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Is there a way to zoom in/expand/enlarge part of my Mac's screen to fill the entire screen?

Basically, I'm looking for an app that allows you to select a part of the screen and that will then expand that part of the screen all the way to cover the full screen. So if I have a monitor that measures 1366x768 and I select a part of the screen that is 500X300 it will then enlarge that small part to cover the full available screen real estate.

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    Doesn't what you describe mean to zoom in like accessibility does?
    – paulzag
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 8:00
  • sure, if I can find an accessibility tool that does it the way I want it. for example looking at all these google.dk/… it zooms a portion of the window but I still see all that windows. Lets suppose I have a black box 200 px by 200 px on a screen, I want to select that black box,and only see that black box and nothing surrounding it blowed up to the full size of the screen ( aspect ration kept though) - is there a magnifier that will do that?
    – user254694
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 13:35

2 Answers 2

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You can use the built-in zoom feature to zoom in on a part of the screen on your Mac.

(Note: these instructions are adapted for El Capitan but also work with Sierra and as far back as Lion, though certain menus/buttons may be labeled differently).

  1. Go to System Preferences
  2. Navigate to the Accessibility Settings menu
  3. Choose Zoom from the pane on the left.
  4. Enable Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom.
  5. Enable Smooth images (for better quality with images)
  6. Enable Zoom follows the keyboard focus.
  7. Ensure your Zoom settings match these:

Ideal zoom settings

  1. Then, choose between Picture-in-picture and Fullscreen for the Zoom Style; see the pictures below for help choosing.

Zoom in picture-in-picture mode:

Picture-in-picture mode

Zoom in fullscreen mode:

Fullscreen mode

After turning on Zoom, you can control it with keyboard shortcuts, as mentioned by Paul Zagoridis:

Command+Option+8 toggles zoom on/off.

Command+Option+= zooms in.

Command+Option+- zooms out.

Source + more info: http://basics4mac.com/article.php/magnify

Reply below for any additional help or if you have questions; I hope this helps!

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  • Is the mouse gesture zoom working for you in Sierra? It doesn't work for me.
    – wim
    Commented Nov 25, 2016 at 23:56
  • @wim For me, yep. Try switching the modifier key to just option. Here's a video of it working on my MBP running Sierra 10.12.1: goo.gl/photos/KcW4ynEmX8gbbmrC8
    – owlswipe
    Commented Nov 26, 2016 at 19:32
  • Damn, I'm on 10.12.1 and it doesn't work
    – wim
    Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 4:07
  • @wim try changing the modifier key.
    – owlswipe
    Commented Nov 27, 2016 at 21:20
  • Yeah, I've tried all three choices - no good.
    – wim
    Commented Nov 28, 2016 at 1:19
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I guess if you want a rectangle or circle you'll need to find a screen zoom app.

I just use

Command Option 8 to toggle default zoom.

Command Option = to zoom in and

Command Option - to zoom out.

It centres the zoom on where the mouse is.

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