Zooming tricks in Photoshop

After you’ve absorbed the basic features of the various zoom alternatives in Photoshop, you’ll want to find out about some of the special tricks built into them. Here’s a list of the most useful options:

-->Magnify by dragging. With the Zoom tool, drag over the portion of the image you want to zoom into. A selection marquee appears, and when you release the mouse button, that portion of the image fills your document window. To freeze and then move the selection marquee around the image, begin your drag and then hold down the spacebar while dragging the marquee to a new location.

-->Double-click the Zoom tool to display the image at 100 percent magnification. You can also choose View➪Actual Pixels from the menu bar or, if the Zoom tool is active, click the Actual Pixels button on the Options bar.

-->Choose View➪Fit on Screen to make an image the largest possible size that will fit on the screen. You also can click the Fit on Screen button on the Options bar if the Zoom tool is active or (the fastest way) just double-click the Hand tool.

To resize windows to fit on the screen when you’re not using the Zoom tool, choose Edit➪Preferences➪General (or Photoshop➪Preferences➪General in Mac OS X) and select the Keyboard Zoom Resizes Windows option.