A Magnifying Lens using Script and CSS

Magno is a something I put together because … well, just because. The idea is to provide a magnifying lens effect using a background image and background position animation. The lens tracks the position of the mouse, with a slight delay (debouncing, to be exact).

You can try it here: http://jsbin.com/adobuv (thanks to @austegard for putting up the jsbin).

The "magnifier" is an absolutely positioned div with borders curved to perfection.

function makeMagnifier() {
    var src = settings.src || img.attr("src");
    magnifier = makeEmptyDiv();
    magnifier.css({
        position: "absolute", 
        opacity: 0,
        width: settings.size, height: settings.size,
        left: img.offset().left, top: img.offset().right, 
        "-moz-border-radius": settings.size * .5 + "px", 
        "border-radius": settings.size * .5 + "px",       
        "background-image": "url(" + src + ")",
        "background-repeat": "no-repeat",
        "z-index": 998
    });
}

When the mouse pauses, the magnifier animates to the new location.

function onPosition(e) {
    var offset = img.offset();
    var backLeft = Math.round((e.pageX - offset.left) * 
                             (-1 / settings.scale));
    var backTop = Math.round((e.pageY - offset.top) * 
                             (-1 / settings.scale));
    backLeft += Math.round(settings.size / 2);
    backTop += Math.round(settings.size / 2);
    magnifier.animate({
        left: e.pageX - (settings.size/2),
        top: e.pageY - (settings.size/2),
        "backgroundPosition": backLeft + "px " + backTop + "px"
    });            
}

Animating the background position of an element is not something jQuery can do without help. I used a plugin from Alexander Farkas.