Microsoft Magnifier Download
Albert Phelps
The API supports two types of magnifiers, the full-screen magnifier and the magnifier control. The full-screen magnifier magnifies the content of the entire screen, while the magnifier control magnifies the content of a particular area of the screen and displays the content in a window. For both magnifiers, images and text are magnified, and both enable you to control the amount of magnification. You can also apply color effects to the magnified screen content, making it easier to see for people who have color deficiencies or need colors that have more or less contrast.
Both the full-screen magnifier and the magnifier control apply a scale transformation to magnify screen content. The amount of magnification applied by the scale transformation is called the magnification factor. It is expressed as a floating-point value where 1.0 corresponds to no magnification, and larger values result in a corresponding amount of magnification. For example, a value of 1.5 makes the screen content 50 percent larger. A magnification factor less than 1.0 is not valid.
The full-screen magnifier applies the scale transformation and color transformation to the entire screen. The magnifier control, on the other hand, copies an area of the screen, called the source rectangle, to an off-screen bitmap. Next, the control applies the scale transformation and the color transformation, if any, to the off-screen bitmap. Finally, the control displays the scaled and color-transformed bitmap in the magnifier control window.
By default, the magnifier control magnifies all windows in the specified source rectangle. However, by providing a filter list of window handles, you can control which windows are included in the magnified content, and which are not. For more information, see Selective Magnification.
The MagShowSystemCursor function enables you to show or hide the system cursor. If you show the system cursor when the full-screen magnifier is active, the system cursor is always magnified along with the rest of the screen content. If you hide the system cursor when the full-screen magnifier is active, the system cursor is not visible at all.
With the magnifier control, the MagShowSystemCursor function shows or hides the unmagnified system cursor, but has no effect on the magnified system cursor. The visibility of the magnified system cursor depends on whether the magnifier control has the MS_SHOWMAGNIFIEDCURSOR style. If it has this style, the magnifier control displays the magnified system cursor, along with the magnified screen content, whenever the system cursor enters the source rectangle.
Before you can call any other magnifier API functions, you must create and initialize the magnifier run-time objects by calling the MagInitialize function. Similarly, after you finish using the magnifier API, call the MagUninitialize function to destroy the magnifier run-time objects and free the associated system resources.
To use the full-screen magnifier, call the MagSetFullscreenTransform function. The magLevel parameter specifies the magnification factor. The xOffset and yOffset parameters specify how the magnified screen content is positioned relative to the screen.
The magnifier control magnifies the content of a particular area of the screen and displays the content in a window. This section describes how to use the magnifier control. It contains the following parts:
The magnifier control must be hosted in a window created with the WS_EX_LAYERED extended style. After creating the host window, call SetLayeredWindowAttributes to set the opacity of the host window. The host window is typically set to full opacity to prevent the underlying screen content from showing though. The following example shows how to set the host window to full opacity:
The window class of the magnifier control window must be WC_MAGNIFIER. If you apply the MS_SHOWMAGNIFIEDCURSOR style, the magnifier control includes the system cursor in the magnified screen contents, and the cursor is magnified along with the screen contents.
The following example function calculates the position and dimensions of the source rectangle (based on the mouse position and the dimensions of the magnifier window divided by the magnification factor) and sets the source rectangle accordingly. The function also centers the client area of the host window at the mouse position. This function would be called at intervals to update the magnification window.
A magnifier control that has the MS_INVERTCOLORS style applies a built-in color transformation matrix that inverts the colors of the magnified screen content. The following illustration shows screen content in a magnifier control that has the MS_INVERTCOLORS style.
Magnifier, formerly Microsoft Magnifier,[1][2][3] is a screen magnifier app intended for visually impaired people to use when running Microsoft Windows. When it is running, it creates a bar at the top of the screen that greatly magnifies where the mouse is. Magnifier was first included as a sample in the Active Accessibility SDK/RDK for Windows 95 and later made a standard Windows utility starting with Windows 98. Prior to Windows Vista, Magnifier could be used to magnify the screen up to 9 times its normal size. Windows Vista and later allow up to 16 magnification.
