[dennisbolt]

Is it just me or does anyone else find the zoom or magnify tool in iPhoto to be counterintutitive.

From what i can tell, the only way to magnify is to use the little arrows? Why do they not have a magnifying glass like all other programs on earth?

[cpac]

Originally posted by dennisbolt:
Is it just me or does anyone else find the zoom or magnify tool in iPhoto to be counterintutitive.

From what i can tell, the only way to magnify is to use the little arrows? Why do they not have a magnifying glass like all other programs on earth?

I don't know what you mean by "little arrows" - I can't find any that zoom at all.

In "Organize" mode, there's a slider to change the size of the pictures - and this makes a lot of sense.

In "Edit" mode, there's also a slider to zoom in - (maybe this is what you meant by little arrows, even though there are none?) As for why this is a slider and not a magnifying tool - I'd think it's (1) for consistency with the "Organize" Mode, and (2) because iPhoto's edit mode is not set up to be "tool based" like Photoshop or other things - if you click on the "enhance" button for example, you don't get an "enhance" tool, the photo is just "enhanced" - same goes for the "crop" tool, the red-eye tool, etc.

Perhaps what you're asking for is for a clickable zoom button akin to the crop button - but this would be less useful than the slider, since it would have to go to a set zoom of one sort or another rather than the simplicity of simply sliding until you're at the size/zoom you want.

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Regardless, if you don't like to edit in iPhoto, DONT. Just set the preference to allow editing in Photoshop or Graphic Converter, or whatever else you prefer.

[Synotic]

I too am a little confused on what he's referring to, but I thought I'd just throw this in... if you select a portion of the image and use the slider to zoom in or out, it anchors on your selection. I found this to be pretty useful. If you want to zoom in on a face, you select the face, and use the zoom tool.

[dennisbolt]

What I am talking about is when you double click on an individual photo so it is in its own window floating about the thumbnail views.

I don't actually do any "real editing" in iPhoto. Photoshop is much faster and better. But i like to zoom into areas in iPhoto especially for red-eye (Red eye is the only editing I do in iPhoto and I love it)

What i want is a one step magnify rather than drawing a box and then using the slider or arrows to get bigger or smaller. All other programs that allow for magnification have magnify glasses that magnify AT THE SAME TIME as drawing a marquee box. With the traditional magnifying glass, if I want to zoom in huge on an eyeball I just draw the box around the eyeball and voila it fills the screen. But in iPhoto I have to draw a marque and THEN drag the slider or click the up/down arrows 4-5 times. Very carpal tunnel inducing.

Am I doing it wrong?

[mdc]

try this:

double click a photo to get into edit mode.
draw a selection around whatever you want to zoom in on.
click the right icon (the big icon) on the side of the zoom horizontal scroller.

now it is zoomed in as much as possible on whatever you just selected.

technically it is the same amount of work as in photoshop. (if you minus getting into edit mode).
photoshop:
click zoom tool
drag selection

iphoto:
drag selection
click zoom icon

[dennisbolt]

technically it is the same amount of work as in photoshop. (if you minus getting into edit mode).
photoshop:
click zoom tool
drag selection

iphoto:
drag selection
click zoom icon

MDC: Yeah you are technically right about that.

I wonder why a magnifying glass is not aprt of the many "tools" that they offer in the drawer or that you can add to your bar? Am I the only one who uses Freehand, Illustrator, Acrobat, Quark, InDesign and other programs that have magnifying glasses, and then get into iPhoto and stumble?? Are there other apple apps that have magnifyers. Preview? Appleworks?