When using the Zoom function of Compiz, the zoomed-in pixels are anti-aliased (smoothed), which I guess is helpful for accessibility, however I want to actually see an accurate representation of the pixels (for graphic design purposes). Is there a way to disable the anti-alias feature?
2 Answers
Which zoom plugin are you using?
Only 1 of them has options for linear filtering, so if you are using the Zoom Desktop plugin, disable Linear filter. You'll need CCSM for this sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager
and possibly sudo apt-get install compiz-plugins-extra
Also make sure Bicubic filter is not enabled
Note
From this confirmed bug-report:
This answer currently does not apply to 12.04 or later.
In 12.04 up to at least 15.10, the only way to disable anti-aliasing in the zoom feature is to disable it altogether at the OpenGL level:
OpenGL > General > Texture Filter = Fast
This has the drawback of disabling anti-aliasing for all other scaled or 3D features, such as the 3D cubes or the Scale plugin (Super+S). Whether this is relevant to you depends on which plugins you use.
As for me, I care more about getting an accurate representation of the individual pixels when I zoom, than to have smooth thumbnails in the Scale view, so I'm glad I could find the global OpenGL option.
In some future release the Enhanced Zoom plugin will hopefully contain a specific Linear Filter option in the Animation tab, as can be seen in the project wiki: http://wiki.compiz.org/Plugins/Ezoom