Scale Constrain ratio

[Jethro]

With the move tool, when scaling objects with the corner anchor points, the default behaviour for locking the ratio changes depending on the number of layers selected which seems unintuitive (and often confuses me)

 

with one layer, the ratio is locked unless you hold a finger on the screen. 

With multiple, the ratio is unlocked, unless you hold a finger on the screen.

 

I don’t mind which it is, but I’d rather it worked the same way regardless of the number of layers selected. 

[MEB]

Hi Jethro,

Welcome to Affinity Forums

This is not related with the number of layers that's selected but with the type of layer or selection you have. By default Affinity Photo keeps the ratio of all objects that possess an intrinsic aspect ratio intact - like images and text - where most of the times you don't want to distort them. So if you select a single image layer the ratio will be kept. If you select multiple layers, it will behave as if it was a group of objects and so doesn't keep the aspect ratio. You can control this behaviour going to Affinity Photo Preferences (tap the cog icon on the top right of the Welcome Screen, tap the Tools button/section on top, then pick the behaviour you want from the last dropdown (Move tool aspect constrain). Automatic is the default behaviour and acts like i described above.