Bug 169516 - RFE: add configuration setting for default zoom
Summary: RFE: add configuration setting for default zoom
Status: REOPENED
Alias: None
Product: okular
Classification: Applications
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Ubuntu Linux
: LO wishlist
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Okular developers
URL:
Keywords: usability
: 179397 183820 187337 217093 228860 241569 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2008-08-21 01:23 UTC by Michael Blakeley
Modified: 2022-07-25 13:38 UTC (History)
33 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In: 4.8.0


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Description Michael Blakeley 2008-08-21 01:23:56 UTC
Version:            (using KDE 4.1.0)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages

Okular always opens new documents with zoom=fit-page. I would like the default to be zoom=fit-width. It would be nice if there were a configuration setting for default zoom level, so that okular could accommodate either preference.
Comment 1 Pino Toscano 2008-09-10 14:21:08 UTC
> I would like the default to be zoom=fit-width.

This is now the default with the next KDE 4.1.2 and above.

> It would be nice if there were a configuration setting
> for default zoom level, so that okular could accommodate either preference.

Not sure adding options over options is really worth it, considering the new default.
Comment 2 kde2eran 2008-12-17 21:04:28 UTC
Personally I prefer the fit-page mode. It would be nice to have an option to make this the default.
Comment 3 Carsten Otto 2008-12-20 15:58:27 UTC
With a 30" screen even the perfect solution for smaller screens is not good. Please make the default configurable (I prefer 100%).
Comment 4 Radek Novacek 2009-01-02 18:44:20 UTC
*** Bug 179397 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Maciej Pilichowski 2009-01-18 09:48:30 UTC
Obviously there is no one zoom mode that would fit for all users and all monitors. It is no way, the same hardcoded zoom default is as good for netbook user and for hires 24" monitor.

The discussion in usability ML was about setting new default zoom as preset, not as hardcoded value for all users without ability to change it.

+1 vote of course.
Comment 6 Pino Toscano 2009-02-09 21:44:32 UTC
*** Bug 183820 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 7 Pino Toscano 2009-03-16 22:10:32 UTC
*** Bug 187337 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 8 Marc 2009-04-29 17:09:05 UTC
Please make this optional. I not only prefer fit page, but I cannot work with fit width. I have moved to Adove Acrobat until this is fixed.

Also, I don't want the zoom memorized for each document. This is equally unworkable.
Comment 9 Dotan Cohen 2009-05-29 14:46:24 UTC
For widescreen monitor users, Fit Width is not a good default. The page comes out huge, zoomed in at over 400%. This is unacceptable.
Comment 10 arne anka 2009-07-18 13:11:21 UTC
i vote for a configurable setting of a default zoom level.
the suggested "remembers zoom level on a per document basis" does a ) not work and b) is no use ith a new dcument -- even if some day in a remote future kde4 apps were able to remmeber settings, it wouldn't help.

the policy of limiting user's choices by heavily decreasing the number of configuration options is a great error. if i'd like to be patronized and told by others, what's good for me, i'd use gnome or even windows ...
Comment 11 cmf 2009-10-01 11:48:46 UTC
I also vote for a configurable default zoom level. The variety of used screen resolutions and sizes makes it impossible to set a convenient default zoom for everybody.
Also the "remember zoom level" does not work for new documents and wouldn't help either.
Comment 12 Radek Novacek 2009-10-01 12:13:44 UTC
The best option for me would be, if I can somewhere set to open
a) landscape documents fitted to page and non-continuous
b) potrait documents fitted to width and continuous

Since KDE spirit is to provide users options to customize (and I believe that is one of main reasons why we use it), it should be somehow configurable.
Comment 13 deivid 2009-11-16 17:18:37 UTC
+1 here too
Comment 14 y01051-kde 2009-11-27 10:25:20 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> Not sure adding options over options is really worth it, considering the new
> default.

The new default fit-width makes things worse for me. A new configuration option is the only way to fix this bug because obviously the personal user preference differs about this topic.
Comment 15 Pino Toscano 2009-12-02 17:33:52 UTC
*** Bug 217093 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 16 Michal Svec 2009-12-02 17:47:54 UTC
(In reply to comment #12)
> The best option for me would be, if I can somewhere set to open
> a) landscape documents fitted to page and non-continuous
> b) potrait documents fitted to width and continuous

I really like this proposal. Reading the above the best approach would be
to have a setting something like Default Document Zoom with these options:

  - Fit Page
  - Fit Width
  - Intelligent [Fit Width for landscape, Fit Page for Portrait or so]
Comment 17 arne anka 2009-12-02 17:59:11 UTC
i strongly disagree -- every attempt of the app to be smart sooner or later (usually sooner) leads to disgusting results.

