Zoom / scroll behaviour is inconsistent with other Gnome programs

[Sam Bristow]

Binary package hint: eog

In other applications on the Ubuntu/Gnome desktop the scrollwheel allows the user to move around the document / image. Ctrl + scroll wheel is used when the user wishes to zoom the document / image. In EOG the behaviour is the exact opposite.

==Other applications with scrollwheel = scroll, scrollwheel + ctrl = zoom:==
OpenOffice.org / Libre Office
Nautilus
Chromium
Inkscape
evince
+ others

==========================================================
Ubuntu 10.04 + others

Action:
Pressed ctrl + scrolled with the scrollwheel

Expected Behaviour:
The image would zoom in

Actual Behaviour:
Nothing, as the image was zoomed out to fit in the window
OR (if the image was already zoomed in)
The image scrolled up and down

[Marcel Stimberg (marcelstimberg)]

There is actually a setting for that but it is not exposed in the preferences window - I think adding this preference (I'm not sure about changing the default) would be useful. Maybe a papercut (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PaperCut)?

To change the setting open the gconf-editor (Alt+F2: gconf-editor) and navigate to apps->eog->view. Then uncheck the scroll_wheel_zoom checkbox.

[Robert Roth (evfool)]

Added OneHundredPapercuts as affected projects, as this seems to be a valid papercut, a small inconsistency issue, that is easy to fix, by changing one preference.

[Sam Bristow (sam-bristow)]

I found a few of the old bug reports that explain why the behaviour is the way it is by default.

The idea was that users usually only had a vertical scrollwheel so that should be used for zoom and the user could drag the image around with the mouse.

Currently dragging doesn't work so that leaves a broken UX at the moment with current behaviour. Also, a number of mice and touchpads have scrolling in both X and Y directions (both my machines do) which changes the arguments a wee bit.

The gconf setting Marcel noted works and eog behaves as expected when it is set.

Various bug-reports and resolutions for reference:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=341935
http://<email address hidden>/msg117176.html
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eog/+bug/143971

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

The current behaviour violate the Gnome HIG (http://library.gnome.org/devel/hig-book/2.32/input-mouse.html.en, serach for 'zoom'). The relevant text is quoted here for convenience:

"Ctrl+scrollwheel-up should zoom into the window or control under the mouse pointer, and Ctrl+scrollwheel-down should zoom out."

[Chris Wilson (notgary-deactivatedaccount)]

Comment from upstream:

"Yes, that's right. We violate the HIG on purpose here, since the feedback we received when we switched behaviour the last time was mostly negative and we don't have plans to enforce the HIG against the will of the users. (see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=479884)

Then there's still the GConf/GSettings key to switch to modes that is also mentioned in the Launchpad report if you really want to follow HIG guidelines."

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

upstream says it's not a bug

"Yes, that's right. We violate the HIG on purpose here, since the feedback we
received when we switched behaviour the last time was mostly negative and we
don't have plans to enforce the HIG against the will of the users. (see bug
479884)"

[Vish (vish)]

Closing papercut too, as per previous comment...

[Kristian Benoit (kristian-benoit)]

Eog now uses dconf instead of gconf so if one want to set the value it false so that the application integrates better in gnome, you must

$ sudo apt-get install dconf-tools
$ dconf-editor

Go to org/gnome/eog/view and uncheck scroll-wheel-zoom