Zooming browser for iPad

[pawnslinger]

I just got my iPad2 a couple of days ago, and already I am looking for a new browser (this is my 1st iPad). I had read great things about the Atomic browser, so I purchased it. And it is pretty good. But at least one thing is not as good as Safari. My eyesight isn't the best, so I miss the full zoom capability of Safari.

I tried the free version of the Mercury browser, and it appears to zoom about the same amount as Atomic. So not much point in shelling out for the full version of it.

Do any of the other browsers have the full zoom capabilities of Safari? Seems like a waste to purchase them just to find out how they zoom!

 

[f4780y]

Don't know if it will suit you, but my personal favourite, which was recommended to me by other forum users, is iCab.
Hope that helps...

 

[pawnslinger]

Don't know if it will suit you, but my personal favourite, which was recommended to me by other forum users, is iCab.
Hope that helps...

BEAUTIFUL!! I got iCab and it zooms GREAT!

Thank you!!

 

[f4780y]

You are very welcome.

 

[Mickey330]

I have to stick up for Atomic here. Not only does it do a good zoom, it also allows you to increase the text font ... which causes the text on the web page to reflow. So, you can mke the type/font HUGE!

Plus, I can put the font +/- buttons at the bottom of the browser screen so I don't have to go through the menu to increase the font. Just one press and the font is up or down.

So, yeah, though I like iCab also, Atomic is very good for those of us (ok, me!) who need larger fonts ... and who miss re-flow when using Safari.

Marilyn

 

[pawnslinger]

Actually, I did play around with the fonts in Atomic. They may work great for some folks, but for me, they didn't do the trick. When I made the font big enough for me to read (my eyesight is quite poor, so maybe this is just my problem), the characters overlapped from one line to the next, making some characters obscured. Actually made it harder for me to read. I guess Atomic wasn't allowing enough room between lines... maybe the big fonts needed more space for descenders and stuff like that. With the plain zoom, this is not an issue, because everything gets bigger in proportion. For some it may make it harder to read, since much less is visible on-screen at one time, but for me, it worked miracles (literally) when I tried iCab.

Now I admit Atomic is otherwise pretty good. And if your eyes are better than mine (and most everyone has better eyes than me), then I would recommend Atomic -- I especially like the way that Atomic structures tabs, it is much more like what I am used to on the desktop (I use Firefox on my PC). I will get used to iCab, I am sure, but Atomic looked the cleanest at first glance.

But since I have 20/800 eyesight or worse, it is really necessary that I have a good zoom feature (I use ZoomText on my PC)... which is virtually the only way I can read my PC screen without constantly holding a magnifying glass.

 

[sbp1980]

Actually, I did play around with the fonts in Atomic. They may work great for some folks, but for me, they didn't do the trick. When I made the font big enough for me to read (my eyesight is quite poor, so maybe this is just my problem), the characters overlapped from one line to the next, making some characters obscured. Actually made it harder for me to read. I guess Atomic wasn't allowing enough room between lines... maybe the big fonts needed more space for descenders and stuff like that. With the plain zoom, this is not an issue, because everything gets bigger in proportion. For some it may make it harder to read, since much less is visible on-screen at one time, but for me, it worked miracles (literally) when I tried iCab.

pawnslinger -- I've been looking for a solution to this problem, too, and I don't like the way Atomic reformats text when you enlarge the fonts. Does iCab allow you to pinch to zoom in AND re-wrap the text? If so, that's what I've been looking for. I can't believe this is not a native function of ALL iPad apps. If my Android phone can do it, my beautiful new iPad 2 should be able to do it as well.

 

[pawnslinger]

iCab allows the pinch to zoom, and you can zoom to virtually any amount you wish (I have not purposely tried to test the zoom amount, but it can zoom a very great amount). But the text does not re-flow. Everything is simply magnified in proportion, so re-flow is not necessary. Re-flow would be needed if the text was magnified in-place, while other elements were not magnified. The zoom simply magnifies the lot.