simply take into consideration that users _know_ what they want and are _capable_ make decisions (kde4's idea is the one of a stupid user who needs everything made simple and yearns for paternalism) and offer the full dropdown for size in the settings.
then everybody can chose the size he/she wants initially and has not to rely on more or less sensible defaults or "intelligent" algorithms.

i can live with a stupid default, but i definitily hate not being able to reconfigure manully at will -- after all, it's _my_ computer. if i want dictatorship, i'd buy an iphone ...
Comment 18 Michal Svec 2009-12-02 18:50:44 UTC
Please note that comment #16 suggests to make this thing configurable,
with a sane (or at least some) default. If the user disagree he is free
to change the default to something else. That's not possible now.
Comment 19 arne anka 2009-12-03 12:25:28 UTC
that's what i said.
#16 gave me the impression the configurability should be limited to the listed three options.
what i demand, is the full range of options to be available as default by the user.
Comment 20 Carsten Otto 2010-02-19 14:05:26 UTC
In addition to all comments so far, I'd like to propose a related feature:

In a "overview" like mode, show as many pages as possible, but all with 100%. On my 21" screen with 1600x1200 screen and okular in fullscreen, this corresponds to two pages. Stretched to two of these screens, this means four pages. On my 30" this means three pages. Showing some (editor) window next to okular, so okular is not in fullscreen size, then only shows a single page. Etc.

Using this mode I would see as many pages as possible (which is a very useful feature for me!) without having to toggle between "overview" and "single page" all the time - not talking about the need to change how many pages "overview" should show.

Thanks for thinking about it - and maybe implementing it?
Carsten
Comment 21 Pino Toscano 2010-02-28 09:53:44 UTC
*** Bug 228860 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 22 Jonathan Sambrook 2010-03-09 10:51:27 UTC
Having a configurable default is essential to alleviate the problem where my use case is *always* the exact opposite of the current, hard-coded default setting. Which itself was presumably changed when others complain that the previous hard-coded default setting was *always* the exact opposite of their use cases.

The suggestion above of having the following options available for the use to configure as the default setting:

  - Fit Page
  - Fit Width
  - Intelligent [Fit Width for Landscape, Fit Page for Portrait]

requires the additional:

  - Intelligent 2.0 [Fit Width for Portrait, Fit Page for Landscape]

to account for a variety of use cases.

But please, pretty please, can this be fixed sometime soon?
Comment 23 pj 2010-05-06 08:15:50 UTC
Please at least just add some configuration option to change the default for new documents from whatever is the compiled in default (fit width) to whatever default I specify.

Almost every time I open a document in Okular, the first thing I do is View->Fit Page.  I've been doing this for a year or three now.  It's a constant pain, but I don't know any better way.  I have a wide monitor and "fit width" will usually just show about the upper half of each page.

+1
Comment 24 pj 2010-05-06 08:26:37 UTC
Ah - there is something one can do to make this slightly less annoying.  On the Okular menu "Settings -> Configure Shortcuts...", one can assign a hotkey to "Fit Page".  This is a little quicker than mousing to "View -> Fit Page".
Comment 25 Pino Toscano 2010-06-13 11:01:29 UTC
*** Bug 241569 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 26 RalphB 2010-06-13 18:10:28 UTC
This ticket was originally submitted in August 2008! I'm simply speechless why the maintainers refuse to implement this feature. Just reading the comments should make it clear that different users have different preferences. Ignoring this request repeatedly borders on contempt for the users.

And no, I don't think that the developers have no time to implement a simple option.
Comment 27 Michal Svec 2010-06-14 15:49:55 UTC
I believe the fix might not be that complicated. The zoom mode seems to be
already configurable (okular.kcfg/PageView/ZoomMode), don't know if we have
a UI for that yet, though.

But it should be a matter of adding two more modes to PageView.h: ZoomIntelligent
(comment #16) and ZoomIntellingentPortrait (comment #22) and adding this
intelligence to the point where the file is opened and its dimensions are known
(I am not sure what's the best point for that, I guess some generic generator
code, or is that known when PageView is being constructed?).
Comment 28 Bruce Robson 2010-11-22 11:11:30 UTC
"Fit Width" is a BAD choice of default zoom. It should be 100% so documents look as the author intended.

