ZoomText 2025 Features
Update to ZoomText and Fusion 2025
To enhance the update process, we made sure that moving from the 2024 to 2025 version is smooth. Upon updating, your startup settings will automatically transfer to 2025. You can check if you are using the latest version by looking at the ZoomText or Fusion toolbar, which now displays the version year.
Performance Improvements
With the 2025 update, we have implemented key adjustments to enhance performance, particularly in Fusion, but also affecting ZoomText. Some of the most notable improvements include:
- Better Performance in Office 365 Apps: Navigation and typing in Word are smoother, as well as opening and composing emails in Outlook. Copying and pasting large amounts of text in Word is also much quicker, reducing delays.
- Enhanced xFont Performance and Reliability: Ongoing improvements to xFont with Fusion continue to deliver a more responsive experience.
- Faster Start Times: Startup times have improved significantly, especially for users who launch ZoomText or Fusion automatically with Windows.
- Improved Stability in Windows File Explorer: Both ZoomText and Fusion now offer greater stability when running File Explorer, minimizing slowdowns.
Multi-Monitor Changes
When operating in multi-monitor mode, ZoomText can signal a monitor switch or insert an artificial boundary between the monitors to help users identify where their mouse is located. Although some found these features beneficial, we discovered that a majority of users preferred retaining the original behavior. Hence, these features are now off after the first installation.
The default values for two “Multiple Monitor Options” settings have changed.
- The “Keep the pointer from crossing the border for” setting is now off. This means you can move the mouse pointer smoothly and instantly between desktops and displays without any delay. Previously, there was a delay (ranging from 0.25 to 2 seconds) when moving the pointer between displays.
- The “Play sound cues when the pointer touches and crosses the border” setting is now off. You will not hear a sound cue when moving between desktops and displays.
If you want to restore these settings, do the following:
- On the Magnifier toolbar tab, click the Window button and then choose Settings.
- In the Multiple Monitor Options dialog box, choose Multiple Monitor Options.
- Select the border crossing and sound cue settings.
- Click OK.
AppReader
- You will notice improved performance when switching among the different tabs in the AppReader Settings dialog box while running Fusion.
- If you are using AppReader to read a Word or NotePad file and you press CTRL or ENTER to stop reading, AppReader will now continue reading when you double click on text in the document.
- In Fusion, the Reading Rate settings in AppReader’s Shared Settings tab are disabled. These settings are unavailable in Fusion.
Other Enhancements
- ZoomText has now migrated from .NET Framework to .NET Core 8.
- Some ZoomText users had trouble turning on magnification after they upgraded from Windows 11 version 23H2 to version 24H2. This has been fixed.
- Mouse echo in ZoomText and Fusion will now read browser tabs in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome correctly when you hover your mouse over them.
- xFont now correctly appears in the Windows Settings dialog box.
- A system freeze is fixed when a camera is in use on the secondary display during ZoomText or Fusion startup.
- A shortcut for List Zones, which is part of the Reading Zones dialog box, can now be added to the Quick Access Bar.
- Freeze Views now have a minimum window size when drawing a Freeze View window around an area on the screen. This eliminates the possibility of accidentally creating a window that is too small to use.
- Command Search is a feature available in both JAWS and Fusion. It allows you to enter a full or partial description of a command whose keystrokes you do not remember. Commands that match your search are displayed in a window along with a description of the feature and associated keystrokes.
For Fusion, Command Search has been expanded to include more magnification commands and other functionality typically used by ZoomText. For example, if you have forgotten the keystroke to toggle xFont bold on and off, you can do the following:
- Press INSERT+SPACEBAR, J to open Command Search.
- Move focus to the Search box, and type a term like “xFont.”
- A list of related results is displayed showing the command, keystroke, and description.
Continuous Improvements
This release marks the start of improvements for the 2025 cycle. Similar to the enhancements introduced during the 2024 cycle, which included advanced customization options for various Screen Enhancements, new Multiple Monitor modes, and the integration of our highest text quality (xFont) into Office 365, you can anticipate additional functionalities throughout the 2025 cycle.
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Enhancements in ZoomText 2025.2505.31 (May 2025)
The following describes improvements made in the May 2025 update.
Starting with the May 2025 release, JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion now supports Home and Professional subscription licenses. Please contact Freedom Scientific sales or your local distributor for more information.
