Zoom in and out of a QTextEdit with touch pad gestures?

legitnameyo

I need an OS agnostic way (it works on Linux, Windows and macOS) to, for example, pinch with two fingers on the computer touch pad and then zoom the text in a QTextEdit. I am unable to get the gesture to register. This is what I've got so far in my .cpp

bool ZoomCode::gestureEvent(QGestureEvent *event) {
    qDebug() << "Gesture";
}
void ZoomCode::panTriggered(QPanGesture *e) {
    qDebug() << "Gesture pan";
}
void ZoomCode::pinchTriggered(QPinchGesture *e) {
    qDebug() << "Gesture pinch";
}

it doesn't register any gestures. I've also tried with QNativeGestureEvent and that doesn't work either. I'm running macOS Mojave 10.14 with Qt 5.12.1

mrjj

Hi
I would try the Image Gestures Example
alt text

and see if Qt does register your touch in first place.

legitnameyo

Gestures works perfectly in Image Gestures Example! I tried this as well but it doesn't work either

bool ZoomCode::gestureEvent(QGestureEvent *event)
{
    if (QGesture *swipe = event->gesture(Qt::SwipeGesture)) {qDebug() << "swipe";}
    else if (QGesture *pan = event->gesture(Qt::PanGesture)){qDebug() << "pan";}
    if (QGesture *pinch = event->gesture(Qt::PinchGesture)){qDebug() << "pinch";}
    return true;
}

legitnameyo

After trying

bool ZoomCode::event(QEvent *event)
{
    qDebug() << event->type();
    if (event->type() == QEvent::Gesture) {
        qDebug() << "gesture";
        gestureEvent(static_cast<QGestureEvent*>(event));
    }
}

bool ZoomCode::gestureEvent(QGestureEvent *event)
{
    qDebug() << "ENTERED!";
    if (QGesture *swipe = event->gesture(Qt::SwipeGesture)) {qDebug() << "swipe"; /*exit(-1);*/}
    else if (QGesture *pan = event->gesture(Qt::PanGesture)){qDebug() << "pan"; /*exit(-1);*/}
    if (QGesture *pinch = event->gesture(Qt::PinchGesture)){qDebug() << "pinch"; /*exit(-1);*/}
    return true;
}

I see that the event is QEvent::NativeGesture, I'll try to follow that lead and I'll post my result soon.

legitnameyo

when I do

bool ZoomCode::event(QEvent *event)
{
    if (event->type() == QEvent::NativeGesture) {
     qDebug() << event;
    }
}

I get

QNativeGestureEvent(ZoomNativeGesture, localPos=714.98,31.1211, value=0.0039978)
QNativeGestureEvent(ZoomNativeGesture, localPos=714.98,31.1211, value=0.0139923)
QNativeGestureEvent(RotateNativeGesture, localPos=714.98,31.1211, value=-0.619853)
QNativeGestureEvent(EndNativeGesture, localPos=714.98,31.1211, value=0)

how do I get the value?

legitnameyo

Solved it by doing this

        qDebug() << static_cast<QNativeGestureEvent*>(event)->value();

So now I can get value, position, gesture and so on.

legitnameyo

Not solved, nothing in the program works when I do

bool ZoomCode::event(QEvent *event)
{
    if (event->type() == QEvent::NativeGesture) {
        qreal value = static_cast<QNativeGestureEvent*>(event)->value();

        if(value > 0) {
            textEdit->zoomIn(value);
        } else if(value < 0) {
            textEdit->zoomOut(value);
        }
    }

}

Even when I only have the event(...) function and nothing inside it the program doesn't work. With doesn't work I mean I am not able to press buttons or scroll / edit the QTextEdit...

mrjj

@legitnameyo
Hi when you do not use the event, you should forward it to base so other features can still work

bool ZoomCode::event(QEvent *event)
{
    if (event->type() == QEvent::NativeGesture) {
        qreal value = static_cast<QNativeGestureEvent*>(event)->value();

        if(value > 0) {
            textEdit->zoomIn(value);
        } else if(value < 0) {
            textEdit->zoomOut(value);
        }
    } else
  QWidget::event(event); // forward 

}

legitnameyo

Fixed it by doing as @mrjj said and also adding "return true" inside the if statement (at the end)

Edit: the text does NOT zoom in our out. The zoomIn and zoomOut is called but does not do anything. I read on the docs that "Note: Zooming into HTML documents only works if the font-size is not set to a fixed size." Might that be the reason it won't zoom?

legitnameyo

I had to utilize another method to zoom the text in my QTextEdit since zoomIn and zoomOut does not work for me. I did the following

if(value > 0) {
            QTextCursor cursor = textEdit->textCursor();
            textEdit->selectAll();
            textEdit->setFontPointSize(textEdit->fontPointSize()*(1 + value));
            textEdit->setTextCursor( cursor );
            textEdit->zoomIn(5);
        } else if(value < 0) {
            QTextCursor cursor = textEdit->textCursor();
            textEdit->selectAll();
            textEdit->setFontPointSize(textEdit->fontPointSize()*(1 + value));
            textEdit->setTextCursor( cursor );
            textEdit->zoomOut(-5);
        }

to scale the text.

legitnameyo

Still not solved... Realized now that if I style certain parts of the text with a font size, that font size will get undone and set to the font size of every other character when I do this. The zoom destroys my formatting... I still can't get zoomIn and zoomOut to work no matter what I try and there is very little documentation on it as well.

the Image Gesture Example uses another function to actually scale and not zoom, so looking at that example won't work now either...

Edit: I know the zoomIn and zoomOut functions work because I created a new project, added a QTextEdit and zoomed in by 50x and it worked. I don't set the font of the QTextEdit to anything specific anywhere in my original project code...

legitnameyo

The zoom works when I create new blank QTextEdit's but when I do the following

QFile file("/Users/user/documents/saved_qtextedit_text.txt");

        if (file.open(QFile::ReadOnly | QFile::Text)) {
           textEdit->setHtml(file.readAll());
        }

the zoom stops working

Edit: Even adding the source code of zoom does not work (https://code.woboq.org/qt5/qtbase/src/widgets/widgets/qtextedit.cpp.html#_ZN9QTextEdit7zoomInFEf):

bool ZoomCode::gestureEvent(QNativeGestureEvent *e) {
    float value = static_cast<float>(e->value());

    if(1) { // redundant
        qDebug() << "ZOOMING!"; // gets called so the program gets here
        QFont f = font();
        const float newSize = f.pointSizeF() + value;
        f.setPointSizeF(newSize);
        setFont(f);

       // does not work with textEdit->setFont(f); either

        //textEdit->zoomIn(20);
    }

legitnameyo

The following partially works and I post in the hopes that someone might get an idea that will fix my issue :)

bool ZoomCode::event(QEvent *event)
{
    if (event->type() == QEvent::NativeGesture) {
        return gestureEvent(static_cast<QNativeGestureEvent*>(event));
    }
    return QWidget::event(event);
}

bool ZoomCode::gestureEvent(QNativeGestureEvent *e) {
    float value = e->value();

    textEdit->setFontPointSize(NULL); // zoom does not work without this
    textEdit->selectAll(); // some part of the text has to be selected before the zoom in the text starts to work. It does NOT matter if it is the WHOLE text or just a character in the text, just as long as something gets highlighted. Afterwards, nothing has to be highlighted again for the zoom to work. The zoom works on the whole text, no matter what part has been highlighted.

    if(value >0) {
          zoomIn(value + 5); // + 5 to add some zoom strength
    } else if(value < 0)
        zoomOut(value - 5); // -5 to add some zoom strength
    }
}