However, the full screen feature has also been criticized due to its incompatibility with the high contrast color schemes found in the Windows 7 beta release.[7] This issue remains in the final Windows 7 release. Besides this, when the magnifier zooms, the text will appear blurry or pixelated because it is not being directly rendered at the larger size; instead, the smaller sized rendering is being enlarged as a raster image. ClearType sub-pixel anti-aliasing is also magnified as a result of this, so if ClearType is active, the magnified text may appear to have unexpected colors at the edges of non-horizontal lines. Some third party magnification software compensates for this effect by applying scaling filters to the enlarged image.
The magnifier also features a lens mode similar to that found in the existing version[which?] of the software. Lens mode is improved, however, as now the magnifying window will follow the cursor around the screen rather than remain in a fixed position. Finally the magnifier is much easier to access by using the Windows key and +/- to control the zoom level without the need to start the application first.[8] Pressing the Win+Esc combination will exit the magnifier.
After Magnifier is launched, a small window appears in the center of the screen that displays some basic options within Magnifier, such as controls that increase and decrease the viewable area and modify the available views. Unless one of these options is accessed within three seconds, the basic options window will be automatically replaced by an image of a small, partially transparent magnifying glass. Minimizing the magnifier removes this image from view while preserving the level of magnification and any other changes that you've made. The advantage to the partially transparent magnifying glass is that it allows immediate access to the basic options within Magnifier using the mouse. For those of you who prefer mouse commands over shortcut keys, this can be convenient. Visit the Magnifier keyboard shortcuts webpage for a list of shortcut commands.
For users that want to have an inverted display for their Magnifier view, they can either click the checkbox within Magnifier settings for invert colors (which is above the option to change magnifier view), or use the keyboard shortcut ctrl + alt + I. Personally, I prefer to use the High Contrast mode in Windows so that my entire screen is inverted.
The Library has a video magnifier (CCTV) for magnifying print materials. The PulseData SmartView CCTV provides full-color magnification as well as multiple foregrounds and background combinations. The video magnifier is in a group study room (#266) which can be checked out by users who have registered with the Center for Students with Disabilities.
Since Windows 95 Microsoft have been actively developingaccessibility in their operating systems as wel as in many popularMicrosoft software packages such as MS Office. Additionally,Microsoft have set many accessibility standards like Microsoftactive accessibility (MSAA) and speech application programminginterface (SAPI). As a result of Microsoft's active role inaccessibility, current Windows operating systems contain basicaccessibility aids such as a magnifier (found inlater versions of95 as well as in 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 and XP) and a screen reader(Windows 2000 and XP only). But how well do these aids work in reallife, as even Microsoft admit that they are pretty basic and won'tbe for everyone. You'll soon find out.
Microsoft Magnifier is a basic magnification tool which showsthe magnified area in a resizable window. Unlike Close View or Zoom(bundled with MacOS), MS Magnifier lacks full screen magnificationcompletely and also suffers from common problems of windowedmagnification. One such problem is the inability to magnify thearea under the magnifier itself. MacOS X's Voice Over magnificationneatly side-steps the issue by magnifying the control in-place likean auto-lens mode in Dolphin Supernova would. Magnifier also doesnot smooth the fonts in any way. OS X's Zoom blurs the image tomake it smoother but professional magnifiers actually re-render thefonts larger so the more you zoom in the greater theresolution.
MS Magnifier integrates nicely in the Windows environment as itcan be docked at any side of the screen where it signals to otherprograms that it needs that and that amount of screen space. As aresult, it is rare that a dialog overlaps with the magnifier. Itcan sometimes happn with low resolutions, large dialogs or hugemenus. One fix would be to tell the OS to cut the menus shorter andmake them scroll earlier. On the bright side, the desktop icons areautomatically moved upwards and arranged better when you activatemagnifier which is pretty nifty. Lastly Magnifier has an option toautomatically minimize the settings dialog when the program isstarted. And one of the strongest points of MS Magnifier is that ittakes very little CPU time as it doesn't update the magnificationat idle moments such as if no keyboard or mouse data isreceived)
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