asymptotepdf
A friend tells me that he can zoom and pan in PDFs generated by Asymptote, very much like the HTML output when displayed in a browser. He manages to do that in a well-known proprietary (free for use) PDF reader, also known for its many security issues. I would prefer not to install that software neither on Linux or Windows.
What other PDF readers (on Linux or Windows) allow for panning and zooming? What is that feature called?
The first document has no scalable fonts, it uses the default ComputerModern. A
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{lmodern}
will help. And for the second document it is always a problem with the viewer and the magnification.
The following code (for use with pdfLaTeX) defines the command \zoombox[box line width]{contents}. It creates a click-to-zoom box for fitting the second argument 'contents' into the AdobeReader window. A dotted line is drawn around the box if the optional 'box line width' is >0.
EDIT: The code has been optimized for presentation PDFs (such as beamer generated ones) looked at in full screen mode. The zoom-to box is now centred on the screen when clicked, as requested by @alfC.
\documentclass{beamer}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{mwe}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
%
% \zoombox[box line width]{contents}
%
% optimized version for beamer: in full screen, zoom boxes are centred
% in the viewer; useable with any documenclass
%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\makeatletter
\newsavebox\zb@x
\newcounter{z@@m}
\usepackage{calc}
\newdimen\B@r\newdimen\P@r
\newdimen\@zw\newdimen\@zh\newdimen\@zd
\newcommand{\zoombox}[2][0]{%
\leavevmode%
\sbox\zb@x{#2}%
\setlength\B@r{1pt*\ratio{\wd\zb@x}{\ht\zb@x+\dp\zb@x}}%
\setlength\P@r{1pt*\ratio{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}%
\ifdim\B@r>\P@r\relax%
\setlength\@zw{\wd\zb@x}\setlength\@zh{\@zw*\ratio{\paperheight}{\paperwidth}}%
\setlength\@zd{(\@zh-\ht\zb@x-\dp\zb@x)*\real{0.5}+\dp\zb@x}%
\setlength\@zh{\@zh-\@zd}%
\else%
\setlength\@zh{\ht\zb@x+\dp\zb@x}%
\setlength\@zw{\@zh*\ratio{\paperwidth}{\paperheight}}%
\setlength\@zh{\ht\zb@x}\setlength\@zd{\dp\zb@x}%
\fi%
\makebox[0pt][l]{\makebox[\wd\zb@x][c]{\makebox[\@zw][l]{%
\pdfdest name {zbfs\thez@@m} fitr
width \@zw\space
height \@zh\space
depth \@zd\space
}}}%
\pdfdest name {zb\thez@@m} fitr
width \wd\zb@x\space
height \ht\zb@x\space
depth \dp\zb@x\space
\immediate\pdfannot
width \wd\zb@x\space
height \ht\zb@x\space
depth \dp\zb@x\space
{%
/Subtype/Link/H/N
/Border [0 0 #1 [1 2]]
/A <<
/S/JavaScript
/JS (
if(typeof(zoomed)=='undefined'||!zoomed){
var lastView=this.viewState;
if(app.fs.isFullScreen) this.gotoNamedDest('zbfs\thez@@m');
else this.gotoNamedDest('zb\thez@@m');
zoomed=true;
}else{
this.viewState=lastView;
zoomed=false;
}
)
>>
}%
\usebox{\zb@x}%
\stepcounter{z@@m}%
}
\makeatother
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{document}
\begin{frame}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-a}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-b}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-c}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[height=1cm]{example-image-golden}}
\zoombox{\includegraphics[width=1cm]{example-image-golden-upright}}
\end{frame}
\end{document}
The second example defines pairs of commands for marking opposing corners (lower left & upper right .OR. upper left & lower right) of a zoom box, and commands for marking text sequences/entire paragraphs.
\documentclass{article}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\makeatletter
\InputIfFileExists{\jobname.zom}{}{}
\newwrite\zoomdat
\immediate\openout\zoomdat=\jobname.zom
\newcommand{\startzoombox}[2][0]{%
\leavevmode%
\pdfsavepos%
\protected@write\zoomdat{}{%
\string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#2.ulx\string\endcsname{%
\noexpand\number\pdflastxpos}%
\string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#2.uly\string\endcsname{%
\noexpand\number\pdflastypos}%
}%
\ifcsname zb#2.ulx\endcsname\ifcsname zb#2.lrx\endcsname%
\edef\zoomwd{\dimexpr \csname zb#2.lrx\endcsname sp- \csname zb#2.ulx\endcsname sp\relax}%
\edef\zoomdp{\dimexpr \csname zb#2.uly\endcsname sp- \csname zb#2.lry\endcsname sp\relax}%
\pdfdest name {zb#2.in} fitr
width \zoomwd
height 0pt
depth \zoomdp
\immediate\pdfannot
width \zoomwd
height 0pt
depth \zoomdp
{%
/Subtype/Link/H/N
/Border [0 0 1 [1 2]]
/A <<
/S/JavaScript
/JS (
if(typeof(zoomed)=='undefined'||!zoomed){
var lastView=this.viewState;
zoomed=true;
this.gotoNamedDest('zb#2.in');
}else{
this.viewState=lastView;
zoomed=false;
}
)
>>
}%
\fi\fi%
}
\def\stopzoombox#1{%\leavevmode%
\leavevmode%
\pdfsavepos%
\protected@write\zoomdat{}{%
\string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#1.lrx\string\endcsname{%
\noexpand\number\pdflastxpos}%
\string\expandafter\string\def\string\csname\space zb#1.lry\string\endcsname{%
\noexpand\number\pdflastypos}%
}%
}
\def\startzoom{%
\stepcounter{@zb@id}%
\xdef\@lblStack{\the@zb@id.\@lblStack}%
\@ifstar\@startzoomstar\@startzoom%
}
\newcommand{\@startzoom}[1][0]{%
\raisebox{\baselineskip}[0pt][0pt]{\startzoombox[#1]{.\the@zb@id}}%
}
\newcommand{\@startzoomstar}[1][0]{%
\makebox[0pt][r]{\raisebox{\baselineskip}[0pt][0pt]{\startzoombox[#1]{.\the@zb@id}}%
\hspace{\parindent}}%
}
\def\stopzoom{%
\@ifstar\@stopzoomstar\@stopzoom%
}
\def\@stopzoom{%
\@popStack\@lblStack%
\raisebox{-1ex}[0pt][0pt]{\stopzoombox{.\@lblCur}}%
\xspace%
}
\def\@stopzoomstar{%
\@popStack\@lblStack%
\hfill\raisebox{-1ex}[0pt][0pt]{\stopzoombox{.\@lblCur}}%
\xspace%
}
\newcounter{@zb@id}
\def\@lblStack{}
\def\@popStack#1{\expandafter\@@popStack#1\nil}
\def\@@popStack#1.#2\nil{\gdef\@lblCur{#1}\gdef\@lblStack{#2}}
\RequirePackage{xspace}
\makeatother
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\begin{document}
\section{Paragraph zooming}
\startzoom[1]First paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first \startzoom[1]\emph{Do not miss this one.}\stopzoom First paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph first paragraph.\stopzoom*
\startzoom*[1]Second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph second paragraph.\stopzoom*
\end{document}
The two commands for marking the corners of a zoom area are
\startzoombox[line width]{label}
and
\stopzoombox{label}
They are meant to be used in picture-making environments, such as pspicture or tikzpicture. Associated command pairs must be identified by unique labels.
For marking text and paragraphs the following commands have been provided:
\startzoom[lwidth]
\startzoom*[lwidth]
\stopzoom
\stopzoom*
The starred versions insert horizontal space (negative \parindent on first line, \hfill at the end of the paragraph).
Zoom areas may be nested. However, smaller ones should be placed on top of bigger ones (i.e. to appear later in the code), in order not to be obscured.
Note that at least two pdflatex runs are necessary.
EDIT:
A dvipdfmx/XeLaTeX version of the \zoombox macro is given in: How do I include a click-to-zoom thumbnail picture in a non-beamer document?
Best Answer
Asymptote can create PDF files embedding 3D data in the PRC format. Sadly very few readers can actually read this data, most others only use a (2D) replacement image.
As far as I am aware, the only PDF reader for desktop systems which supports 3D PDF files is Adobe's Acrobat family of programs.
On Android and iOS there are special apps which often open only the 3D content (so you need a separate app to open other PDF files and sometimes even to see the non 3D content of the PDF file), but on my Android all apps I tested failed to open almost all 3D PDF files for unknown reasons. Even Adobe Acrobat for Android does not support 3D content (Which isn't very surprising since that app supports almost none of the advanced PDF functions) (It's probably the same on iOS, but I don't have a device to test that).