Please make it possible so set the default zoom to 100%.
Comment 29 Tristan Miller 2010-11-22 11:33:01 UTC
100% is also a "BAD" choice of default zoom, since the author of the document has no idea how big my display is.  I do not want to read an A0 poster at 100% on my Eee PC's tiny LCD.  The point is that the default zoom should be configurable, and not set to something arbitrary.
Comment 30 Andrew Gaydenko 2010-12-31 09:35:32 UTC
Agree, the configuration is absolute must-have. Especially in context of KDE's "thisngs look and behave the way she want" :-) It is strange such little issue has so long live :-(
Comment 31 Andreas v. Heydwolff 2011-02-19 19:00:45 UTC
Yes, esteemed devlopers. Okular is a superb program, thanks a lot - however, giving us the possibility to customize the zoom default would make it even better (and save me between 10 and 40 clicks per workday). Greetings, --AvH
Comment 32 GJ 2011-04-27 07:55:35 UTC
The fact that I cannot set the default zoom for new documents has really annoyed me in the two years I've been using KDE. I'm amazed that this bug / request is still outstanding since 2008 as it's clear from the comments above that allowing the user to set the default zoom is what we users want.

Hard coding a simple setting like the default zoom goes against what I thought KDE stood for i.e. allowing users total freedom of configuration.

Please allow us to set the default zoom.
Comment 33 kde-bugs 2011-08-04 16:34:31 UTC
(In reply to comment #32)
> Hard coding a simple setting like the default zoom goes against what I thought
> KDE stood for i.e. allowing users total freedom of configuration.
> 
> Please allow us to set the default zoom.

I wholeheartedly agree and add my "please!".
Comment 34 Felix Miata 2011-08-04 16:41:35 UTC
Why Mozilla hasn't and won't do this:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=96096#c18
Comment 35 Kevin Schoedel 2011-08-04 16:57:28 UTC
(In reply to comment #34)
> Why Mozilla hasn't and won't do this:

Unlike HTML, PDF *is* a WYSIWYG format.

I just want to see a page in a page-shaped window! Why does this need to be so difficult?
Comment 36 Alkis 2011-08-04 17:01:51 UTC
I really do not understand why a default zoom setting is not implemented in Okular.

Anyway, I'm using Adobe Reader because of this. It works fine!
Comment 37 Dotan Cohen 2011-08-04 17:04:03 UTC
Felix, the Mozilla bug is about changing only the font size, which has the side effect of destroying formatting in webpages. This bug is about scaling the entire PDF, which does not affect formatting.
Comment 38 kde-bugs 2011-08-04 17:19:05 UTC
(In reply to comment #34)
> Why Mozilla hasn't and won't do this:

Well, if we consider a browser developer's opinion regarding a font size
preference as relevant for this RFE (I don't, because it's about a very
different situation), we should consider much more relevant the fact that even
evince has a "Save Current Settings as Default" menu item, which, among other
things, saves the default zoom. Remember: evince is a GNOME application and
therefore it should not be suspected of trying to confuse the user with a
plethora of configuration options.

Anyway, a whole load of good reasons why the zoom should be made configurable
can be found in the comments above, but I see no reason why such an option
wouldn't be desirable (the Mozilla bug you refer to doesn't change that the
least).
Comment 39 rlk 2011-08-22 17:37:12 UTC
Doittoit.  It currently makes Okular very annoying to use.
Comment 40 Michal Svec 2011-08-22 19:56:57 UTC
Guys, stop bitching and do something useful instead, like implement this :)
It should not be that difficult ...

The repo is here:
  https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/kdegraphics/okular/repository

And it's a matter of finding the right code in ui/pageview.cpp that
initializes the zoom mode and put there something like this:

  if(document.page[0].width > document.page[0].height)
    zoomMode=FitPage;
  else
    zoomMode=FitWidth;

Adding a configuration option should not be difficult either.
A UI for that would not even be necessary, it would be a bonus :)
Comment 41 pj 2011-08-22 23:24:39 UTC
Amazing -- another year has passed since I added my vote to this, and three years since it was opened.

Please doit -- a configuration option to set the initial zoom mode -- Please!!!
Comment 42 Albert Astals Cid 2011-09-06 17:20:39 UTC
I'm with #40 here. If you want this feature so badly, come to the okular-devel mailing list, present a plan of what you want to implement, do it and if the code does not suck i will merge it in. Personally I do not like the feature but if it is cleanly I do not see any reason why it should not go in.
Comment 43 Andrew Gaydenko 2011-09-06 17:38:15 UTC
Albert, the feature value depends on concrete work flow. Votes amount is a clear sign there are plenty okular users with the work flow when the feature is highly needed.
Comment 44 James Heather 2011-09-27 15:34:04 UTC
There are lots of requests for this, and I'd like to add my voice. It seems that there are lots of people who think Fit Width is the best default, and lots who think Fit Page is better. Isn't this situation what configuration options are for? If we don't have one in cases where there are lots of votes on either side, what is the point of having configuration at all?

I don't think asking people to implement it themselves is right. KDE is supposed to be for end users, not just for developers. It shouldn't be that only coders get a decent setup.
Comment 45 Albert Astals Cid 2011-09-28 21:58:17 UTC
Git commit 2360049a6424afdf24c081641784634cced45789 by Albert Astals Cid, on behalf of Michal Svec.
Committed on 28/09/2011 at 23:54.
Pushed by aacid into branch 'master'.

Added configuration setting for default zoom

BUGS: 169516
FIXED-IN: 4.8.0
REVIEW: 102491

M  +44   -2    conf/dlggeneralbase.ui
M  +1    -1    conf/okular.kcfg
M  +10   -0    doc/index.docbook
M  +21   -0    ui/pageview.cpp

http://commits.kde.org/okular/2360049a6424afdf24c081641784634cced45789
Comment 46 Dotan Cohen 2011-09-28 23:55:31 UTC
Albert, thank you! I anxiously await KDE 4.8!
Comment 47 Amnon 2018-10-27 13:50:41 UTC
It is 2018, and as far as I can tell this matter was not resolved. 

Here is my request and explanation: I am working on a long latex project (many months). The best zoom for me is 135%. 

When running PDFLaTeX (via KILE) the resolution on okular often changes (inconsistantly). I need to go to the zoom window and manually enter 135. 

It would be a big improvement if:
(1) My default zoom (e.g. 135%) would be a single button click.
(2) Also if the resolutnio won't jump after recompiling the pdf.
Comment 48 Tristan Miller 2018-10-28 10:10:05 UTC
(In reply to Amnon from comment #47)
> It is 2018, and as far as I can tell this matter was not resolved. 

What version of Okular are you running?
Comment 49 Amnon 2018-10-28 10:34:48 UTC
to @Tristan Miller:

Okular Version 1.3.3
KDE Frameworks 5.44.0
Qt 5.9.5 (built against 5.9.5)
The xcb windowing system
Comment 50 Christoph Feck 2018-10-28 13:40:47 UTC
Maybe this needs to be handled in Kile?
Comment 51 Tristan Miller 2018-12-14 15:46:42 UTC
I can confirm that with Okular 1.3.3 and 1.5.3, the behaviour is arguably correct but unintuitive.  The setting for "Default Zoom" applies only to documents that have never been opened before.  Okular remembers the zoom level for each document and on subsequent opens will restore that zoom level.  This isn't necessarily what the user wants.

It might help if there were an additional setting that could prevent Okular from remembering the zoom level, or that could override it.
Comment 52 David Hurka 2018-12-15 14:19:41 UTC
I would like it if the zoom is not remembered per document, because I usually read datasheets, zoom into one small detail, and close the datasheet. The next time I open it, I always have to zoom out.

Dolphin has this setting:
View:
(*) Remember properties for each folder
( ) Use common properties for all folders

Strangely, Adjust View Properties is not accessible from the Settings menu or dialog, but only in the View menu.

Every ReadOnlyPart and ReadWritePart needs to set zoom and layout at startup. It would be nice if there was a standardized concept how to control this. (I don't know whether there is already such a recommendation, but here is my example.)

In the Settings dialog, in the View section (because I always look there first):
- Default Zoom (Combobox, same for layout)
- Remember zoom... (Combobox, same for layout)
  - For every document
  - For every session
  - Never
- Depending on application, same for page, color,...

As action (with toolbar icon or shortcut, and in View menu)
- Reset Zoom, Layout, (Page is already Ctrl+Home), Color,...
Comment 53 andy 2022-07-21 02:59:39 UTC
(In reply to Tristan Miller from comment #51)
> I can confirm that with Okular 1.3.3 and 1.5.3, the behaviour is arguably
> correct but unintuitive.  The setting for "Default Zoom" applies only to
> documents that have never been opened before.  Okular remembers the zoom
> level for each document and on subsequent opens will restore that zoom
> level.  This isn't necessarily what the user wants.
> 
> It might help if there were an additional setting that could prevent Okular
> from remembering the zoom level, or that could override it.

Wow I came all the way to this bug to figure this out! I was so confused why my Default zoom setting was not being respected. Remembering the setting per-document is counter-intuitive to me and it would much prefer to have a way to turn it off.

Also I'm very amused that the first comment in this thread in 2008 is the opposite of my opinion. I want the default to be zoom=fit-page, NOT zoom=fit-width. Everyone always gonna have a different opinion :)