Panning, exact definition

user-interface scroll terminology drag panning
cdarwin picture cdarwin · Oct 5, 2012 · Viewed 7.5k times · Source

What is the difference between scrolling and panning? Is panning identified as the action of dragging the image/background, while scrolling is only when you use scroll bars?

And, what is the difference between dragging and panning?

When I drag the map of google maps, which term is appropriate, dragging or panning???

Answer

Gady picture Gady · Oct 5, 2012

Scrolling typically involves scrollbars or a scroll-wheel on a mouse, but I have heard people refer to panning a map as scrolling as well (I would argue incorrectly).

Panning is exactly as you describe it - action of dragging the map (keeping it at the same scale, as opposed to zooming, which changes the scale level).

Dragging = Panning as you refer to them.

So what's the right word to use? Well, Google (and others) use the term pan/panning in their mapping APIs and pan/panning has widespread historical use in GIS terminology. So, technically-speaking, I would argue that pan/panning wins, but, generally-speaking, this is really just a difference in terminology.

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