DISPLAY
to get the default host and display number.
Wander around magnified desktop
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]
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.
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).
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.
6 releases since Debian 9 (Stretch); the text changed 1 time.
--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).