Magnifixer is a freeware screen magnification tool with many zoom levels, a color picker and more

Ashwin
Dec 4, 2020
Updated • Dec 15, 2020
Software, Windows software
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Windows 10 comes with a built-in accessibility tool called Magnifier which can help people read text that's too small, or view the pixel area. The problem is the tool is pretty basic, and all it does is zoom in the entire screen making it difficult to navigate.

Magnifixer is a freeware screen magnification tool with many zoom levels, a color picker and more

This makes it somewhat unusable. Fortunately there are better alternatives readily available.

Magnifixer is a freeware screen magnification tool which also supports color identification; the program isn't portable.

Run it and you'll see a tray icon where it sits when you don't need it. Click once on the icon to bring up the interface. Magnifixer displays a small magnification window which you can drag to any location on the screen. The GUI can be resized per your requirements. Move it over text that is too small to read, and the magnified version will make it appear larger.

Magnifixer context menu

Right-click on the tray icon or anywhere in the Magnifixer window to access its context menu. Toggle the "Stay on Top" mode, this is handy if you want to type something, you can have the magnifier over your word processor and work without straining your eyes.

There are a few options on the toolbar, the first of which is the magnification or zoom level, you can crank it up to 40x. That may sound like too much for normal users, but remember this tool is meant for graphic designers and also aiding visually impaired users. Personally, I liked the default 2x setting. Sadly, I couldn't get the program's "follow caret" tool to work.

Magnifixer zoom levels

Magnifixer also comes with a color picker utility. This can be useful for developers, graphic designers. To use it, mouse over the color you want to select, and the program will display the RGB color codes in a small panel at the bottom of its window. You can right-click on it to copy the value to the clipboard.  If you want HTML Color codes instead, head to the context menu > Color display to switch the mode. On the other hand, if you don't need the color identifier at all, toggle the "Show Panel" option from the program's menu. The caveat is that this option removes the entire toolbar. The program also displays the cursor's pixel position.

Magnifixer example

The right-click menu in Magnifixer has some other useful options such as smoothen display which makes text more legible. The invert image option changes the colors that are displayed in the window. If you find the interface blocking content, you can make it transparent.

Don't want to keep moving the program's window? Lock it in place by enabling the fixed position option. Magnifier can capture a screenshot of the content displayed in its window, and save it to the clipboard. Resize the window with a single-click using the Reset option in the menu, this reverts the GUI to the default size of 320 x 480 pixels. To close the application, right-click on the tray icon and select exit.

Having a small magnifier window like the one in Magnifixer is definitely more useful than Windows' accessibility option.

Magnifixer

For Windows

Summary
Author Rating
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1 based on 2 votes
Software Name
Magnifixer
Operating System
Windows
Software Category
Accessibility
Price
Free
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Tutorials & Tips


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Comments

  1. Tom Watson said on July 6, 2022 at 9:20 pm
    Reply

    This app is the best I have seen on win 10 for magnify. I use xzoom on linux. What would make it perfect would be if you could lock the area to be magnified so it would not follow the mouse. It would remaim magnifying a set area of the screen. With xzooim I run 3 instances looking at three different area of a firefox tab. In linux Xwindow manager (fvwm2) I can unstick apps so they switch to virtual desks and my three xzoons move as I swicth between 5 virtual desks each with it own instance of firefox.

    So it wold also be nice if win 10 could do with virtual desks some time this century what I was doing with linux in 1994. But this is a excellent app MEGA THANKS Ashwin !

  2. Jim Vanderbilt said on December 7, 2020 at 4:49 pm
    Reply

    “right-click on it to copy the value to the clipboard”
    Not that easy, since the value is gone with the mouse move.
    Needed intermediate step: Fix location (Ctrl-F), which does freeze the magnified area and not the windows position.
    Another Ctrl-F changes things back to normal, so all-in-all the color-picker is somewhat complicated to use.
    Otherwise great tool, it replaced Windows Magnifier on my PC immediately, THANKS Ashwin !

