OrbitZoom is pretty amazing! If you have not already, get Adobe AIR (see link at right). It is a runtime environment for your computer like Java but less intrusive. Then download and install the 100K OrbitZoom application (again at right). All this only takes a couple minutes! Please ignore the unknown publisher – we do not want to pay $300 a year for certificate.

Now you can open up OrbitZoom and drop a picture or a selection of pictures on it. Or you can drop a picture on the OrbitZoom icon. Once you get to know OrbitZoom you will probably want it to open your files automatically when you double click on an image file. To do that, set the association of the file to OrbitZoom following these steps for Windows:

1. Open any folder and select Tools > FolderOptions > File Types
2. Scroll down the files until you see JPE, JPEG, JPG
3. Click Change and then select OrbitZoom
4. Repeat for each one and perhaps add GIF as well

On the Mac, just get the info on a jpg file and from the Open With pulldown, select OrbitZoom.

Once you are viewing a picture, here is a quick few phrases to help you operate the zoom and pan:

Click Zoom Click
Click down and up on your target and then move your mouse in any direction to zoom.

Click Drag Pan
Click and hold down then move your mouse to pan – click up to stop panning.

Double Click Fit
Double Click to zoom back to making the picture fit in the window.

You can zoom in multiple times with ease – each time adjusting your target. You can pan between zooms as much as you like. To quickly get your orientation, just double click. Please read the Theory page for reasons why this technique has received excellent scores in the Knox Zoom Range and Zoom Speed tests.

Aside from zooming and panning, you can use OrbitZoom as a SLIDE SHOW by just pressing the spacebar. This will show each of the pictures for 5 seconds that you have dropped on OrbitZoom. Or if you drop a single file onto OrbitZoom it will show each picture in the same directory for 5 seconds. You can change the rate of the show by using the numbers along the top of the keyboard. There are other features too. Please see the Features tab above for all features.

If you have a site and would like to let people use OrbitZoom to see your pictures, please download the site version of OrbitZoom at right and let us know so we can add you to our Sites page. Also, we would love to hear your review of OrbitZoom. Do not be shy, just click the Review tab.

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Try out the searches and when you find us – give a click to help our cause!

This is just a quick view of the basic zoom and pan features. For more features like the slide show please see the features link.

When the voice says “click” to zoom, it means click down and up.  This is one aspect that you need to get used to – but you do quickly.

Note that in the video when the voice says “actual size” what is meant is fit size – so the picture fits the window. Actual size can be obtained by pressing the A key.

We noticed a search for Orbit Zoom with a space does not easily find the site. So we thought we would post with the words Orbit Zoom separated to help people find us!

PICTURE VIEWER

OrbitZoom (Orbit Zoom) is a picture viewer for jpg, gif, png that allows you to easily zoom in and pan on images. You drop the picture or pictures on the application or application icon. You can use arrows to go from one picture to the other. If you drop one picture on then the arrows will take you through all the pictures in the directory.

ZOOMING

The zooming uses a radial interface (vaguely orbital) where you click down and up on your target and then move your mouse away from where you clicked in any direction. This zooms in on the picture. You can then pan by dragging the picture. You can click (down and up) on a new target and zoom in more if you want, etc. When you want to zoom out you just double click.

SLIDESHOW

Wow to the slide show! Just hit the space bar to toggle the show. Use the numbers to set the number of seconds. You can go beyond 9 by using combinations of ctrl and alt numbers. You can use F11 to make full screen use the +- to go forward or backwards, etc.

DOWNLOAD

OrbitZoom is free and you can download it from the links at left. If you download the desktop version you need Adobe AIR installed too (free and fast). Let us know what you think!

Adobe has just launched AIR 1.0 for download here.

We have updated OrbitZoom to use AIR 1.o and the link to download the desktop zoom pan picture viewer is at right or click here.

There is an OrbitZoom for Websites too and please let us know if you are using it so we can add you to our Site list!

OrbitZoom has achieved a time of 10 seconds for both the Knox Zoom Speed Test and the Knox Zoom Range Test. These tests measure the efficiency of picture viewer zoom and pan. A time of 10 seconds is excellent and compares to 25 and 30 seconds for the Microsoft Picture and Fax Viewer.

The Knox Zoom Speed Test test looks at how quickly the image can be zoomed in and out to read a series of simple spacial instructions.

The Knox Zoom Range Test looks at the range of targets the viewer can zoom to over time. Please read the Theory page for more information on how these times were accomplished with OrbitZoom.

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The OrbitZoom picture viewer at http://orbitzoom.com provides easy multiple zoom and pan functionality. Simply click the picture and move your cursor radially in any direction to zoom to where you clicked. Click again when you are finished zooming. You can zoom again using the same technique or you can pan by clicking down and dragging. Double click to return to the full view. Here is the only instruction needed:

CLICK ZOOM CLICK – CLICK DRAG PAN – DOUBLE CLICK FIT

DESKTOP
You can download the desktop version at right and then drop any jpg, gif, png onto the viewer. Click the arrows to cycle through images in the same directory or set a slideshow with the spacebar.

WEBSITE
Download the Website zip file to get OrbitZoom for your Website. Here you can load the swf file in a window of its own and pass it a URL to the picture(s) or you can embed the swf file using the provided code. Instructions come in the zip.