Sephral’s Handout Lens

Ever shown your players an old map, a handwritten letter or a mysterious document, only for them to struggle with reading the tiny details?

Handout Lens makes viewing and reading images in Foundry VTT much easier. Zoom into small details, use a magnifying glass, adjust image visibility or explore individual sections of a document. Players can also keep previously shared handouts in their own collection to revisit whenever they want.

Highlights

Image Zoom

Zoom into images using your mouse wheel, trackpad, touchscreen, keyboard or double click. Magnify pictures up to 800% and return to the original view with a single click.

Magnifying Glass

Hold Shift to activate a magnifying lens that follows your cursor. Adjust the magnification using your mouse wheel to inspect smaller details without zooming the entire image.

Reading Tools

Improve the readability of documents by adjusting brightness, contrast, grayscale and color inversion. You can also rotate images freely to make tilted or faded writing easier to read.

Document Sections

The GM can mark individual sections of an image, even if the text is tilted. Players can then navigate between these sections, with each one automatically enlarged and rotated for easier reading.

Text Transcripts

Add written transcripts to individual document sections. Players can read them in a larger font alongside the image or use their browser's text to speech feature to have the text read aloud.

Shared GM View

The GM can guide players through an image by sharing their current zoom and position. Players can explore independently whenever they want and return to the GM's view with a single click.

Personal Handout Collection

Every image shared by the GM is automatically added to the player's handout collection. Previously shown documents remain available for later sessions, and players joining late can still access the most recently shared image.

Fullscreen Reading Mode

Switch to a fullscreen view that hides unnecessary interface elements, allowing players to focus entirely on the image.

How It Works

Enable the module in your world and open an image as usual. Handout Lens automatically adds a toolbar to Foundry's image viewer with the available zoom and reading tools.

To prepare a document, the GM can use the pencil button to mark individual sections and optionally add text transcripts. These sections are saved with the image file, so they remain available wherever the same image is used.

Players can then explore the document, navigate between sections or return to previously shared handouts through their personal collection.

Compatibility

Supports Foundry VTT v13 and v14 and works with any game system. The module is available in English and German.

Handout Lens works with Foundry's existing image viewer. Images with very low resolution may still appear blurry when enlarged, and the module can warn the GM about this.

Learn More

Check out the manual for more details about the reading tools, keyboard shortcuts, document sections and available settings.

Have questions or suggestions? Join the Discord server or take a look at my other modules on GitHub.