[Tools] Four nice screen magnifiers and a screen saver

If, like me, you sometimes set your screen resolution so high that you can't quite read some of the smallest print and have a problem when you really need to read it accurately.  In the real world, you'd go find a magnifying glass.  In BitWorld, you need a screen magnifier. 

Three utilities upon which I have come to depend are Virtual Magnifying Glass,  Dragnifier, and Screen Loupe 2000.   As you may deduce from its URL, Virtual Magnifying Glass is both free and Open Source.   Dragnifier is free (but not Open Source).  Screen Loupe 2000 is low-cost shareware.  Screen Loupe 2000 was one of the first decent screen magnifiers I encountered and it was worth the shareware cost then (with Virtual Magnifying Glass and Dragnifier around now, though, I'm not too sure I would be quite so quick to pay for it).  If you want to play with some .NET source code for a simple screen magnifier, you might like my fourth recommendation, Magnifier.NET.

Many other screen magnifiers are available.  In fact. from your [Start] menu, check out [Programs|Accessories|Accessibility|Magnify] and you may discover you have the free Microsoft Magnify that is distributed in Windows XP (and some other versions of Windows).  Microsoft Magnify tells you straight out, in a dialog box, that  it doesn't quite cut it.  If you want to dig deeper for other screen magnifiers, just type "screen magnifier" into Google (or be lazy and use this link).

This article is not a comprehensive exposition about screen magnifiers; it's really just a way to say "Thank you!" for four of the ones I have personally found most useful. 

If you like magnifying effects, though, I just can't help but recommend one of my absolute favorite screen savers, Remco de Korte's Bubbloids!  Endlessly fascinating!


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