Zooming in and out of images in Photoshop Elements is a task you perform routinely while editing images in the image window, and also when working in other windows, such as the Camera Raw window and the Full Screen view. Zooming in is necessary when you want to precisely edit or view a section of an image. You then need to zoom out to compare the edits to the entire image.
Zoom by clicking
The Zoom tool appears on the Tools panel. To use this tool for zooming in and out, follow these steps:
Click the Zoom tool on the Tools panel (or press Z).
Move the cursor, now loaded with the Zoom tool, to the image window and click the place where you want to zoom in.
To zoom in more, click again; keep clicking until you zoom in far enough.
To zoom out of an image, keep the Zoom tool selected, hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Macintosh), and click.
The cursor changes to a magnifying glass tool with a minus (-) symbol when you hold down the Alt key (Option key on the Macintosh).
Zoom to a selection
Another way to change a view is to zoom to a target area in an image. Here’s how:
Click the Zoom tool on the Tools panel (or press Z).
Drag a box around the area you want to zoom.
Keep the mouse button pressed, and as you drag the mouse, a dashed rectangle marquee appears.
Click the Zoom tool on the Tools panel and drag around an area you want to zoom in on.Release the mouse button.
The view zooms to fit the space defined by the marquee rectangle.
Using the Options bar
Above the image window and below the Shortcuts bar, you find the Options bar. The Options bar is ever-changing, offering different options when you select different tools on the Tools panel. When you click the Zoom tool, the Options bar changes. You have many similar choices for zooming in and out of images and a few options unique to the Options bar:
Zoom In/Zoom Out tools: You can choose Zoom In or Zoom Out as separate tools to avoid using the Alt key (Option key on the Macintosh) to toggle between the two.
Zoom percentage: This number shows you the current zoom level as a percentage. You can edit the text by typing values between 5 and 3200.
Zoom slider: Click the down-pointing arrow to open a slider bar. Drag the slider left to zoom out or right to zoom in.
Resize Windows to Fit: Select this check box to resize the window along with the image zoom. Deselect the box to zoom in and out of an image while the image window remains at a fixed size.
Zoom All Windows: If you have multiple images open and select this check box, zooming with the Zoom tool zooms all open documents simultaneously.
1:1: Zooms the current window to a 1-to-1 ratio, showing the zoom level at which the file will be printed.
Fit Screen: Click this button to fit the image within the image window.
Fill Screen: Zooms the current window to fill the screen.
Print Size: Often, this option shows you the same size as 1:1, where the image is zoomed to the size of the print file.
