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I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit with Cinnamon 1.4 and I want a full screen magnifier for video presentations, something that I can zoom in and out during the recording. (I use a Cinnamon applet for recording the screen.) The magnifier that comes with accessibility applet of Cinnamon is not very good.

I used to use Enhanced Zoom Desktop feature in older versions of Ubuntu. So I installed CompizConfig Settings Manager and enabled the feature but nothing happens when I try the combination I set.

Is there a way to get it working? Or do you know any other magnifier application?

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2 Answers

Cinnamon is based on Gnome Shell, which uses Mutter. It doesn't use Compiz, so the settings you are changing will have no effect here. They will only apply when you use Unity.

To enable zooming in Cinnamon, open System Settings, and choose the Universal Access panel. There is a switch to turn the feature on, and you can set additional options there. For example, the Screen part option lets you split the screen in half so one half shows everything zoomed out and the other half has everything zoomed in (centred around your mouse pointer). This might be useful if you are looking for something more like a magnifier.

If there are shortcuts set for activating zoom and changing the zoom level, they will be listed beside the switch to turn Zoom on and off. If these shortcuts are not set, open the Keyboard settings panel, and look for Universal Access in the Shortcuts tab. You can set those shortcuts as you please. Unfortunately it is not possible to zoom in or out with the mouse wheel, but hopefully this will do the trick.

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Thanks for the explanation but there is no zoom feature in Universal Access panel. Do I need to install something? Here's a screenshot: dl.dropbox.com/u/37485576/Accessibility.png –  mAt Jul 29 '12 at 9:17
The Universal Access you need is not the one you see under the System group. Rather, it is under the Hardware group, in Keyboard -> Shortcuts -> Universal Access (in the left-side panel) –  Peter.O Oct 23 '12 at 16:03
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Cinnamon doesn't normally use Compiz and hence doesn't support any Compiz plugins. The Cinnamon effects are deliberately designed to look like Compiz' effects, but they're completely different things. I don't know if Cinnamon has anything identical to the effect you want.

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