New Live Text View Released
Live Text View enhances readability on magnified screens by displaying clear, high-contrast text in a separate view window as you hover over hard-to-read content—making it easier to read decorative fonts, low-contrast colors, or text on busy backgrounds. It can also be paired with AppReader for added speech and visual tracking support.
Live Text View is now part of the Magnifier toolbar tab in ZoomText and Fusion, replacing the Navigation button.
Below is a list of improvements made between the March 2025 Early Adopter release and the May 2025 update. For more details on how Live Text View works, refer to the Live Text View section (March 2025) later on this page.
Live Text View Improvements in the May 2025 Update
- Live Text View now supports multiple monitors. This works with all multiple monitor modes.
- If you switch from one display to another display, the Live Text View also switches to the currently active display. This works when ZoomText is running multiple monitors and is configured for MultiView Local or MultiView Global zoom windows.
- Live Text View now works with all single-monitor zoom windows: Full, Overlay, Lens, Line, and Docked.
- Live Text View is now available in remote desktop environments and can display on both the client and server. This requires ZoomText 2025 (May 2025 update or later) to be installed on the client and server computers.
- Live Text View operates on touch screen devices. You can now tap the icons in the Live Text View to scroll left or right and select check boxes, radio buttons, and other user interface elements.
- When an image includes alternative text in a document or web page, the alt text now appears in the Live Text View, highlighted in an accent color.
- When text is a link in a document or web page, the link text is now underlined in the Live Text View.
- When using Excel with Live Text View, the contents of a selected cell now appear in the Live Text View in an accent color. This is in addition to the previously mentioned alt text and link text support.
- Live Text View supports text cursor and mouse hover when reading and navigating in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
- You can now use Freeze View while Live Text View is enabled.
- You can now use the Adjust tool while Live Text View is enabled.
- Live Text View can now be added to and opened from the Quick Access Bar.
Updated Startup Wizard
When you install a new version of ZoomText, the Startup Wizard opens automatically to help you get set up. It now includes easy-to-use pages where you can choose your magnification, visual enhancements, and speech settings. If you are using Fusion, you will only see the magnification and visual enhancements page. Speech settings are set up separately in the JAWS Startup Wizard.
To save your changes after closing the Startup Wizard, in the ZoomText or Fusion menu, choose Configurations > Save As Default.
The image below shows the new Magnification and Visual Enhancements page.
The image below shows the new Speech settings page.
Magnification API
The Display Adapter’s Compatibility Mode setting has been renamed to Magnification API to better reflect its functionality. This functionality is built on a Microsoft-provided technology for screen magnification.
When enabled, the Magnification API provides two primary benefits:
- Magnified Content during Screen Sharing in Video Conferencing
During screen sharing sessions via applications such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, viewers will see the same ZoomText enhancements as the presenter, including magnification levels, color filters, and cursor enhancements.
- Support for HDR Monitors
This setting allows ZoomText to function with High Dynamic Range (HDR) monitors, which may otherwise present compatibility challenges.
All features—such as xFont, AppReader, and visual enhancements—remain fully supported, whether using the Magnification API or the default display mode, which utilizes the system’s graphics card directly.
To change the Display Adapter setting, in the ZoomText menu, choose Help > Advanced > Display Adapter.
Other Enhancements
- ZoomText and Fusion 2025 support Windows Server 2025.
- Tethered View has been restored when using it with the Windows Start menu in the latest version of Windows 11.
- The Welcome to ZoomText page has been streamlined and now includes updated, more relevant hotkeys.
- Three additional delay times have been added to the “Keep the pointer from crossing the border for” setting. The times are 2.5, 5, and 10 seconds. This causes a delay for the selected duration when moving the mouse pointer between multiple displays.
- When the last character or word in the Live Text View window is selected, the current line continues to display in the Live Text View and does not advance to the next line in the document.
- After toggling Live Text View off and on, text now appears again in the Live Text View.
- When you are running Live Text View and you turn on a webcam that is configured for Docked View, Live Text View will now turn off.
- Performance has been improved when using Teams, New Outlook, or Edge while simultaneously running Live Text View.
