• Global community
    • Language:
      • Deutsch
      • English
      • Español
      • Français
      • Português
  • 日本語コミュニティ
    Dedicated community for Japanese speakers
  • 한국 커뮤니티
    Dedicated community for Korean speakers
Exit
1

Unable to turn off new proportional scaling

Community Beginner ,
Oct 24, 2018 Oct 24, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I would like to revert to the legacy transform behavior in photoshop. I have found how to turn it off here but I can not find the folder to place the plain text file.

I have a MacBook and this folder sequence does not appear on my computer.

//Users/[User Name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings/

I have attached a few screenshots to show my folder system.

Am I simply looking in the wrong place?

Users.pngLibrary.png

Library2.png

Views

16.8K

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines

correct answers 2 Correct answers

Community Expert , Oct 24, 2018 Oct 24, 2018

You are trying to place PSUserConfig.txt into your Mac's System directory. It needs to go in your Home directory.

Some files and folders are hidden by default to protect the users. To open it in the Finder, first use the Go > Go to Folder command and copy/paste this path:  ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings/  into the dialog like so.

Screen Shot 2018-10-24 at 8.32.02 PM.png

~/ is your Home directory.

When you click on the Go button, the CC 2019 Finder Window will open and you can drop the PSUserConfig.txt right into th

...

Votes

Translate

Translate
Community Expert , Oct 11, 2019 Oct 11, 2019

Photoshop 20.0.6 now includes a setting in the Preferences so users don't have tio worry about making a PSUserConfig.txt file.

 

Look under Photoshop CC>Preferences>General (mac) or Edit>Preferences>Genertal (windows) and check Use Legacy Free Transform.

 

ltr.png

Votes

Translate

Translate
Adobe
Engaged ,
Oct 24, 2018 Oct 24, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Hi there,

If I may suggest, do not revert it.
The reason why Adobe took this decision is that in the 90% of cases, we need to keep the proportions of the image we are scaling.

You will get to use it very soon. Another cool bonus is that now you can transform and keep the proportions also with the side handles.

Use it for few days and it will feel very natural.

Cheers,
Martin

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 24, 2018 Oct 24, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Do you know if Adobe will extent this to Shape layers and all other Photoshop tools so things will be consistent in Photoshop Again?  What do you use in Photoshop? When Photoshop is not constant  it complicate scripting Photoshop.  When Adobe make changes like this it can brake programs that has been developed for Photoshop. Adobe just drop it on users without prior warnings.  At least this time Adobe provided a way to revert to a better behavior.

JJMack

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Oct 24, 2018 Oct 24, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I would really rather revert because I am constantly switching between photoshop and illustrator. In the new illustrator update they did not change the way you scale proportionally. I believe it will be a difficult switch and I would like to revert if possible.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Oct 31, 2018 Oct 31, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Sorry Martin,

I think the proportional tool adjustment is a disgrace. I've been using photoshop as my main professional tool since 1991 (version 2.0) and I don't want to be forced to use what amounts to training wheels, leg braces, guard rails, straight jacket... I depend on  free transformation and distortion as much as any tool in the kit. I'd go as far as saying it is the cornerstone of my skill set. because bending objects to my creative professional will is how I get paid.

Regards,

Charles

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 31, 2018 Oct 31, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

It is a stupid decision to change something that was there in all Adobe applications since their early versions.

Shift to constrain was used in  Illustrator 1.0, and even early beta's when Photoshop was PhotoShop.

Don't fix what isn't broken.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Dec 04, 2018 Dec 04, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

That's not true though is it. First of all, "scaling" as an action doesn't only apply to images. We use the same action for selection, cropping, etc. Some of these operations don't work the same what, so why does scaling? We have muscle memory we've trained for years that has become second nature to most of us. Also things like using ctrl while transforming is really unintuitive when proportionality is default. The whole thing is unintuitive. Shift has always been the proportionality toggle and it has always toggled *on* and still does in most cases. Having this stupid exception only screws with our habits for no reason.

