be for your dishwasher - Ed).  Windows itself comes with a magnifier which isn't bad, but takes up a lot of screen room and generally gets in the way a bit.

I wanted a magnifier that took up a small bit of the screen and that could be moved around to where I need it.  I found one a while ago and it looked promising, but was very disoppointing in that it kind of took a snapshot of the screen, magnified that and had to be reset if the screen changed in any way.

But then the day before yesterday I found it.

It's a screen magnifier that follows your cursor (you can have the cursor centred in the magnified bit or on one corner).  You can also set the magnified bit to sit in one part of the screen only, magnifiying the area around your cursor as it moves around.    Its size, shape, magnification level and opacity are configurable by the user.  You can set it to start automatically when Windows boots, or you can start it yourself.  When running, it can be toggled on or off at will by pressing a pre-defined set of keys (settable by the user).

In short, it's flippin' brilliant, as you can see from the screenshot below.


You can download the software for free from here

10 comments:

  1. That looks exceedingly useful, thanks.

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  2. A brilliant device. Pity it cannot e applied to books.
    If it helps you to continue composing excellent posts, then so much the better.

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  3. hmmm - may have to have a look at that

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  4. cool! I find myself squinting at some things.. then occasionally I remember to wear my glasses.. it's like a whole new bloody world! I love the fact there is something out there for everything, electronically speaking.
    well, maybe not EVERYTHING!

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  5. Jinksy - it really is! I'm partially-sighted and have been all my life but have always gotten by with normal screens, no magnifiers of any kind. Lately, my eyes have been getting tireder and tireder so, stuubborn thing that I am, I've decided to get a bit of help in my declining years.

    Friko - Oh, how I wish it worked for books. This is where the software readers, like Kindle and so on, win out over print I think, as you can enlarge the text. I have got a bizarre contraption (made from a sports headband and a clip-on magnifier) which can be used for books, but could not be worn outside the house for fear of ridicule. As long as I can type, I'll keep posting - even after, if I can dictate :-)

    DFTP - It's a useful tool for picture editing when you need to see a small area to the pixel level.

    Watercats - I think there IS something out there for everything, just look at the ridiculous stuff they have for smartphones these days.

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  6. Fabby Argent - that's a really useful tool.

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  7. Ooh - reading this reminds me that I need to be wearing my glasses right now!

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  8. My eyesight is really bothering me lately and none of the glasses I have sem to help so much now.Must go to the opticians.But this software will be handy too.Thanks.

    Can't believe I made a serious comment.Should get my head tested as well as my eyes.

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  9. This wonderful. I immediately downloaded it and tried it out. I have heard just this week that I have to go for lens extraction and inplants on both my eyes so this could not have come at a more appropriate time. Thank you.

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  10. Titus - It sure is, I'm using it all the time now.

    Bug - I should wear my glasses too, but don't nearly enough.

    TFE - You deffo should get yer peepers checked just in case.

    Human - Glad you've found the thing useful. Lens replacements? Yikes! I have had a corneal graft in one eye and am hoping not to have one in the other eye too. Hope everything goes well for you.

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