Modern FatBits Mode
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Zoom, and then turn on “Use scroll gesture with modifier keys to zoom.”
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I’d also recommend turning off “Smooth images” under “Advanced…” so you see individual pixels better[…]
Over the years, I found this feature very useful to inspect various misalignments, to check visual details, and occasionally simply to read text that’s too small.
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Peek gestures are fast, but the main benefit is that they’re safe. In some apps, pressing ⌘+ a few times and then ⌘– the matching amount of times doesn’t guarantee you will end up back in the same situation. The window size might change, the scroll position might move, the cursor might end up in a different place. In contrast, the Ctrl gesture is 100% deterministic and reversible; it will always work the same and never mess anything up.
John Gruber (Mastodon, previously):
This is one of the very best MacOS tips. No third-party software. Built into MacOS for several (many?) years now. Incredibly useful.
But I had no idea it existed until last June at WWDC.
A great feature that I rarely hear anyone talk about. It’s the perfect topic for the “Unsung” blog. I’m not sure how old this feature is, but I think I recall using it back when I had a Mighty Mouse. I think I could activate it one-handed using the side buttons?
These days, with a Magic Mouse, I use the Control-Option-Command modifier keys to avoid conflicts. It actually feels a bit more natural with a trackpad because you can use the same three-finger double-tap gesture to toggle the zoom level (it remembers where you left it) and to adjust the zoom. You can also quick-toggle the zoom when using the mouse, and it does let you use the same separate set of modifier keys as for zooming, but the problem with using modifier keys to toggle the zoom is that it conflicts. Any combination of modifier keys is also used by some keyboard shortcut that I use. When I press the bare modifiers as part of typing that keyboard shortcut, macOS doesn’t know that a letter key will be forthcoming, and it triggers an unwanted zoom.
Wichary has another great tip of using the Command-Shift-4 mode to measure distances on screen. Somehow I’ve never thought to do that—when were the numbers added? I do often use that mode to draw a temporary straight line to see whether two items are aligned. And, yes, this works in combination with the accessibility zoom.
Previously:
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Pretty sure this accessibility feature dates all the way back to 10.2 Jaguar.
