A quick examination of page zoom in Internet Explorer 6 and Opera 8.5

Let's look at www.microsoft.com with IE6 and with Opera 8.5 (both current patchlevels as I write this). How well do the respective browsers zoom this page?

Both browsers support zooming via Ctrl-MouseWheel. IE6 appears to offer 5 levels of zoom. Opera offers 99 levels of zoom, from 20% to 1000%.

IE6's zoom only affects text, not graphics. Opera's zoom affects the entire page.

Here are two examples of IE6's zoom capabilities.

www.microsoft.com at IE6's lowest level of zoom

www.microsoft.com at IE6's highest level of zoom

There's some difference; not a whole lot.

Here are six examples of Opera's zoom capabilities. You're looking at a moderately modified Opera -- ignore the funky brushed metal skin and weird icons, those are my tweaks.

www.microsoft.com at Opera's lowest level of zoom

www.microsoft.com zoomed moderately small in Opera

www.microsoft.com at a moderate size in Opera

www.microsoft.com enlarged in Opera

www.microsoft.com at a huge level of zoom in Opera

www.microsoft.com at Opera's highest level of zoom

Zoooooom.

Q.E.D.