zoom(6)

zoom6

Wander around magnified desktop

Usage

zoom [--display host:display.screen] [--foreground color] [--background color] [--window] [--root] [--window-id number] [--mono] [--install] [--visual visual] [--delay usecs] [--duration secs] [--lenses] [--pixwidth pixels] [--pixheight pixels] [--pixspacex pixels] [--pixspacey pixels] [--lensoffsetx pixels] [--lensoffsety pixels] [--fps]

Overview

The zoom program takes an image, magnifies it, and scrolls around it, fatbits-style.

The image that it manipulates will be grabbed from the portion of the screen underlying the window, or from the system's video input, or from a random file on disk, as indicated by the grabDesktopImages, grabVideoFrames, and chooseRandomImages options in the ~/.xscreensaver file; see xscreensaver-settings(1) for more details.

Options

zoom accepts the following options:

--window

Draw on a newly-created window. This is the default.

--root

Draw on the root window.

--window-id number

Draw on the specified window.

--mono

If on a color display, pretend we're on a monochrome display.

--install

Install a private colormap for the window.

--visual visual

Specify which visual to use. Legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of a specific visual.

--delay microseconds

Slow it down.

--duration seconds

How long to run before loading a new image. Default 120 seconds.

--lenses

Instead of doing magnification we just copy an offset region from the original image. If lensoffsetx < pixwidth (and similarly for Y) then consecutive regions will overlap, giving the effect of looking through an array of lenses.

--pixwidth pixels

Width of the magnified pixels.

--pixheight pixels

Height of the magnified pixels.

--pixspacex pixels

Amount of black space between magnified pixels (X direction).

--pixspacey pixels

Amount of black space between magnified pixels (Y direction).

--lensoffsetx pixels

Distance in X direction between consecutive copied regions (only effective when -lenses used).

--lensoffsety pixels

Distance in Y direction between consecutive copied regions (only effective when -lenses used).

Environment

DISPLAY

to get the default host and display number.

XENVIRONMENT

to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.

XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW

The window ID to use with --root.

Releases

6 releases since Debian 9 (Stretch); the text changed 1 time.

  1. 9–13
  2. Arch

--delay since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --duration since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --install since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --lenses since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --lensoffsetx since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --lensoffsety since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --mono since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --pixheight since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --pixspacex since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --pixspacey since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --pixwidth since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --root since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --visual since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --window since Arch Linux 2026-11-01; --window-id since Arch Linux 2026-11-01.

--debugmode until Debian 13 (Trixie); --fatal until Debian 13 (Trixie); --help until Debian 13 (Trixie); --usage until Debian 13 (Trixie); --version until Debian 13 (Trixie); --warnings until Debian 13 (Trixie); -? until Debian 13 (Trixie); -D until Debian 13 (Trixie); -V until Debian 13 (Trixie); -W until Debian 13 (Trixie); -w until Debian 13 (Trixie).

Author

James Macnicol <[email protected]>, 20-Nov-2000. Much code was shamelessly stolen from the spotlight hack and a few others.

From xscreensaver 6.15-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.