  3. Cigologic said on December 5, 2020 at 5:38 am
    Reply

    > From post: “the program isn’t portable”

    The portable build from the developer is no-install & portable. The program writes its settings in “Magnifixer.ini” within its working folder:
    https://www.blacksunsoftware.com/downloads/MagnifixerPortable.zip

    Magnifixer appears to be one of the best (if not the best) screen magnifiers around. It even shows a changing display in real-time (eg. video/ animated image, or the seconds movement of a clock).

    The follow-caret (text cursor) function does need some fixing though. It doesn’t work everywhere, & when it works, most of the target area is shown outside of Magnifixer’s window.

  4. chesscanoe said on December 4, 2020 at 6:32 pm
    Reply

    I use Magnify frequently. Magnify is much more than Ashwin indicates in my opinion.

    Magnifier Keyboard Shortcuts
    Turn Magnifier on: Win + Plus
    Turn Magnifier off: Win + Esc
    Open Magnifier settings: Win + Ctrl + M
    Zoom in: Win + Plus
    Zoom out: Win + Minus
    Zoom with mouse: Win + Ctrl + Mouse Scroll Wheel
    Pan left: Ctrl + Alt + Left
    Pan right: Ctrl + Alt + Right
    Pan up: Ctrl + Alt + Up
    Pan down: Ctrl + Alt + Down
    Invert colors: Ctrl + Alt + I
    Cycle through views: Ctrl + Alt + M
    Full screen view mode: Ctrl + Alt + F
    Lens view mode: Ctrl + Alt + L
    Docked view mode: Ctrl + Alt + D
    Toggle lens resize: Ctrl + Alt + R
    Decrease lens width: Shift + Alt + Left
    Increase lens width: Shift + Alt + Right
    Increase lends height: Shift + Alt + Up
    Decrease lens height: Shift + Alt + Down
    Preview full screen: Ctrl + Alt + Space

    1. chesscanoe said on December 5, 2020 at 7:01 pm
      Reply

      I incorrectly said ‘Magnify’ twice in my post. I was talking about Microsoft Windows 10 ‘Magnifier’ which is correctly indicated above the shortcut list, as well as in Ashwin’ article.
      Magnifier does show a live, not static view.

    2. Cigologic said on December 5, 2020 at 6:09 am
      Reply

      @ chesscanoe — By “Magnify”/”Magnifier”, might you be referring to another program ? The hotkeys you mentioned appear to come from Moo0 Magnifier.

      None of them work in Blacksun Software’s Magnifixer v10.x (2020) or the older v6.x (2017-2018) that I have used. For instance …

      > Turn Magnifier on: Win + Plus | Turn Magnifier off: Win + Esc
      🢂 [Magnifixer] Enable/Disable : CTRL-E

      > Zoom in: Win + Plus | Zoom out: Win + Minus | Zoom with mouse: Win + Ctrl + Mouse Scroll Wheel
      🢂 [Magnifixer] Arrow Keys Up/Down, or Mouse Scroll Wheel

      > Invert colors: Ctrl + Alt + I
      🢂 [Magnifixer] Invert Image (Colour): CTRL-I

      Other differences …

      Moo0 Magnifier’s zoom ratio is a paltry 125-800 % (1.25-8x), whilst Blacksun’s Magnifixer offers 200-4000 % (2-40x) zoom. Magnifixer also indicates RGB/HTML colour codes.

      To me, a huge winning point for Magnifixer is its ability to magnify a dynamically-changing display (eg. clock/stopwatch, video) in real-time. I haven’t seen it in other screen magnifiers. Moo0 Magnifier merely shows a static/freeze-frame display.

      Magnifixer is available in native portable & installer builds, while Moo0 Magnifier only comes in installer build (& writes its settings to the registry at: “HKCU\Software\Moo0\Moo0 Magnifier”).

  5. jfjb said on December 4, 2020 at 5:58 pm
    Reply
  6. Bryan said on December 4, 2020 at 5:02 pm
    Reply

    Would be much better if it was portable.

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