Detecting the page and text zoom level using JavaScript.
You can use multiple methods in JavaScript to detect the browser zoom level, depending on the browser and the specific requirements of your application. Here are a few approaches to think about.
Pinch zooming vs. text scaling
The user can change the font size of the browser either permanently via the browser’s settings or on-the-fly via the keyboard keys CTRL+/- (Windows, Ubuntu) or Command+/- (Mac) and that refers to the text scaling.
The other type of zoom is the pinch zoom. Pinch zooming zooms the entire page – layout, formatting, and text size – at the same time. Elements keep their size and shape, reducing the need for us to compensate for text scaling. In effect, the browser bears the burden of relative sizing.
Detect text zoom level
This method uses window.outerWidth
and window.innerWidth
property.
const textZoomLevel = (window.outerWidth / window.innerWidth) * 100;
If you want to count also scrollbar size then change window.outerWidth
to window.outerWidth - 10
. The number 10 is an average number for the scrollbar size.
const textZoomLevel = Math.round(((window.outerWidth) / window.innerWidth) * 100) / 100;
Detect pinch zoom level
This method uses modern VisualViewport API. The scale
read-only property of the VisualViewport interface returns the pinch-zoom scaling factor applied to the visual viewport.
const pinchZoomLevel = window.visualViewport.scale;
Workable example
See Detect browser zoom level example on SiteLint lab.
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