How to zoom in, out with key+mouse in KDE?

Tried to search in forum, tried to change shortcut keys for that feature - didn’t succeed to add key+mouse. E.g. in Linux Mint Cinnamon there is under Assistive Technologies setting, where I can define the key to hold, when scrolling the mouse wheel; also turn desktop zoom on/off. Can I do this under KDE in Manjaro as well?

Press Ctrl in addition to mouse scroll wheel.

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Sorry, but it won’t work. Tried any thinkable combination:

  • Super+mouse scroll
  • Super+ALT+mouse scroll
  • CTRL+Super+mouse scroll
  • SHIFT+mouse scroll
  • SHIFT+Super+mouse scroll
    etc combinations with CTRL, SHIFT, Super, ALT + mouse scroll, none worked. Currently can use live ISO only.

As far as I know, mouse scroll in one direction is usually defined as one key, scrolling opposite direction - another key - like in Compiz with Ezoom plugin.

Still considering, which desktop environment (DE) is better and as KDE seems most configurable and hardware requirements are usually basically same with GNOME (maybe little different), was considering KDE as I need good DE for teaching, which means I can zoom whole desktop with apps in and out with key+mouse.

Tested with Manjaro XFCE - there works desktop zoom out of the box with ALT+mouse scroll and didn’t find it is configurable via GUI. In GNOME was very poorly implemented similarly like in KDE - only with keyboard. At the same time other DE features are missing in XFCE - I guess KDE should be the most configurable among official DE releases, Manjaro exist…

Settings > Workspace Behavior > Desktop Effects
This 3 are the available options

image

You can set keyboard shortcuts, but not sure you can with mouse scroll …

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As @Wollie said, the default behavior in KDE Plasma is (and has always been) to press and hold the Ctrl key while using the scroll wheel, and this allows you to zoom in and out ─ no separate key needed.

If this doesn’t work on your computer, then perhaps there’s something different about your hardware. Laptop keyboards don’t always behave like normal keyboards, and even among the normal keyboards there are some odd configurations out there that require additional keys or have predefined shortcuts built into a firmware chip in the keyboard itself.

It is also perfectly possible that you’ve set up some weird shortcut configurations that conflict with the default behavior ─ only you would know about whether you have or haven’t. But the default behavior is either way as @Wollie said, and it does normally work.

:man_shrugging:

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I remind you, that I use live Manjaro KDE ISO, so there is no weird shortcut mess. Using still live ISO as I haven’t decided to switch to Manjaro as there are these questions, I am posting into forum currently. Also the laptop is regular Lenovo one, so no weird hardware. As I also mentioned, I tried any thinkable combination of keys, none worked. I checked shortcut keys configuration - there was only keys and no way to use mouse scroll. Therefore I propose to add that feature - please allow to configure to use certain key for dynamic zoom like in Cinnamon desktop environment is.
There might be, that after installing Manjaro KDE, the shortcut keys will be different than on live ISO.
Manjaro GNOME ISO was even worse - there was an option to turn on zoom and off. Also no way to use mouse to dynamically zoom in, out.
Only Manjaro XFCE has dynamic desktop zoom with mouse built-in (didn’t find a way to configure it) - it works right away with ALT-key. Unfortunately other XFCE features are too modest to use that desktop environment. E.g. moving, resizing windows; also several apps. Still it might be an option, if really other desktop environments are even worse, I mean no way to get dynamic zoom to work.
Cinnamon is fork from GNOME3 and has also dynamic zoom with mouse, which is also configurable. But at least under Linux Mint the Cinnamon has nasty and still not fixed bug - when laptop does turn off screen in idle mode, the CPU load goes 100%… The only workaround so far is prevent to turn off screen, while idle. This Cinnamon bug is among other issues, why I started to look toward Manjaro. As I see, also Manjaro has some challenges. Still there are some core features, e.g. rolling release model, latest software, why Manjaro might be better choice. Still officially Manjaro is not supported in my home country to make ID-card software (only Ubuntu is in the list), luckily there is a packager, so the software is available in Manjaro (via AUR) as well. As you see, there are several small components, that needs to be fulfilled in order to start using certain Linux distro.

Now installed newest Manjaro KDE onto real hardware, fully updated, but still unable to use dynamic zoom with key + mouse :frowning:
Currently zoom in via Super+SHIFT+= as = comes via SHIFT and zoom out via Super±. The CTRL works only in apps, that support it (Firefox, Kate, LibreOffice, etc).
So, please, @Wollie and @Aragorn - how to get that promised CTRL+mouse wheel dynamic zoom working in KDE? Using KDE Plasma 5.22.4 currently.

What about using xbindkeys?

sudo pacman -Syu xbindkeys
xbindkeys --defaults > $HOME/.xbindkeysrc

Then edit with your preferred editor the file ~/.xbindkeysrc and add before the end following lines:

# Zoom in
"qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin invokeShortcut "view_zoom_in""
  m:0x50 + c:133 + b:4

# Zoom out
"qdbus org.kde.kglobalaccel /component/kwin invokeShortcut "view_zoom_out""
  m:0x50 + c:133 + b:5

Restart xbindkeys to apply the new shortcut:

killall xbindkeys && xbindkeys

Now you should be able to fully use the zoom effect and don’t forget to add xbindkeys into Autostart kde systemsettings tab.

The shortcut in above lines is meta key + scroll up for zoom in and meta key + scroll down for the zoom out.

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@Wollie Thank you! Works fine.

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@Wollie I guess this dynamic zoom with configurable keys via GUI should be available by default in KDE. Especially, when people would like to change the key for zoom. How to arrange this? To achieve, what Manjaro is preaching - being simple. Not developer myself, just an idea to add to KDE in Manjaro.

For additional reading about defining xbindkeys and combining them with mouse, I found one nice article.

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I have to admit, that proposed xbindkeys didn’t work, when was external monitor with VGA. Without external monitor is working, but not with connected monitor. So far no solution as dynamic zoom in Manjaro KDE :frowning:

Still not possible to configure such dynamic zooming with key+mouse via KDE’s graphical settings under desktop effects :frowning:

Please read this:

Especially the What’s this Upstream / Downstream business? and then file a bug upstream…

:crossed_fingers:

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Sorry @Fabby , but your post is offtopic.

Yes it is off-topic to your last post, but it’s not to the post I’ve replied to.

If you disagree with my assessment, feel free to flag my post as off-topic and another moderator will have a look as well

:bowing_man: