# VSCode CairoMakie Zoom
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978
**Category:** Visualization
**Created:** [November 18, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978 "2025-11-18T23:59:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@csvance](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/csvance)
#### Post date: [November 18, 2025, 11:59pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/1 "2025-11-18T23:59:42Z")
Is there any way to zoom in VSCode for plots created by CairoMakie? I often visualize high resolution images with many annotations and I can’t seem to find any way to zoom in so I can see the details.
Bypassing VSCode and using something like GLMakie would work in theory, but the issue is my work VM is a potato without 3d acceleration. So I use VSCode remote development over SSH.
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### Author:  [@WalterMadelim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WalterMadelim)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 3:59am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/2 "2025-11-19T03:59:28Z")
Works good for me.
You just save your figure produced by CairoMakie via `save("f.pdf", f)`.
And then you check that pdf figure via VSCode extensions, e.g mine is LaTeX Workshop.
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### Author:  [@csvance](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/csvance)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 2:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/3 "2025-11-19T14:12:03Z")
I tried LaTeX Workshop but it seems the resolution is limited when I zoom in compared to just saving the image as a png and opening it in a seperate image viewer.
EDIT: Just noticed I can load the .png into VSCode and actually zoom, it just can’t be done in the Julia Plots window.
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### Author:  [@WalterMadelim](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/WalterMadelim)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 2:19pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/4 "2025-11-19T14:19:32Z")
> [@csvance](#):
>
> in the Julia Plots window
I’ve been using julia with VSCode everyday. But I don’t use any julia extensions. I think the julia software itself works well.
> [@csvance](#):
>
> the resolution is limited when I zoom in compared to just saving the image as a png
hard to understand from my perspective. Are you involving very tiny texts in your image? Why? Otherwise .pdf figures should be of high quality.
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### Author:  [@csvance](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/csvance)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/5 "2025-11-19T15:30:00Z")
> [@WalterMadelim](#):
>
> hard to understand from my perspective. Are you involving very tiny texts in your image? Why? Otherwise .pdf figures should be of high quality.
I’m visualizing high resolution medical images, and there are precise annotations overlaying them that are fine enough to not block key details (ie vertebral endplates).
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### Author:  [@ufechner7](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ufechner7)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 6:55pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/6 "2025-11-19T18:55:35Z")
Just use PyPlot or PythonPlot. I know I won’t receive any likes for this answer, but if you need high-quality vector graphics that can be zoomed interactively, this is still the best choice. OK, medical images are not vector graphics. But then, why not use GLMakie?
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### Author:  [@sdanisch](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/sdanisch)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 7:20pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/7 "2025-11-19T19:20:25Z")
If it needs the plotpane you can also always just switch from CairoMakie to WGLMakie, which allows you the same interactivity like GLMakie, just in the browser (plotpane → electron window).
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### Author:  [@jules](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jules)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 8:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/8 "2025-11-19T20:12:11Z")
It sounds like you don’t mean interactivity with zooming into an axis but literally zooming into the image rendered to the plot pane? That works for me, alt and scroll I think
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### Author:  [@csvance](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/csvance)
#### Post date: [November 19, 2025, 11:44pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/vscode-cairomakie-zoom/133978/9 "2025-11-19T23:44:28Z")
> [@sdanisch](#):
>
> If it needs the plotpane you can also always just switch from CairoMakie to WGLMakie, which allows you the same interactivity like GLMakie, just in the browser (plotpane → electron window).
Do you know if WGLMakie can work with using VSCode over SSH? When I generate a plot it shows that there is a plot in VSCode, but I can’t actually see or interact with it.
> [@jules](#):
>
> It sounds like you don’t mean interactivity with zooming into an axis but literally zooming into the image rendered to the plot pane? That works for me, alt and scroll I think
Yes, but it doesn’t work for me. Hearing that it works for you, I may have to check and see if the remote desktop software I am using is somehow interfering with the key combination, or maybe my window manager (xfwm4 which by default has a desktop level zoom with ALT+SCROLL).
EDIT:
So apparently there is something strange going on with my remote access software (Splashtop), the menu key + scroll works. In `xev` the key codes are the same for that and left ALT, but for some reason it works and left alt does not. I can’t explain it. On my desktop, ALT+SCROLL works just fine.