The View

The View

Fred's Fractal Factory calculates Mandelbrot Escape Count values for a square region of the Mandelbrot set. Fred's Fractal Viewer allows you to zoom in on rectangular subregions of the square region calculated by the Factory. The first frame calculated by the Factory which is at zoom level 0 is 1000 pixels wide and 1000 pixels high. If you open an .efractal file in the Viewer, it will open up at the default locale set by the user previously. This locale generally specifies some zoom level deep in the interior of the calculated fractal. If you zoom out continuously until you can zoom out no further, you will see the 1000x1000 pixel frame that was calculated first for this .efractal by the Factory.

As you mouse over the Viewer, you will see the cursor change between arrow and maginfying glass cursors. Arrows are near the edge of the window and magnifying glasses are over the interior of the window.

Press the left mouse button when the cursor is an arrow and the view will pan continuously in the direction of the arrow as long as the mouse is held down. Press the right mouse button when the cursor is an arrow and the view will pan continuously in the opposite direction of the arrow as long as the mouse is held down.

Press the left mouse button when the cursor is a magnifier and the view will zoom in continuously as long as the mouse is held down. Press the right mouse button when the cursor is a magnifier and the view will zoom out continuously as long as the mouse is held down. While zooming, the spot under the mouse when it was first depressed will remain stationary during continuous zoom.

The arrow keys also support continuous panning. The plus key causes the view to zoom in continuously about the center of the window while it is pressed. The minus key causes the view to zoom out continuously about the center of the window while it is pressed.

If your computer has a touch screen, you can pan by dragging with your finger. You can also zoom in and out with the pinch zoom gesture.