Blogging 4 the Public - B4P - An Urban Grafix Brand

Layers Magazine Tip of the Day - Can You Scale to a Precise Percentage in the Transform Panel?

Adobe Illustrator CS3 Tip - Can You Scale to a Precise Percentage in the Transform Panel?

If you open your Transform panel (Window>Transform) and take a long hard look, do you see a way to Scale a selected object to a precise percentage?
I asked this question in an advanced Illustrator class and all of the artists agreed it’s just not possible. There are Rotate and Shear fields in the panel but no Scale field to type in a percentage. One artist added that you could click on the Link icon next the Width and Height field to keep any change in proportion.

Then if want to make the object 50% of it original size, for instance, you just add "/2" after either measurement and press the Return (Enter) key to divide the sizes in half. But there’s no place enter a percentage. I answered, "You got really close, but you’re afraid to try the impossible." With an object selected and the Width linked to the Height in the Transform panel, I highlighted the Width field and replaced the measurement with 50% and pressed my Return (Enter) key. The results got a mixture of oohs and ahhs from my students." What’s the moral of the story? Try the impossible and you could be pleasantly surprised.

Tip provided by Jeff Witchel, Adobe® Certified Training Provider.