Targeting view to selection

[Runwaypimp]

Hey Guys,

Is there a way to get photoshop to frame its view upon whatever is selected. ie. If a make a small selection within a canvas, which is off set because I'm working in another area, I'd like to be able to press something & have PS focus/centre its view upon that selection. I'm a 3d Artist & 3ds Max has a feature like this which is activated by pressing the Z key. I appreciate its not as important as within a 3d environment but my hands are getting tired panning & zooming around constantly.

Cheers.
George

 

[MrToM]

Hi George,

I know exactly what you mean, I'm always hitting the 'z' key and then getting annoyed because all I've done is select the 'zoom' tool....grrr!

I don't know of an option to 'zoom selected' if it exists, Illustrator does but even then only through a 3rd party plug-in.

To be honest though using the shortcut keys is hardly difficult and it does work well, especially with the new 'scrubby' zoom its actually not too bad. 9 times out of 10 you've got one hand on the keyboard anyway so....is it really that much more of an effort?

I was going to see if I could script something but from further reading that's doesn't look possible either, it's just the way PS works.

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[IamSam]

Edit: Sorry, I thought you were referring to zoom. I'll leav my post just in case it helps

To reposition my view I usually just hold the spacebar and move with my mouse, then I can srubby zoom in or out.


ZOOM
Here is the zoom tools option bar.



As long as scrubby zoom is NOT checked........

While working with any tool......Press and hold the Z key on your keyboard, use the mouse to make a selection, the screen will zoom, release the Z key and you should still be working with the original tool you started with.

However, if you tick the scrubby zoom........Press and hold the Z key on your keyboard, position the cursor to where you would like to zoom in or out, right click your mouse and move to the right to zoom in or the left to zoom out. Release the mouseclick first and the the Z key second and you should still be working with the original tool you started with.

 

[Runwaypimp]

Thanks guys. I did have scrubby zoom on but it only seemed to work correctly with my mouse wheel.
I've recently been forcing myself to get used to using a tablet more & have been zooming in & out with the scroll wheel on the Intuos which is extreme clumsiness.
Using the Z key seems to work great. I'd never used it before in favour of the mouse wheel.

 

[MrToM]

Thats an excellent answer Sam, I wasn't aware of that one.

Thanks.

Regards.
NrTom.

 

[IamSam]

Although there isn't a way to zoom into a selection

Yes you can. I explained this............While working with any tool......Press and hold the Z key on your keyboard, use the mouse to make a selection, the screen will zoom to the selection, release the Z key and you should still be working with the original tool you started with. Also, on a mac, press and hold the Z + Option key and swipe the mouse up or down.

I also mentioned the spacebar trick......To reposition my view I usually just hold the spacebar and move with my mouse, then I can srubby zoom in or out.

 

[MrToM]

Sorry Sam,
I completely misread that, you're right...I'll ammend.

My apologies.

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[IamSam]

No need to ammend, it's fine! I think CC may work different than CS6.

 

[MrToM]

Too late.....

Yeah, CC now has this 'border' thang....
When NOT using the zoom tool you can hold down 'H' and the canvas 'resizes' to fit the window...Its called 'Bird's Eye View'...!!!
You then get a border around the cursor, (cursor not in image), denoting the 'zoom' area.....you can then drag this around the canvas so in the OP's case that would be directly over any selection they have.

Once you 'release', the canvas zooms back to its original % but on the area denoted by that border.



Just to point out, the 'border' in the image is proportional to the zoom %, here I was at 3200% zoom so the border size is relatively small.....lower zoom % will have a bigger border size....pretty cool.

Pretty handy I have to say and I didn't know about it until I started messin.

Sorry for any confusion.

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[IamSam]

Yeah, mine doesn't do that, great information, thanks!

 

[IamSam]

Can you change the size of the area of the cursor 'zoom area'?

 

[MrToM]

LOL...I've just added that to my previous post.....its proportional to the zoom % before you do the 'z' spacebar trick.

It basically shows you what area of the canvas is visible, (and will be visible when you release the mouse/pen), at the current zoom %.

It performs very much like the 'Navigator' panel does.

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[IamSam]

Actually I lied................CS6 does do that!!! I tried it several times and it did not work, now for some reason it's working!

And I answered my own question......... you wrote: It basically shows you what area of the canvas is visible, (and will be visible when you release the mouse/pen), at the current zoom %.

Now try this.....while in any other tool and with the scrubby turned off, hold the Z key and hit the 'fit to screen' icon in the options bar. Now, press and hold the Z key on your keyboard, use the mouse to make a selection, the screen will zoom to the selection, release the Z key and you should still be working with the original tool you started with. Then do your trick with the Z key and spacebar.

Once zoomed in, you can then re-select a smaller area to zoom even closer, this, of course, resets the zoom area!

Very cool!

 

[MrToM]

Nice!
Learning is such fun....isn't it?

I do like my 'scrubby' zoom though so I'll be sticking with that...how many other 'easter egg' key combos will we find?

Thanks for the info.

Regards.
MrTom.

PS. You probably know but your last two posts both double posted......more site work going on?

 

[IamSam]

It is indeed! Just when I was thinking I was doing something the easiest way, I find a better way! I guess I may never know all the little tricks Ps can do.