SCALE IMAGE

[dizeyner]

I cant for the life of me figure out how to scale an image proportionately or by entering numbers as I would do in FW or PS. is it buried somewhere???

also when I try to scale using the selection tool it does not scale proportionately. not even if I hold down the shift key.

I tried using the HELP system in Affinity but using the keyword SCALE or RESIZE seems to return nothing at all related to what Im looking for.

In addition its difficult to tell from the videos which one handles the basic tools.

I found a way to scale proportionately the other day by stumbling around but I dont remember how I did it.

[crabtrem]

Let me take a stab in the dark. For an IMAGE that you have copy and pasted into another document, to resize, grab and drag a corner. For an IMAGE, the shift key actually removes the constraints. Unlike an object, curve, or shape of some kind.

On the bottom right of your panels, there is a transform tool. Select your image. The width and height should be linked together with a chain, so they will retain proportionality. Choose either one, and use the format of function, equals, value.  So if you wanted to reduce the width in half, you could either go *=.5 to multiply the value by .5. Or you could /=2, divide by 2. You can also use percentages. (+=5%, add 5 percent) and I believe you can use actual measured values too. Although I haven't gone through and tested everything myself. As long as that chain is there, the object you have selected will maintain their proportions. 

 

This also works if you paste without format of an image, or image selection, or place an image in another document. 

I think that's right. 

Hopefully this helps you. 

[dizeyner]

thats a bit helpful. I have a super large high rez image that I pasted into my screen rez workspace and of course that led to freakish large image way bigger than work space.

So I thought, Id really love to select the image... and have it be constrained as i scales down. It didnt seem to contrain with or without shift. so I thought there must be something I have to select to force it to constrain. It would be  great to be able to scale by percentage...as in literally have the abillity to select "scale percentage" and "keep contrainsts" then type in say 50 in a percent box.

It sounds like your saying if I literally enter -=50% then it will reduce 50%?  Ill try that. and Ill try not using the shift key...but I could swear I tried that. lol. 

thanks for your time. 

[R C-R]

You may find it very helpful to download the PDF "cheat sheets" for your Affinity apps (the Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet for Affinity Designer Tools! topic has links to the latest versions). The last page of each one shows the expressions (equations, fractions, & such) you can use in the Transform panel & in some other parts of the UI.

[JimmyJack]

Ya know you've hit an open nerve with me. It's very frustrating in Affinity.

 

If you have a shape (rectangle, circle, whatever) or a curve, constrain proportions is done with Shift,

But If you rasterize a shape to Pixel, or import an image it's the Alt/Option key. Art text tool too.

 

Why any difference at all????

[crabtrem]

Here is a quick tutorial Affinity put out on it.

 

And the percentages are pretty flexible it would appear.  Like the examples show, to reduce the size by half you can type in *=50%.  If you type +=50% you will add 50% to the value, and -=50% will take also give you half in this case. Of course if you use divide with a percentage it's like multiplying, so /=50% is like multiplying by 2, and /=25% is like multiplying by 4. 

[R C-R]

also when I try to scale using the selection tool it does not scale proportionately. not even if I hold down the shift key.

Note that with the selection (move) tool it makes a difference which control point you grab to scale the image. If you grab a corner point, the image scales proportionally (without the shift key held down), but if you grab one of the ones on the midpoints of the edges, the image will scale only in the left/right or up/down direction (without the shift key held down).

 

Using the shift key reverses this behavior.

 

Also note that there is a context-sensitive line of text at the bottom of the window that briefly describes the tool's behavior & options.

[Dave Harris]

Ya know you've hit an open nerve with me. It's very frustrating in Affinity.

 

If you have a shape (rectangle, circle, whatever) or a curve, constrain proportions is done with Shift,

But If you rasterize a shape to Pixel, or import an image it's the Alt/Option key. Art text tool too.

 

Why any difference at all????

 

The default behaviour is because some objects have a natural aspect ratio that you probably want to preserve, and other objects usually need to be freely stretchable. If you don't like this, you can change it from Preferences > Tools > Move Tool Aspect Constrain.

[R C-R]

The default behaviour is because some objects have a natural aspect ratio that you probably want to preserve, and other objects usually need to be freely stretchable. If you don't like this, you can change it from Preferences > Tools > Move Tool Aspect Constrain.

Could you tell us a bit more about what objects that preference setting affects? From what I can tell, the three possible choices have no effect when resizing images, layers, or rasterized shapes. Even when set to "Do not constrain by default," those items are constrained to the original aspect ratio when I drag their handles with the Move tool (unless I hold down the shift key).

[Dave Harris]

It should affect all objects. However, if you change the setting you need to click away and then click on the object again before the tool sees the change. That's an unfortunate glitch which we've not got around to fixing because people don't normally change the preference more than once; of course the exception to that is when, as now, they are trying all the options to see what they do.

 

Anyway, with that caveat, I just tested it with a placed PNG image, and a rasterised circle, and it worked as intended for both. (I'm not sure what you mean by a layer, here: the layers created by the Add Layer button at the bottom of the Layer tab cannot be resized.)

[R C-R]

Apologies for not being clearer. When I said layers what I meant was the pixels of a pixel layer, not the layer itself. In other words, if I paint only some small section of an otherwise empty pixel layer, the Move tool selects just the painted part, not the whole layer. I guess you would call that a pixel object or some such.

 

Anyway, now that I know about the glitch & how to avoid it, the preference is working as expected. Thanks for the explanation.