See Re: A 2D layout of graphs in Perl/Tk for a way to zoom in the Tk Canvas. As far as the axis grading being zoomable in a custom fashion, there are a few options. For the easiest, just create a few sets of axis with different gradations, and replace the visible axis with the one of your choice for that zoom level( using tags probably). This a point where someone with real genius could get very creative, like dynamically detecting zoom-size and making a custom axis set for that level. Also, don't get locked into thinking your axis have to be on the same Canvas as your data. You can have them on separate canvases packed on the sides of your data canvas.... it might make things easier.