How to transform rectangular in centimeters

[nana alderweireld]

Hi, i've done pic 1 several months ago and i remember at the time it was easy to  make the rectangular using cm as measurement unit, but now i'm trying to make another rectangular and for the life of me i just couldn't make the same properties page as the same as before (pic 2). Can someone kindly teach me please, thanks.

[Bojan Živković]

To change the measurement unit of Rulers to centimeters, press Ctrl + R to display the Rulers. Then, right-click on the ruler and select 'Centimeters'. To hide the ruler after changing the units, press Ctrl + R again.

[Stephen Marsh]

In addition, you can also right-click in the width and height field in the Properties panel and change the unit of measure without changing the main ruler units for the doc. Keep in mind that Photoshop works in pixels as the native unit, so depending on the document resolution some rounding of values may occur when translating metric to pixels which are based on 1/72 inch.

[nana alderweireld]

i did as you said and then when i clicked on the rectangle again, it changes to px again... 
when i edit pic 1, even if i keep clicking the rectangle, the properties layout still stays the same, the cm is still cm, it won't change to px, hence if you know how to directly change the whole properties layout to the one in pic1, please teach me, thanks again..

[nana alderweireld]

Thank you for your reply, i'm terribly sorry if i worded too vaguely, but what i wanted to ask -- in a nutshell is, i don't want the properties layout as shown in pic 2 (bcs it's very inconvenient), i want it to be the properties layout as pic 1. But i really have no idea how to change it.  If you know please kindly teach me, Thanks again.

[jane-e]

@nana alderweireld 

You can try changing the unit of measurement in Preferences or the Info panel.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/rulers.html

Change the unit of measurement

1. Do one of the following:

   • Double-click a ruler.

   • (Windows) Choose Edit > Preferences > Units & Rulers, or right-click the ruler and then choose a new unit from the context menu.

   • (Mac OS) Choose Photoshop > Preferences > Units & Rulers, or Control-click the ruler and then choose a new unit from the context menu.

2. For Rulers, choose a unit of measurement.

   Note: Changing the units on the Info panel automatically changes the units on the rulers.
3. Click OK.

   One more thing: you can type "24.5 cm" in the text box. PS will convert to pixels or whatever your current unit of measurement is. I know this isn't what you want, but it will get you through.

   Jane

[Bojan Živković]

Based on my testing, changing units as @Stephen Marsh  suggests results in the Properties panel displaying centimeters for all new documents, even after restarting and relaunching Photoshop.

[Trevor.Dennis]

I like to box the shape I need with guides.

Drag a pair of guides to intersect at the top left corner, and drag the grid zero, zero point to the intersection (it will snap into position).

Create new guides for the width and height.  The New Guide dialog values reflect whatever unit you have set the rulers to.

Drag the shape or selection to fit the guides.  Either will snap perfectly into position.