View Panel zoom

[pmcabinet]

I use the view panel for comparisons, generally just two images. When subjects are at a different scale I like to zoom the smaller image to the same scale as the larger - but the second image zooms as well, so defeating the purpose. (I remember Picasa always did this.)

Is there a way to overcome this; or maybe I'm using the wrong panel/method? Or maybe it just can't be done?

[Mario]

By default panels are linked, so zoom/pan works on all panels. You can unlink panels to zoom each panel individually by pressing <L>.
See Linked Panels in the Viewer help and the Keyboard Cheat Sheet for more useful keyboard shortcuts for the Viewer and all other features. The keyboard shortcuts are also listed in the Viewer context menu (right-click).

[pmcabinet]

Understood but... when I open (on my second monitor) the view panel (F12, W ) and press Enter to send two selected images from the file window to the viewer, they appear and (Linked) is indicated at the end of the info bar at the bottom. I press the shortcut key L and (Linked) disappears - but then when I zoom (Ctrl+), both images are still synchronised.

So clearly I haven't understood. The 'Linked Panels' in help refers to panels in the plural - but I'm not looking to unlink panels, rather unlink images within a (view) panel. Or am I?

Sorry if I seem obtuse. The software is fantastic, but there's a lot to learn! (Just by the by, I find the help sections rather elliptical - more baby steps are needed for the newcomer, I think. That's not to detract from the extraordinary work put into iMatch.) 

[Mario]

That's a compromise, I suppose.
You can use the Alt Zoom to individually zoom images in this mode (Hold down <Alt> and move the mouse to zoom in and out).
You can then snap all individually zoomed images back to 100% or fit-to-window with the keyboard. Zooming individual images is a somewhat rarely used operation.

The global keyboard zooms are still synchronized among all images. I'm at the moment not sure which this is (need to dive into the code and check the docs, but it works that way since IMatch 5 (about 10 years) and I'm reluctant to change it - because it may break the workflows of many users. Feel free to add a feature request.

[pmcabinet]

Thank you Mario - Alt+left click/move mouse (in the Viewer) is just what I need. Nice and simple.

Interesting you say this is a rarely used operation; it's a frequent requirement for me to scale two images to equalize different shooting distances (fine detail comparison ID in dendrology). Of course there are many ways to do this, both in and out of iMatch, but the Viewer is quick and neat.

Thanks again.

[Mario]

I have classified this as a glitch/inconsistency and changed the keyboard zoom commands to respect the linked panels setting for IMatch 2023. If this indeed becomes a problem for a number of users, I'll make it switchable.

So far this never came up, but I don't have telemetry on how many users link/unlink in the Viewer. I will add a telemetry measurement for IMatch 2023 to learn more.