Circle Lens is a free magnifier that opens where you look. Circle your mouse twice, or tap Shift twice, and a lens follows your pointer at up to 4×. Circle twice again to close it. It zooms only what you're reading, so your layout stays intact, and it eases back when you move fast. A 4.5 MB Windows app that installs without admin rights, plus a browser extension and a 7 KB script for your own site. Open source (MIT), no account, no tracking.

Hi! I didn't want to put on reading glasses or lean into the screen, and zooming the whole screen breaks a well-designed layout. So I built a lens that zooms only what you're reading. Most of the work went into the details: a gesture that doesn't fire while you're just reading, a lens that eases out when you move fast, a setup that needs no admin rights, and updates you can turn off. Even the icon changed: a magnifying glass read as "search", so it became a ring with a glint of light. It's free and MIT licensed. Two things to know: the Windows app isn't code-signed yet, so you'll see a SmartScreen warning the first time, and there's no Mac app yet (the browser extension works on a Mac). Ask me about the 14 px rim on the glass.

Circle Lens

Circle twice for a lens. Twice more and it's gone.

Circle twice for a lens. Twice more and it's gone.