Comparing Zooming UI Approaches: Prezi, impress.js, and a New Open-Source Alternative

There are essentially two established ways to use zooming in web interfaces today. They serve different purposes and make different tradeoffs.

Prezi pioneered the zooming canvas for presentations and remains the market leader in that space.

But Prezi is a closed platform, not a library. You can't use its zoom engine in your own app.

impress.js is an open-source library for creating Prezi-like presentations in the browser.

I built a third one, so I'll try to be fair about what each does well and where it falls short.