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sevenK
sevenK
Inspiring
November 24, 2022
Question

InDesign 18 numeric scaling does not scale stroke nor effect

  • November 24, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 2511 views

If I scale an object, say a square 40x40 mm with a stroke size of 4 point, to say double the size in any of the panels, transform or object panel, the stroke size stays the same. This also applies to effects e.g. drop shadows. The transformation is set to scale everything, which it does if I use the percentage scaling, but not if I scale numerically. I’m pretty sure all the object properties used to be scaled as well when adjusting the size of the object. This is really annoying because I often scale objects within artworks by adjusting their size, so if the object contains a stroke or any other effect, they don’t get scaled properly.

 
I did delete the prefs already, but that didn‘t help. It‘s also weird that I can’t lock proportions anymore in the transformation panel, haven’t noticed this before though, but I believe the lock option used to be there as well. 

 

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1 reply

Peter Spier
Peter Spier
Adobe Expert
November 24, 2022

With either of the selection tools active you will find the option to scale strokes in the menu on the right end of the Control Panel. Set it with no object selected and it will become the default for all objects in the file. Do it with no files open and it will be the default for all new files.

sevenK
sevenKAuthor
Inspiring
November 24, 2022

It is set to scale but doesn't scale the effects or strokes.

Robert at ID-Tasker
Robert at ID-Tasker
Brainiac
November 25, 2022

>> so I guess I need to calculate the scaling percentage to get the correct size if I have to, oh well. 

Actually, you can enter didmensions, including the units, into the scaling fields. Numbers without any units are interprestred as the default unit, which is percent, but if you specify the units the object will be scaled to that absolute size. You can also enter any dimension, including the units that differ from the ruler units, including % into the height and width filelds and indesign will do the calulation to the current ruler units and resize accordingly.

And Eugene is correct in how this has worked historically.

On a side note, if you search the forums for discussions of scaling effects when resizing an object you will find my vehement objections to this practice at least with shadows. Out here in the real world shadows and things like glows are not determined by the surface area of an object (what we depict on the page surface by the size of an object) but by how high the object is off the surface, in the case of shadows, or how bright, in the case of glows. The only effect that I think might be proportioanl to size would be a bevel, and that would hardly be the default condition in my opinion.


And InDesign also accepts +/-/* and / if you need to move or resize the item by a specific value - "+20" or "-15" or "*2.5" instead of 250%, etc. 

 

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