- The FSCompanion, Quick Access Bar, and Voice Assistant buttons, located in the upper right corner of the ZoomText toolbar, now display in the Live Text View when you hover over them using the mouse pointer.
- In Silent mode, AppReader now correctly displays and responds to the selected Highlight Speed reading rate when Live Text View is on.
- Performance has been improved when using AppReader to read by word, sentence, line, and paragraph while simultaneously running Live Text View.
- AppReader performance has improved when running ZoomText on Windows 11 release 24H2.
- When using ZoomText in a remote Citrix environment, you can now navigate and track the entire magnified screen directly on your local client system.
- The Voice button on the Reader toolbar tab now updates correctly and shows the Off state when speech is disabled through the Voice Settings dialog.
- Focus enhancements in ZoomText and Fusion now work correctly when navigating to the Ask Copilot button in the Windows Start menu.
- Focus enhancement performance has improved when navigating the search box in the Windows Start menu.
- An issue that affected the Braille and Text Viewer when using Fusion with multiple monitors has been resolved. Previously, if the primary display was positioned on the right and the secondary on the left, the Viewer would appear compressed on the secondary screen. The Viewer now displays properly with this display configuration.
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Enhancements in ZoomText 2025.2504.25 (April 2025)
The following describes improvements made in the April 2025 update.
Fixes for Chrome and Edge Compatibility Issues
Recent updates to Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge impacted how ZoomText reads, tracks, and echoes text within these browsers. This update resolves or improves those issues:
- AppReader has been improved for reading bulleted lists.
- Mouse echo now correctly reads bulleted lists as you hover over them.
- Cursor tracking has been fixed to track the cursor position and show the cursor enhancement as you type and navigate in multiline edit fields.
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Enhancements in ZoomText 2025.2502.63 (March 2025)
The following describes new features and improvements made in the March 2025 update.
ARM64 Support in ZoomText and Fusion
We are excited to announce that ZoomText and Fusion 2025 now fully support ARM64 devices running Windows 11. This means a faster and smoother experience on the latest Copilot+ PCs, like the Surface Pro (11th edition) and Surface Laptop (7th edition). The ZoomText and Fusion 2025 installers automatically detect ARM64 processors and will install the right version on your device. To verify, open the About dialog (ZoomText or Fusion menu > Help > About) and you will see either ZoomText® 2025 (ARM64) or Fusion® 2025 (ARM64) as your software version.
Live Text View
Live Text View is a ZoomText screen magnifier feature that improves the readability of on-screen text in web browsers and other applications. It displays a continuous line of clear, easy-to-read text across the top or bottom of the screen, showing content from the cursor, mouse pointer, or focus location as you navigate documents, emails, and web pages. This content displays in a window known as the Live Text View, where you can customize the font, size, and color contrast to match your reading preferences.
Here are a few examples of how Live Text View can make it easier to read text on a magnified screen.
- Some text is hard to read, like yellow on a white background or dark gray on black. Live Text View helps by showing the text in a clear, easy-to-read font with high contrast colors that you choose. Just move your mouse over the text, and it will appear in the view window.
- Decorative fonts and italic styles are good for attracting attention but can be difficult to read on a magnified screen. Live Text View makes this text readable in the view window.
- Busy backgrounds can be distracting and cause text and images to blend into the background. Hovering the mouse pointer over this area of the screen can pick up lines of text and display them in the view window.
- Page layouts with multiple columns and images, like those on a news website, can be a challenge to read with a screen magnifier since only a small portion of the screen is visible at a time. Constantly scrolling in different directions to follow the text can be frustrating and interrupt reading. Live Text View helps by allowing you to (1) lower magnification to see more of the screen and overall layout, (2) move the mouse pointer or focus to the area of interest and the text you want to read, and (3) view the text clearly in the Live Text View window.
- A settings dialog in an application often includes elements like check boxes, radio buttons, dropdown lists, and spin boxes. By positioning the mouse pointer over any of these items, Live Text View can recognize them and show both the element and its current state clearly in the view window.
- Pairing Live Text View with AppReader App View combines the best of both. Live Text View provides clear visual text, while AppReader adds speech output and highlights the exact text position. This ensures strong reading support while allowing you to stay active in the document and make text edits as needed.
Live Text View is an Early Adopter Program Feature
Live Text View is available for preview as an Early Adopter Program feature. It currently supports single monitor configurations. It is not available in remote desktop configurations or on touch screen devices.
- In the ZoomText or Fusion menu, choose Help and then Early Adopter Program.
- Select the Live Text View check box.
- Click OK and restart the software.
- After restarting, Live Text View appears on the Magnifier toolbar tab. It replaces the Navigation button, which is now a submenu in the ZoomText or Fusion menu.
Submitting Feedback
While evaluating Live Text View, you are encouraged to give feedback about your experience. Feedback can be given whether the feature is enabled or not.
To give feedback, do the following:
- In the ZoomText or Fusion menu, choose Help > Early Adopter Program.
- Select the Send Feedback button, complete the Early Adopter Program Feedback form, and click Submit Feedback.
Toggling Live Text View On and Off
To toggle on and off Live Text View, do one of the following:
- On the Magnifier toolbar tab, select the Live Text View button, or select the down arrow on the Live Text View button and choose Hidden.
- Press the Live Text View On/Off hotkey: CAPS LOCK+E
Using Live Text View and Scrolling Text
When Live Text View is enabled, any line of text located beneath the mouse pointer, at the cursor position, or the focus location displays in the view window. If the line of text exceeds the width of the view window, a left or right scroll arrow displays at the beginning or end of the displayed text.
To scroll and display more text in the Live Text View window, do the following:
- Press CAPS LOCK+RIGHT ARROW to scroll to the right
- Press CAPS LOCK+LEFT ARROW to scroll to the left
- With your mouse pointer focused on a line of text, move your mouse to the right or left to continue reading text in the Live Text View window.
Choosing a Preset Live Text View Color Scheme
To choose a preset scheme, do the following:
- On the Magnifier toolbar tab, click the lower half of the Live Text View button, or navigate to it and press the Down Arrow key.
- In the Live Text View menu, choose Scheme.
- In the Scheme menu, choose your preferred color scheme.
- Click OK to save your selection.
Changing Live Text View Settings
To move the view window, change the text font and size, or change the foreground and background colors of the view window, do the following:
- On the Magnifier toolbar tab, click the lower half of the Live Text View button, or navigate to it and press the Down Arrow key.
- In the Live Text View menu, choose Settings.
- From the Scheme list, choose a scheme as a starting point.
- In Custom Settings, choose any of the following:
- Position. Place the view window at the top or bottom of the screen.
- Size. Increase or decrease the size of the displayed text and the view window. (CAPS LOCK+ALT+PAGE UP or CAPS LOCK+ALT+PAGE DOWN)
- Font. Choose a font for the text that displays in the view window.
- Color scheme. Choose a preset color scheme from the list or choose the Customize button to pick specific colors for the text, window background, and accent colors for user interface elements like left and right scroll arrows, cursor position, mouse pointer, check boxes, dropdown lists, and spin boxes.
- Display. Choose what you want to display in the view window. For example, only text that appears when typing and navigating with the mouse; only the text that appears under the mouse pointer; only text when using a reading tool like AppReader’s App View mode, SpeakIt tool, and reading zones; or all previously mentioned content.
- Click OK to apply your changes.
Live Text View Icons
These images in the Live Text View window. They appear when focus is on an item, or you hover over it with the mouse pointer.
| This image… |
Indicates… |
 |
Scroll right to view more text.
Shortcut key: CAPS LOCK+RIGHT ARROW |
 |
Scroll left to view more text.
Shortcut key: CAPS LOCK+LEFT ARROW |
 |
The current item is selected in a list. |
 |
The current item is part of a dropdown menu or list.
Press the Down arrow key to select other items in the list. |
 |
The current item is selected in a check box list. |
 |
The current item is not selected in a check box list. |
 |
The item represents multiple check boxes where some check boxes are selected and others are not. |
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The item is selected in a radio button group. |
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The item is not selected in a radio button group. |
 |
The item is a spin box.
Press the Up and Down arrow keys to increase or decrease the current value when the spin box has focus. |
 |
The item is a slider control.
Press the Left or Right arrow keys to change the value when the slider has focus. |
 |
The current item is part of a tree view (hierarchical list) that is expanded. |
 |
The current item is part of a tree view that is collapsed. |
 |
The current item is part of a tree view. |
Other Enhancements
- This update includes the latest .NET, Visual C++, and WebView2 redistributable libraries to enhance stability and security for ZoomText and Fusion.