It fixes a problem no one had. Was there a massive uproar about how hard it is to press shift while dragging the mouse that I didn't catch on the forums? Who thought this was even remotely needed or wanted?

Bonus stupidity: This doesn't even work in other Adobe apps. Indesign and Illustrator still use the old system so switching between apps totally screws with the user. Everybody who thought this was a good idea should be fired.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Participant ,
Dec 23, 2018 Dec 23, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I hate it too. I used to be able to scale in my sleep almost, either proportionately or not. Now I find I have to experiment each time as I can’t get used to it at all, and it doesn’t even seem consistent within Photoshop at times. I think your comment about muscle memory is right.

This is a road block to productivity.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Apr 29, 2019 Apr 29, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

And as a question has anyone used content aware scale proportionally? I certainly haven't - I have used it to extend to fill in a side of the image or something like that. And yet we have Proportional added to the content aware scale too.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Jun 01, 2019 Jun 01, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Well, no, I won't get used to it.  I want to be able to have proportional cropping when I want it and freehand cropping when I don't, not this mess.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jun 27, 2019 Jun 27, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

That is NOT true for my work - so i am not sure why anyone would think because THEIR individual work requires proportional scaling 90% of the time that it applies to EVERYONE'S work.  I rarely need proportional scaling  and if i do i used the Cltrl or alt keys to assist.

Also, to change something that has been an operational feature for years is annoying, especially since it requires existing users to change their work flow and UX habits. It breaks a tried and true UX rule.  The fact that it is not any easy change from the current default is ridiculous and insulting to Adobes existing user base.

This is just another example of ADOBE interface designers being bored and picking at the already decided UX work flows in its own system. There are plenty of buggy features in Adobes products (in there for years now, ESPECIALLY photoshop) that need to be fixed.

So please, you do not speak for the entire community.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Jun 27, 2019 Jun 27, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Solved in the latest update: Preferences > Use Legacy Free Transform/

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Oct 01, 2019 Oct 01, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

NOT SOLVED! That is a half-ass solution and only apply to scaling shapes. When transforming the selection marquee, scaling a smart object or even pixels the new proportional scale is still active. They need to make that preference revert completely or I'll loose my mind!!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 11, 2019 Oct 11, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Did you restsrt photoshop after checking the Use Legacy Free Transform box?

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Jul 26, 2019 Jul 26, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I absolutely hate it. we can hold the shift button to do the same but now when i try to scale things only horizontally or vertically it won't let me it enlarges the ENTIRE thing. It's beyond annoying and creates more work for me to find a new ways around it

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Engaged ,
Oct 11, 2019 Oct 11, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I earlier asked here (but have now erased) a question about the weird new behavior in PShop 2019 which I discovered when I tried -- unsuccessfully -- to scale a selection in one direction only, by just dragging the side handle, just the same as I've done hundreds of times in the past. Every time I tried, the selection scaled proportionally instead. Was I going crazy, I wondered? Remembering wrongly after all this time? Or was PShop 2019 broken??

 

I came to the forum looking for answers and found a post here explaining how now, in PShop 2019, one must press the shift key while dragging to prevent proportional scaling.

 

What madness is this? I agree with the folks who have complained about Adobe "fixing" what wasn't broken.

 

Isn't it enough that there are already several identical functions across The Big Three (Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator) that nevertheless have to be implemented with different keyboard shortcuts or work differently from one anothe when you'd expect them to work the same? For instance -- as just one example -- the "File>Place" functions in Illustrator and InDesign -- they do the exact same thing, but are implemented by different shortcuts. I often have to stop and think which program I'm in before I can place a file. Sounds like a small thing, but when you work back and forth in both programs as much as I do and use this function a lot, such a thing can be pretty annoying. (There are a few other functions that are like this as well.)


Maybe the programmers had no options in the early days when they were designing the suite as a whole and, if so, if it had to be that way, then okay. But this seemingly whimsical switch in 2019 PShop -- thwarting that gesture which we power users are, after all these years, hard-wired to use -- has wasted 45 minutes of my time today (including my search for an answer and the compulsion to write this post) -- time I really didn't have to spare.

