(Precision) Touchpad zoom is EXTREMELY fast

TheBestPessimist

Update: reported bug VB-70006.

Hello,

I have tested Vivaldi for more than a year now, but I could never make it my default for more than a few days due to this issue, as it makes browsing the web extremely frustrating.

I have already read and voted for https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/30202/better-touchpad-touchscreen-zoom-functionality, but i believe this is a different issue.

The problem

When using "pinch to zoom" with the Precision Touchpad of my laptop, the zoom steps change EXTREMELY quickly even though i do not move my fingers more than a few millimeters.

How to test:

Start zooming on the touchpad. Initially the fingers have to make a bigger motion so as to trigger the pinch to zoom (PTZ) action. That is ok and expected.
After PTZ is started, even a 0.5 millimeter finger movement will either zoom-in or zoom-out with 20-30 % instead of the default 10 % (ie. go 130%->80%->110%), hence making it harder for me to zoom at my desired level
At the end of the action, after i set the desired zoom level, when i lift my fingers from the touchpad another zoom is done -either zoom-in or zoom-out- which is unexpected and breaks everything i struggled to do so far.

All in all zooming with a touchpad has proven extremely difficult in Vivaldi for me. (I always use the laptop touchpad, never the mouse - so my laptop's touchpad is really good for a windows one)

Solution

When moving my fingers on the touchpad make it so that moving about 5mm (maybe more, not sure if less -- can I test this somehow with my vivaldi install?) changes 1 zoom step (ie +10% or -10%).

Reasoning for this: most often i find myself needing to zoom a page at most 50% in order to properly read something (ie. go from 90% on reddit to 130% then back to 90 % is something i often do).

Currently in a single small PTZ i can go 100% (standard) -> 200% (way too huge), which doesn't help me at all in reading a page, as it most likely breaks my reading position, plus 200% zoom reduces the the visible text on the screen (bigger font size = less text).

Implementing the above will also fix the problem with the end of PTZ when i raise my fingers from they touchpad, as there will not be accidental zooming done.

I would be very happy to invest even a week in testing different PTZ stepping thresholds and other parameters for this.
If there is any override/config/config file that i can edit to tune this motion, just tell me please.

Note 1: My current browser is Firefox and i believe their zoom stepping is much better implemented. Firefox, just like Vivaldi, does not support Chrome/Safari's smooth zooming with the touchpad, it only does step-zooming. What I want is to fine-tune the current zoom, the way Firefox does.

Note 2: Although i want PTZ to work as in Google Chrome (smooth zooming) -- that feature request is tracked in the link above.

TheBestPessimist

I reported this as bug VB-70006.

blobcreate

Yeah I am new to Vivaldi and really miss the "smooth zooming" in Chrome, most time I use smooth zooming just for a quick glance of detail, and then I zoom out, not for persistent zooming. One year later and Vivaldi still hasn't implemented it yet.

sgunhouse

On a touchscreen one would expect zoom to be linear, so that if you are looking at an image and put your fingers at points in the image those points actually track your fingers as they move. That means if you start with your fingers an inch apart and move them so they are two inches apart, the image would double in size. And as someone who doesn't use a touchpad, I'd expect the same there. If you double the space between your fingers, you should double the zoom. Perhaps not, but that would be my naive expectation.

nomadic

@TheBestPessimist Not sure if this is exactly what you want, but it might be helpful.

To get the similar sort of smooth zooming seen in other browsers, you need to disable the setting Use Ctrl+Scroll to Zoom Page under vivaldi://settings/webpages/.

This will lead to the type of zoom where you zoom into a certain part of a webpage, which is different from the standard zoom method that increases the size of all the elements of the page.

Otherwise, I do see the same issue with the zooming being too sensitive with that setting enabled. I normally leave it disabled and use keyboard shortcuts to do the other sort of zooming.

TheBestPessimist

Thank you @nomadic , that looks like what is desired in the task i link in OP (pasting the link again here): https://forum.vivaldi.net/topic/30202/better-touchpad-touchscreen-zoom-functionality

What you suggested achieves the effect of smooth zooming ala chrome with the touchpad (), however it has the big? drawback that it disables Ctrl + Scroll wheel zooming, which is undesired.

To sum it up:

If i disable Use Ctrl+Scroll to Zoom Page option, i have chrome-like smooth zoom using the touchpad, but no mouse zoom anymore
if i enable Use Ctrl+Scroll to Zoom Page option, I have very very bad touchpad zoom (like i have now), but at least i have mouse zoom

IMO the solution is for vivaldi to disable Use Ctrl+Scroll to Zoom Page option only for the touchpad, and leave it on for the mouse.

mib2berlin

@TheBestPessimist
Hi, this sounds like a bug to me, may you report it. If yo do, report it from your tablet, system information are filled in the report form automatically.

For information on how to report a bug, see this URL: https://vvld.in/how-to-report-bugs
Once that is done, please share the bug number (beginning with VB-). Thanks.
On the form, you can add your email address. Once submitted, you'll get a confirmation. You can reply to this with any logs or further info.

Cheers, mib

LonM

Thank you for your request. As this post has had less than 5 votes over 4 years it will now be archived. You can make a new request if you feel it is still needed in the browser.