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Hi all,
Coming back to Vivaldi after almost 2 years later on a newer laptop, I find my original issue is still just as much an issue for me.
@Pesala said in Better Touchpad/Touchscreen Zoom Functionality:
@BlueVelvet Please vote for Finer Increments for Zoom.
I don't think the issue necessarily relates to zoom increments as some people have indicated. Yes, it could be improved this way, but I understand why developers would not want increments to be finer than 10%. Let me explain:
My newer laptop has a touchscreen (which I didn't have when originally posting) and the type of zoom I am looking for works perfectly with the touchscreen pinch gesture. This type of zoom does not increase font size and ui elements, but literally just zooms in on a particular point on the webpage excluding the rest of the webpage.
Here are some pictures:
This is what duckduckgo.com looks like when I zoom with the touchpad pinch gesture.
Notice how the search bar has been resized to fit in the screen? I am suggesting that the touchpad shouldn't do this when I pinch zoom. Instead it should look like the following.
Here is what the same webpage looks like when I zoom with the touchscreen.
Here, although I haven't zoomed in as far, the search bar and text below do not fit on screen. I am suggesting that the touchpad pinch gesture should reflect this behaviour.
It's subtle, but it matters. Maybe not on duckduckgo.com, but let's look at a website with a bit more UI elements like reddit.
Here is a recent update by a r/vivaldibrowser moderator. Let's say I had poor eyesight and wanted to zoom in to read it easier.
Here's what it looks like zoomed in with the touchpad pinch gesture:
Yes, it's easy to read, but the amount of words that fit on one line has decreased a lot. Not to mention I can no longer access the sidebar as it has been placed somewhere below.
It is much easier to do this with a touchscreen pinch gesture though:
The lines have retained their original length and I can read the whole post on the screen.
Now you might say, "why don't you just zoom out after you've read the post to access the sidebar or whatever?" Fair point, but I haven't mentioned how difficult it is to zoom with the current touchpad pinch gesture behaviour.
Zooming with a mouse scroll wheel might be easy because the scroll wheel hardware itself has increments in it. This is not the same with a touchpad pinch gesture. There are no increments as to how fast I pinch with my fingers, the joints in my fingers do not have clockwork gears, instead they move very fluidly compare to a scroll wheel. Sometimes I will pinch too fast, other times too slow. It is very difficult to get to the zoom level desired with fluid fingers when there are zoom increments. This will always be an issue for me when I zoom in to see the text larger AND zoom out to return to the default zoom.
Here is my main argument:
If the touchpad pinch gesture behaved like the touchscreen pinch gesture does, then it would be a simple flick of two fingers to get the zoom level the user would like, and they wouldn't have the annoyance of the webpage elements changing size. This is because the touchscreen pinch gestures do not use zoom increments, whereas the touchpad pinch gestures do.
If you are wondering why I don't just use my touchscreen, or Ctrl-0 to return to default zoom, it is the same mentality as wanting to use keyboard shortcuts. You want to keep your hands on the keyboard and not to have to click things with your mouse, in this case I want to keep my hands on the touchpad.
I hope this explains my case well, and why myself, and the other users on this thread are still finding Vivaldi a difficult browser to use on their laptops.
Considering others have agreed with me since my original post, I thought I would restate my case. Although, I think this thread should be renamed to something like "Better Touchpad Zoom Functionality - reflecting Touchscreen Zoom functionality", as I realise now that the behaviour I am looking for is already available on touchscreens.
I will also restate what @LorenAmelang said about a differentiation between how the touchpad and touchscreen zooms work, as it seems helpful to developers, but I still vouch for a similarity in behaviour.
@LorenAmelang said in Better Touchpad/Touchscreen Zoom Functionality:
@IsaiahHolman On my Surface Book Win 10 touch screen, Vivaldi tab content zooms up smoothly via pinch out, and pinch in returns to 100%. Not sure which part of the system handles that - it works in most apps, but some zoom in obvious steps instead of smoothly.
I do want to stress that what works on a touch_pad_ must be kept separate from strategies for a touch_screen_! With (single point) touch or pen on the screen the goal is to be as close as reasonable to mouse/pointer action. Abstract touch "gestures" must be distinguished by requiring multiple fingers or some other obvious modifier.
Thanks for reading.