 

Sure, maybe I'm stupid not to have thought to at least try the Shift key to disable proportional scaling -- but then, why would I ever have ever expected that to work? It is such a basic and ingrained function to use the Shift to constrain, it just didn't occur to me. Thank goodness someone took the time to post the answer. I DO appreciate that.

 

I DON'T appreciate being told to "use it and soon I'll like it." That's not taking into consideration that, in point of fact, sometimes proportional scaling is not what I NEED!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Guest
Nov 16, 2021 Nov 16, 2021

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

LATEST

I had a similar experience using InDesign! I just found out about this terrible changes right here: I googled for over an houer and still couldn't find anything on why InDesign won't do what I depretly want it to do.

This is so annoying!

 

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Expert ,
Oct 24, 2018 Oct 24, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

You are trying to place PSUserConfig.txt into your Mac's System directory. It needs to go in your Home directory.

Some files and folders are hidden by default to protect the users. To open it in the Finder, first use the Go > Go to Folder command and copy/paste this path:  ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings/  into the dialog like so.

Screen Shot 2018-10-24 at 8.32.02 PM.png

~/ is your Home directory.

When you click on the Go button, the CC 2019 Finder Window will open and you can drop the PSUserConfig.txt right into the Finder window. Restart Photoshop and the Legacy behavior will return.

Should you want to go back to the default, rename PSUserConfig.txt to ~PSUserConfig.txt, which will tell Photoshop to ignore it. You can also delete it.

I really don't want to debate whether you should or should not revert the default behavior, I just want you to know how to do it and how to get out of it. What you want should be your own decision.

Gene

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Oct 25, 2018 Oct 25, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

This worked for me. I appreciate your help!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Oct 27, 2018 Oct 27, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Jun 19, 2019 Jun 19, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

THANKS

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
New Here ,
Nov 14, 2019 Nov 14, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

that was easy! thanks so much

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Nov 08, 2018 Nov 08, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I too hate this change. I'm a full time photographer and the changes make things far worse for quickly changing the size and fixing lines in photos.

I want to go back to the old way, but the steps above don't work. For a start Text Edit will not let me save a .txt file, it says it has to be a .rtf. I have an iMac.

Any idea on how to change this on a Mac?

And why does the little button to "maintain aspect ratio" not toggle this nonsense on and off? It does nothing on my PS.

Free Transform should mean you are free to do what you want (within the confines of how it works - i.e. not to Distort). And Why can't distort have an option to move the central points too. I want to quickly fix my straight lines and also to move the central points - why should I need to change tools to do this?

Given that this is a supremely basic PS function their "Let's put everything one step further away from the user" (a very modern) approach is not helpful. Having to copy and paste some obscure command into an obscure location to switch it off is plain silliness. And it doesn't even work.

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Explorer ,
Nov 08, 2018 Nov 08, 2018

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

I'll update my rant (or possibly downgrade it) due to the very helpful response by 2975782 above.

6.  Re: Unable to turn off new proportional scaling

   2975782 Level 1

 

It looks like we've (the alleged 10%) been downgraded simply to press Shift to go back to legacy behaviour. Far better than it first seemed and makes my tantrum slightly obsolete!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines
Community Beginner ,
Apr 12, 2019 Apr 12, 2019

Copy link to clipboard

Copied

Agreed.  STOP messing with our shortcuts!!!  in a recent update, you also messed with CTRL +ALT + Z.... Sure while this was originally a dumb setup, it's what we know and have muscle memory to use.... now, we changed it back since we are able to change this hotkey and continue with an efficient workflow.  Keyword... workflow... you are messing with it which cost us time... which cost us money.

STOP MESSING WITH KEYBINDINGS!!! It kills workflow!

Votes

Translate

Translate

Report

Report
Community guidelines
Be kind and respectful, give credit to the original source of content, and search for duplicates before posting. Learn more
community guidelines