Re-scaling a linked images to 100% in Illustrator

[benjaminharrington]

Is there a way to set the scaled percentages of linked images in Illustrator to a different specific percentage of scale, like you can in InDesign. For example I have a file with links (of various dimensions) that are placed at 65.635% and I would like to select them and set their percentage scaled to 50%, or even just reset its scale to 100%.
The links palette shows the percentage that the link is placed. But the Transform>Scale and Transform Each tools only rescale the item BY the percentage you enter, not TO a specific percentage.
I would prefer to not have to re-place all the links and resize them to 50%, or do the math to find the percentage to reduce them more so that the final percentage is 50%.

[Jacob Bugge]

Benjamin,

Illy (job description Adobe Illustrator) is always eager to help, and she can make the calculations for you:

Just set the following value: desired scale*100 as one number (5000 for 50%), then add / then add current scale (65.635 as in your example). With those two numbers you get 5000/65.635, without needing to know that it is 76.1789%.

The same way, you can leave calculations based on two numbers using * or / or + or - in between to Illy; in many cases you can copy the difficult one from the source and insert it without typing it.

[zimi creative]

This has been overlooked in Adobe Illustrator for such a long time. What is the answer to this seemingly simple request about scaling. It is something I have been looking forward to seeing answered.

[Monika Gause]

There is a script that does it, but unfortunately it also flips the images http://illustrator.hilfdirselbst.ch/dokuwiki/en/skripte/javascript/wr-descaleimages 

[zimi creative]

Hi Monika,  thanks but I was hoping for something within Illustrator that I may have missed. I can't believe you cannot accurately scale an image up and down and back to 100%. 

[Jacob Bugge]

Todd,

It could form the basis of a feature request,
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

Until the feature is implemented or till the end of time, whichever occurs first, you can accurately scale an image up and down and back to 100%, or rather let Illy do it for you as described above.

To scale to 100%, you can insert the following in the Uniform Scale box:

10000/[Current percentage]

[default7p8fie1a2ja8]

This is all very wasteful, is there no tool/way to have the editable percentages in Adobe illustrator?

[Jacob Bugge]

default7,

As I said,it can form the basis of a feature request,

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests
https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

[grayes42831223]

There used to be a way, but I'm finding the exact same issue.

I have placed images that are at 12.57% by 11.54%, but I want them to equal out.  I know I used to do it from the top header bar, but that's gone now. I can embed it, edit it Photoshop, even image trace it, but no way to adjust those percentages I can find.

The obvious place would to have a toggle next to the hieght and width of the image, so I could see the current dimensions in my units of choice, then see the percentage of origianl image size by toggling it. 

[Ton Frederiks]

You can go to the Links panel and check the dimensions of the selected image.

This will be in pixels.

In the Transform panel enter the Width in pixels (like 760px) and make sure the Constrain chain is linked and hit Enter.

The links panel will show the scale as 100%.

If the image is distorted, make sure the chain symbol is broken and enter W and H separately.

[grayes42831223]

There are work arounds, but there's a very easy way InDesign handles this sort of image adjustment and I thought Illustrator did, too.  

If I place an image, Illustrator's default isn't always to bring it in at 100% scale. For example, I just placed an image that is 1620x2160, which Illustrator placed at 54.545% scale, or 883.636 x  11787..182pxs. Sure, I can do the additional step of transforming it to 100% scale and then working with it, but do I need to scale it up to 100% each time I then want to tweak the image's percentage size?

It's true, I could always do the math and calculate out what percentage of 1620 is 75%, but why can't I instead just adjust the scale percentage of the actual placed image, instead?

All of the responses so far have been "you just need to do the math" which is fine, but I think it wouldn't be difficult for the dev team to make this sort of option available, since doing math is what this application does so much better as it is.

Or maybe the function I want IS avaialble and I can't find it.  Which is why we're here to ask and have pointed out to us.

[Ton Frederiks]

As Jacob suggested create or vote for a feature request at UserVoice:

https://illustrator.uservoice.com/forums/333657-illustrator-desktop-feature-requests/suggestions/376...