[Idea] Reduced steps mode for mouse wheel zoom.

[shijan]

When zoom with mouse wheel large documents that contain a lot of groups and adjustment layers, zooming feels very slow and consume a lot of processing power. Same time zoom using Command +- keys feels fast.
So i got an idea - what if add user setting in Hand Tool Toolbox to reduce zoom steps when use mouse wheel? For example instead of 100% 112.2% 126% 141.4% 158.7% 178.2% 200% steps, it may simply zoom from 100% to 200% using one step of mouse wheel (same steps logic as Command +- keys).

[shijan]

In addition to Toolbox setting, it could be a key modifier (Shift key for example) to temporary activate reduced steps in mouse wheel zoom.

[JanH]

Shift key for example

Already used for switching between vertical and horizontal scrolling.

[shijan]

Yes, but Shift key only used if Settings->Working->Mouse->Scroll Image Content by Mouse Wheel enabled. In this scenario Command+Shift key temporary activates zoom with mouse wheel.
To permanently zoom in/out with mouse wheel you need to disable Settings->Working->Mouse->Scroll Image Content by Mouse Wheel, and so Shift key became unused, i guess.

[shijan]

Also key modifier may work in opposite way. If reduced zoom steps enabled in Toolbox settings, key modifier temporary activates normal zoom steps.

[shijan]

Just thinking, maybe instead of "Reduced" name this setting to something like "Fast Wheel Zoom" or something with similar naming logic.

[Vivi_Ram]

Here's my tiny bit of contribution to the idea. I don't know the technicalities involved in this and I am talking from a purely user experience perspective. Xara Designer remains the single fastest program in the market to date, even when benchmarked against products that have been rebuilt from the scratch to take advantage of modern hardware and graphics cards... And I entered into a long conversation once with a person involved with the team to understand how they managed to do this. I paraphrase a part of our exchange:

"Xara uses a sophisticated display list system that maintains a structured representation of objects rather than constantly re-rasterizing everything. When you zoom or pan, it can intelligently update only what's changed. The software prioritises what you see first. It renders a quick preview almost instantly, then refines details progressively. You rarely notice this because it happens so fast, but it means the interface stays responsive even with complex documents. Xara's layer and object system uses spatial indexing (quad-tree) so it only processes objects actually visible in your viewport. When you zoom, it quickly culls out-of-view elements. It caches rendered results at various zoom levels and reuses them intelligently, avoiding redundant calculations."

I don't know what any of it means, but I know what it means in working practice. When I open complex documents with many images, and zoom in and out, what happens is that the point where I am zooming is rendered first, and then the rest of the document is rendered afterwards. This gives you an impression of speed. Further, when I am moving objects, objects become slightly blurry. But become sharp as soon as I drop it. All of this happens in fractions of seconds. So the document, even with hundreds of layers, with complex effects, manages to still feel responsive.

If there's anything in here that the developers can use to think how zooming works in PL, then great. If not, thanks for reading.