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Maintaining aspect ratio when resizing objects in Illustrator?
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Fred Weiss
Merchant Member
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oldgoatroper
Roper of Goats. Old ones.
Circleville Signs
New Member
But your statement of fact seems to be implying that people who have no trouble using the shift key are NOT productive people. That's called being a dick. It's also called not thinking clearly.
oldgoatroper
Roper of Goats. Old ones.
Au contraire...
Re-stated, I said very productive people do not appreciate having to take extra (unnecessary) steps in their work.
This does not preclude anyone else who doesn't mind extra steps from being productive (albeit less so).
Any inference that you take from a simple statement of fact does not make me a dick.
You asked why people care about a little extra tedium. I answered that it gets in the way of being very productive. Now you're offended. And I'm the one who's not thinking clearly?
Circleville Signs
New Member
Possibly....
John Butto
New Member
I would side with oldgoatroper just because he has a cooler avatar name.
Circleville Signs
New Member
LOL - thanks fellas 
Rick
Certified Enneadecagon Designer
Oh geez...
Yeah I wouldn't mind locking the aspect ratio when I'm illustrating.
I design architectural signs 90% of the time, so I have my bounding box off for that and either resize with Cadtools "CadTracker" or I hit the "S" key, and resize numerically. I don't see it slowing me down or adding an extra step as my finger has always tended to drift to the Shift key when keeping my aspect ratio since I learned how to resize using my first vector programs. (Corel 3 Gerber GA and Flexi) so it's just a natural move after all these years. but the option would be nice, but knowing my pinky, it will still drift toward the shift key.
Yeah I wouldn't mind locking the aspect ratio when I'm illustrating.
I design architectural signs 90% of the time, so I have my bounding box off for that and either resize with Cadtools "CadTracker" or I hit the "S" key, and resize numerically. I don't see it slowing me down or adding an extra step as my finger has always tended to drift to the Shift key when keeping my aspect ratio since I learned how to resize using my first vector programs. (Corel 3 Gerber GA and Flexi) so it's just a natural move after all these years. but the option would be nice, but knowing my pinky, it will still drift toward the shift key.
Custom_Grafx
New Member
Assign an action for constrained scaling? I use my F5 and F6 keys for making things bigger or smaller by 1%.
- Action pallette
- New action - assign F key shortcut
- Right click, transform, scale, do your thing
- Stop recording action
Now you can resize with constrained props without even using your mouse!
One touch resize, voila!
- Action pallette
- New action - assign F key shortcut
- Right click, transform, scale, do your thing
- Stop recording action
Now you can resize with constrained props without even using your mouse!
One touch resize, voila!
signmeup
New Member
That sounds complicated Custom grafx. I guess I'll just have to get used to holding the shift key.
I think it's funny that no one so far likes holding the shift key to constrain proportions... they've just gotten used to it. Someone, somewhere must think it's a great idea to throw in an extra step for 99.99% of object/text/bitmap re-sizing.
I think it's funny that no one so far likes holding the shift key to constrain proportions... they've just gotten used to it. Someone, somewhere must think it's a great idea to throw in an extra step for 99.99% of object/text/bitmap re-sizing.
Custom_Grafx
New Member
I find either way, I'm annoyed.
Sometimes, I want it to be constrained, sometimes, I don't.
Computers would just work better if they could just read your mind.
Sometimes, I want it to be constrained, sometimes, I don't.
Computers would just work better if they could just read your mind.
GAC05
Quit buggin' me
Attachments
Wow, all of this over the shift key and its use to constrain proportions when scaling objects? It's not even a complaint of mine and even if it was a complaint it would be FAR from the biggest complaints I have with Adobe Illustrator.
Here's three things I dislike in Illustrator (I have repeated these gripes before).
1. The method of aligning objects and anchor points is not so great. The function isn't as terrible as it used to be, but it needs improvement. If you want to align two objects yet keep one of the objects locked in place it takes no less than three very careful clicks to get the job done. If you click too fast or something you get plunged into Flash style isolated object editing mode. Aligning anchor points can be especially tricky. Object alignment is easier to do in Corel and Flexi -although they reverse the order on what object gets locked. Just shift-click objects into a selection and the last object (Corel) or first object (Flexi) will be locked in place. At least Illustrator has some method to allow an object or anchor point to be locked in place as an alignment reference. In older, pre-CS versions of Illustrator all of the objects selected for alignment would relocate to a new, averaged position. That really really sucked.
2. The art board could be bigger. 227" X 227" is the maximum layout size. Corel's work space can go roughly 400% larger. And Flexi can go even larger than that, although it's rare I need a 2000" wide work space. Sometimes you need to fit an elevation of a large building in there.
3. Illustrator is only geared for sizing text for the printed page. Dedicated sign making applications allow for setting letter sizes ACCURATELY according to capital height. I think Illustrator needs to add capability for sizing text according to cap height in a variety of measuring units (inches, pixels, centimeters, etc.). At least I have a JavaScript plug in that will let Illustrator do what I want, but it's strange how it works.
Here's three things I dislike in Illustrator (I have repeated these gripes before).
1. The method of aligning objects and anchor points is not so great. The function isn't as terrible as it used to be, but it needs improvement. If you want to align two objects yet keep one of the objects locked in place it takes no less than three very careful clicks to get the job done. If you click too fast or something you get plunged into Flash style isolated object editing mode. Aligning anchor points can be especially tricky. Object alignment is easier to do in Corel and Flexi -although they reverse the order on what object gets locked. Just shift-click objects into a selection and the last object (Corel) or first object (Flexi) will be locked in place. At least Illustrator has some method to allow an object or anchor point to be locked in place as an alignment reference. In older, pre-CS versions of Illustrator all of the objects selected for alignment would relocate to a new, averaged position. That really really sucked.
2. The art board could be bigger. 227" X 227" is the maximum layout size. Corel's work space can go roughly 400% larger. And Flexi can go even larger than that, although it's rare I need a 2000" wide work space. Sometimes you need to fit an elevation of a large building in there.
3. Illustrator is only geared for sizing text for the printed page. Dedicated sign making applications allow for setting letter sizes ACCURATELY according to capital height. I think Illustrator needs to add capability for sizing text according to cap height in a variety of measuring units (inches, pixels, centimeters, etc.). At least I have a JavaScript plug in that will let Illustrator do what I want, but it's strange how it works.