Views
One of the most important things you need to know when working with a painting
or image editing application, is how to adapt the view of your image to your
(changing) needs. This chapter describes the various possibilities &chalk;
offers.
Zooming
By zooming, you can view your images at various levels of detail. Zooming out
will show a larger part of the image, but with less detail. &chalk; offers a
couple of options that affect which part of the image is shown:
Zooming inZooming in allows you to see more details, but you will only
see a smaller part of the image. You can zoom in by choosing the
ViewZoom
in menu item, by clicking the
Zoom in button on the
toolbar, or by pressing the &Ctrl;+ keys.
You can zoom in up to 1600% (a 16:1 ratio) via a number of fixed zoom levels.
Zooming outZooming out allows you to see a larger part of the image while
losing some detail. Zooming out can be done by choosing the
ViewZoom
out menu item, by clicking the
Zoom out button on the
toolbar, or by pressing the &Ctrl;- keys.
You can zoom out up to 0.2% (a 1:500 ratio) via a number of fixed zoom levels.
Going back to 100%As viewing your image at its real size is quite handy at
times, you can do so via the
ViewActual
pixels menu item or by pressing &Ctrl;0.
Zooming in and out from the Overview
tabThe Overview tab of the control box
(usually found at the right hand side of the &chalk; window) also allows you
to change the zoom level by using the slider or the spinbox. Slightly
different zoom levels are available here, so if zooming in or out as described
above does not produce a view you want, you can try using this option. The
1:1 button offers another way of getting back to a 100%
zoom.Special zoomsThere are two more special ways of zooming. The
ViewFit to
Page menu item zooms your image such that it is
as large as possible while remaining entirely visible. The
ViewFull Screen
Mode menu item (pressing &Ctrl;&Shift;F will also activate
this mode) enlarges the &chalk; window to fill your entire screen, removing
the title bar as well. Although this is not a real way of
zooming, it can help you by showing just that little bit more of your
image.Working with views
Apart from changing the zoom level of your view, you can also open different
views for the same image. This way, you can for example look at two different
parts of your image that would not fit on your screen together otherwise.
New view windowsYou can open a new &chalk; window for your image by choosing
ViewNew
View Both windows are independent from each other
(so you can select different tools, view different parts of your image,
&etc;), but changes you make to the image in one window are immediately
visible in the other. To close a window, use the normal window closing button.
There is also an option ViewClose
All Views, which closes all newly created views and
leaves only the original window open.Splitting viewsYou can also split a window into two views. Like a new window,
one view of a split window has its own settings for brushes, zoom levels and
the like, but both views are shown in the same window. To split your window,
choose ViewSplit
View. The viewing area of the &chalk; window will
then be divided into two halves. You can switch between horizontal and
vertical division with the
ViewSplitter
Orientation menu, and get back to one view by
choosing ViewRemove
View.Miscellaneous view options
&chalk; also offers two options that can help you with knowing where you are.
RulersYou can have &chalk; show rulers along the sides of your
image, indicating x and y coordinates. To do so, choose
ViewShow
Rulers or press &Ctrl;R. The rulers will
automatically adapt to your zoom level to show a proper amount of
subdivisions. To remove the rulers, choose the same menu option (now called
Hide Rulers) or press &Ctrl;R again. GridIn order to see grid lines, choose
ViewShow
Grid. You can set the distance between grid lines
with ViewGrid
Spacing and you can choose different colours for the
lines in the SettingsConfigure
&chalk;... dialog (see the Grid section of the Settings
chapter).