Mac OS X 10.5 ’s Quick Look is a nifty way to get a prevue of nearly any written document without unfold the app that make that papers . Just foreground the papers and crusade the Space Bar . Quick Look is peculiarly utilitarian for PDFs and images . As you ’re probably mindful , you could page through PDFs in Quick Look modality by using your scroll rack ( or two - finger scrolling on a trackpad ) . What you may not have known , however , is that both PDFs and effigy file are can be zoomed within the Quick Look windowpane .

To zoom along in on either a PDF or an image , you need to make indisputable the Quick Look windowpane has focalize , so sink in inside it first . To whizz PDFs , press Command - Equals ( =) ( or if it ’s easier to think of it this way , Command - Plus [ + ] , render you do n’t hit the shift tonality ) . To soar out , press Command - Minus ( - ) . The range of zoom ply for PDFs is unfeignedly amazing — and to some point , completely useless . For object lesson , Quick Look a PDF , and then press and hold the soar out key — you may make the entire document appear no larger than a exclusive pixel . go the other instruction , a simple period can take the screen . I really ca n’t imagine of a pragmatic need for this amount of rapid growth , but it is telling . ( I ’m not aware , however , of any quick way to return to 100 - percent zoom without closing and reopening the Quick Look window . )

Images , confusingly , employ a different method acting of zooming — and the range of rapid growth is n’t anywhere near that of a PDF ( which make sense , as PDFs are scalable without distortion , while images are not ) . To zoom in on an image ( again , make certain the Quick Look window has focus by click inside it first ) , hold down selection and snap on the paradigm . To zoom out , press Shift - choice and suction stop .

With both PDFs and images , once zoomed in , you may move the persona around by using your curlicue wheel , trackpad scrolling , or the good erstwhile fashioned puff thumb in the scroll bar .

The more I practice Quick Look , the more I like it — especially when it ’s full of useful minuscule features such as these .