Currently, the zoom dropdown in draw.io only offers zoom levels starting from 10%, and as you mentioned, custom percentages (such as 1–5%) require using Ctrl+0 and manually entering the value. We understand that for users working with very large diagrams, frequently needing to zoom out to very small percentages (like 1–5%) can be tedious using the current method.
Your suggestion to include 1%–5% in the preset zoom levels makes sense for better usability with large diagrams.
We’ll review this internally as a possible improvement for a future release.
Ctrl+Mouse Wheel can help scroll through zoom levels quickly, but it won’t go below 10% unless you use the custom entry.
Keyboard shortcuts: After hitting Ctrl+0, you can type “2” (for 2%) and press Enter to speed things up, but it’s still manual.
If you’re working with extremely large diagrams, you may find the "Fit" or "Fit to Width" options useful for a quick overview, though these don’t set an exact zoom percentage.
Summary:
We agree that adding lower preset zoom levels (1–5%) to the zoom dropdown would improve the workflow for users with large diagrams. We’ve added this as a feature request for consideration.