5 Simple Ways to Zoom Out on Mac

Have you ever thought that your Mac screen is too small or too large? Or maybe you want to go through some documents or images with tiny texts, and you need to enlarge them further? Yes, we are talking about how to zoom out on Mac and how to zoom in. You don't have to be visually impaired to want to use your system in a zoomed-in state. There are a few other reasons to want to zoom in and out on your Mac. So how do I zoom out on Mac?

How to Zoom Out on Mac (with Steps)

There is more than one method to zoom in and out on your Mac. You may have come across one of these methods by accident, but you will get to see in the exposition five different methods with the proper steps on how to zoom in and out on Mac. Below are the five methods.

Method 1. How to Zoom Out on Mac by Use of Keyboard Shortcuts

This method only affects the current window you are running. If you have an application opened in the background, and you opened your browser and then zoomed out/in on your browser window, all background applications will still be in the default screen size.

Use these shortcuts to zoom out on Mac and zoom in on Mac.

'Shift–Command–Minus sign (-)' for zoom out

'Shift–Command–Plus sign (+)' for zoom in

Method 2. How to Zoom Out on Mac Using Trackpad

Arguably the easiest method to zoom out on Mac. It doesn't require any additional commands. The prerequisite is that your Mac must have a trackpad. To zoom out on Mac with your trackpad, pinch and bring your fingers together. To zoom in on Mac, you place two fingers on your trackpad and move them in opposite directions to zoom out.

Method 3. Zoom in and out the Entire Screen with Keyboard Shortcuts

This method affects the whole screen, not just an app or a page like the previous method. To access this option, you need to adjust some of your settings. Go to System Preferences, choose "Accessibility," then click on "Zoom." The first option will be "Use keyboard shortcuts to zoom" and check it, and you'll be able to use the commands to zoom out on Mac

You will see the listed shortcuts, the first of which is the command to toggle the option on/off. Note that this will affect the casual zoom out on Mac in method 1, because if you don't toggle on, you'll only be zooming one window instead of the entire screen, and if you don't toggle off, you will zoom the whole screen instead of one window

The commands are:

'Option-Command-8' to toggle on and off the entire screen zoom option

'Option–Command–Plus sign (+)' to zoom in the entire screen on Mac

'Option–Command–Minus sign (-)' to zoom out the entire screen on Mac

Method 4. How to Zoom Out on Mac by Scrolling

Under System Preferences > Accessibility > Zoom, the second entire screen zoom option uses scrolling gestures. This method allows you to zoom out on Mac by pressing and holding a designated key and scrolling your mouse/trackpad. Before that, you set which keys you'll keep pressed for your scrolling to zoom in/out to work. Once you've chosen the key and applied changes, keep the set key pressed, scroll up for zoom in, and scroll down for zoom out on Mac.

Method 5. Enabling Hover Text to Zoom

For Macs that have the latest updates, there is an additional option under the Zoom options, and that is the hover text to zoom option. You may also click here to view how to use hover text on Mac.

Once the options have been checked, you need to press and hold on to the 'command' key and keep your cursor hovering on the area you want to zoom.

If you are a beginner Mac user, you may also be interested in the guide How to Copy and Paste on Mac.

Conclusion

There are at least five different methods for you to zoom out on Mac and zoom in on Mac with built-in settings, and each one of the methods becomes useful for different purposes. It's better to learn all and apply them when the need arises.