- After unlocking Windows on a system with multiple monitors, all screens now display correctly without any black screens.
- When configured for MultiView Local mode, the mouse pointer now moves smoothly across the border between displays without jumping to the middle of the second display.
- To ensure a smooth experience, ZoomText and Fusion now automatically switch to Compatibility mode if they detect a magnification issue after upgrading to Windows 11 version 24H2. This helps keep magnification running smoothly.
- When you assign a configuration hotkey (CAPS LOCK+1-10) to a configuration file, the hotkey assignment is now saved immediately.
- AppReader’s App View, Text View, and SpeakIt tool now provide smooth and uninterrupted reading in both Chrome and Edge.
- Enhanced focus tracking and speech support for Windows Recall on Copilot+ computers.
- Improved focus tracking in Excel for smoother and more precise navigation between worksheet cells.
- ZoomText’s reading and focus tracking features work reliably with the latest version of Citrix Workspace.
- Enhanced mouse echo in Chrome, ensuring text is echoed consistently as users navigate.
- Improved cursor performance in Notepad to ensure it remains visible beyond five seconds.
- Scroll commands now function correctly when the Window type is set to Docked.
- Fusion now supports Slovak.
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Enhancements in ZoomText 2025.2412.25 (December 2024)
The following describes improvements made in the December 2024 update.
FSCompanion: Your AI-Powered assistant for Learning ZoomText, Fusion, and Microsoft Applications
With so many features and keystrokes available between ZoomText, Fusion, Windows, and the various Office apps, it can be challenging to locate the information you need to perform a specific task or even look up a setting or keystroke you no longer recall. The new AI assistant, FSCompanion, lets you ask questions about ZoomText, Fusion and other applications and quickly provides the information you need without you having to search through multiple documents and web pages to find it. Want to know how a particular feature works, or the sequence of keystrokes to perform a specific task in Word? Ask FSCompanion, and the AI searches through various help and training resources in a matter of seconds, and provides the key details in a concise step-by-step format.
FSCompanion has been trained using ZoomText help and training data, as well as support content from Microsoft.
To open FSCompanion, do one of the following:
- Click the blue Sparkle button in the upper right corner in the ZoomText or Fusion toolbar.
- In the ZoomText or Fusion menu, choose Help > FSCompanion.
- You can also access FSCompanion directly in your web browser by going to FSCompanion.ai.
Once the FSCompanion page opens, focus is placed in an edit field where you can immediately type a question. After typing a question, press ENTER, and ZoomText or Fusion will automatically read the response as soon as it is displayed. Focus remains in the edit field, so you can ask any follow-up questions. Select the New Conversation button to start a new topic, or select the Feedback button to submit any comments about a response.
Here are a few example questions to help get you started.
- How do I change magnification?
- How do I toggle speech on and off for Fusion?
- How do I turn on AppReader?
- How do I select color modes?
Please ask as many questions as you like, and don’t hesitate to give feedback on your experiences. The types of questions you ask and the feedback you provide are important as it helps our team train the model to be more accurate.
Note: FSCompanion is optimized for English, as it has been trained with English documentation. This means that the answers it gives are based on English keystrokes and terminology. For the best experience, please use it in English. If you ask questions in another language, the keystrokes and descriptions it provides might not be accurate. We are working on supporting additional languages.
Other Enhancements
- After upgrading to Windows 11 version 24H2, some users found that they no longer had magnification or a mouse pointer after starting ZoomText and Fusion 2025. This update solves the problem.
- AppReader Text View now opens and works correctly when reading Word 365 documents.
- In AppReader’s App View, the UP and DOWN Arrow keys no longer navigated to the previous and next paragraphs in Word 365 and other apps. This update solves the problem.
- All text is correctly displayed and spoken in App View and Text View when running AppReader in Edge, Chrome, or Firefox.
- When using Quicken, a personal financial app, transaction fields and menus now read correctly when using mouse echo with ZoomText 2025.
- Made it easier and faster to use the TAB key to move through and enter a Fix-It command. You can find Fix-It commands in the ZoomText menu under Help > Advanced > Tools.
- ZoomText has been updated to use .NET 8.
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