- #31 Selecting Path Segments and Paths
- #32 Defining, Selecting, and Isolating Groups
- #33 Selecting, Editing, and Aligning Anchors
- #34 Selecting Similar Objects
- #35 Editing with the Bounding Box
- #36 Duplicating
- #37 Scaling
- #38 Rotating
- #39 Shearing (Skewing)
- #40 Distorting with Envelopes
- #41 Using Pathfinders
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
#37 Scaling
The quick-and-dirty way to rescale any object is to select it, view the bounding box, and rescale (resize) using the Selection tool. To do that, first select the object. If the bounding box is not displayed, choose View > Show Bounding Box (for details, see #35, "Editing with the Bounding Box").
The Scale tool has a couple of advantages over sizing freehand with a bounding box or the Free Transform tool. The Scale tool allows you to resize to an exact percentage. For instance, you can resize an object to 200 percent, doubling the size of the original object exactly.
Resizing an object using the Scale tool interactively is hardly intuitive. Instead of clicking and dragging on an anchor or on a path, you click and drag anywhere on the artboard. It takes some practice (Figure 37a).
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Figure 37a Rescaling with the interactive Scale tool.
If you hold down the Shift key as you resize with the Scale tool, you can click and drag at about a 45-degree angle from a corner handle to maintain the height-to-width ratio of the original drawing. If you hold down the Shift key and drag up or down, you will only change the height. Hold down the Shift key and drag sideways to change only the width of the selected object.
By default, when you resize a selected object with the Scale tool, the center of the object is used as the point from which the object is enlarged or compressed. You can change that point by clicking within a selected object with the Scale tool. Then, when you resize the object, the newly selected point is the pivot and hub from which the object is resized, as shown in Figure 37b.
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Figure 37b Resizing from a selected pivot anchor.
The Scale dialog allows you to rescale an object digitally (defining exact percentages for horizontal and vertical resizing). It also allows you to define how stroke thickness and pattern sizing are affected by scaling.
If you rescale strokes (and effects), the stroke (or effect) changes in accordance with the rescaled object. If you maintain the original stroke thickness when you rescale, the relationship between the stroke thickness and the object changes (Figure 37c).
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Figure 37c Rescaling while maintaining the same stroke size.
Similarly, when you rescale with the Scale dialog, you can maintain a pattern fill at its original size, or you can rescale it in sync with the resized object. In addition, you can elect to apply scaling only to a pattern fill with interesting results: With this technique, you stretch or shrink only a fill pattern while the object containing the pattern remains unchanged (Figure 37d).
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Figure 37d Rescaling a pattern while maintaining the same object size.
Here's a recap/summary of the process of resizing with the Scale dialog:
- Select the object(s) to be rescaled.
- Double-click the Scale tool. The Scale dialog appears. Enter a value in the Scale area of the dialog to resize both height and width to a uniform percentage. Or, to rescale without maintaining the same height-to-width ratio, enter separate values in the Horizontal and Vertical boxes in the Non-Uniform section of the dialog.
- Select the Preview check box to see the object interactively resize on the artboard as you change values.
- Select the Scale Strokes & Effects check box if you want to proportionally resize strokes and effects.
- If you have an object with a pattern fill, you can select the Objects check box to resize objects. You'll almost always want to select this option; otherwise, the object won't resize.
- Select the Patterns check box to proportionally resize patterns within a shape. When your object is correctly resized, click OK.