Shift key to constrain proportions

[jay fresno]

In InDesign and Photoshop CC 2019, the Shift key behavior is reversed so that objects scale proportionally without the Shift key. This doesn't seem to work the same way in Illustrator. In Illustrator CC 2019 I still need to hold down Shift to scale proportionally.

It seems like the Shift key should be consistent throughout the suite.

Did Adobe NOT change the Shift for proportional scaling in Illustrator?

[Ton Frederiks]

I noticed that behaviour in Photoshop and thought it was something gone wrong and tried to reset the preferences (and that did not help).

I did not see it in InDesign, luckily.

If it was an intentional change, it is one of the most stupid changes I have seen.

Why change something that has been there since the first versions of these applications?

[jay fresno]

Adobe sometimes changes things that have been in an application for a long time because they think that it will make it easier for new users to learn the application. Of course, that makes it more difficult for experienced users.

In any case, I'm trying to figure out if this new Shift-key behavior is consistent throughout the suite or just for certain applications.

Changing the behavior in Photoshop and not the other applications makes it inconsistent, and inconsistency makes it more difficult for everyone, both new and experienced users.

[Ton Frederiks]

Yes, luckily it is only Photoshop.

To make it more user friendly, someone must have been thinking.

Luckily there is a very intuitive, user friendly  way to get the old behaviour back.

According to the What's New file:

How do I turn off the new proportional scaling by default behavior while transforming layers?

To revert to the legacy transform behavior, do the following:

1. Use Notepad (Windows) or a text editor on Mac OS to create a plain text file (.txt).
2. Type the text below in the text file:
   
   TransformProportionalScale 0
   
   
3. Save the file as "PSUserConfig.txt" to your Photoshop settings folder:
   • Windows: [Installation Drive]:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings\
   • macOS: //Users/[User Name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings/

[jane-e]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/Ton+Frederiks  wrote

Luckily there is a very intuitive, user friendly  way to get the old behaviour back.

Intuitive and user friendly, Ton? I like the way you think! 

[Bill Silbert]

Luckily there is a very intuitive, user friendly  way to get the old behaviour back.

Yes. That is the gobbledegook I was referring to in my first post. Is there somebody out there that actually thinks that is an easy fix for the average user?

[magnum opusd80002177]

Hey Ton, this doesn't seem to work for me—did it work for you?

[magnum opusd80002177]

Oops, found the issue.

Scrapped my other preferences from previous installs and made sure the newer version was cleanly installed. Then dropped the .txt in the preferences folder before opening Photoshop. Worked great. Thanks for the fix!

[Ton Frederiks]

Good to hear that worked for you.

[Bill Silbert]

I also trashed preferences the first time I tried to scale in Photoshop using the shift. From what I can tell they are not providing a simple option to uncheck this behavior. Rather they are instructing people if they don't like it to create a text file that has to go into Photoshop's preference folder (see: New and enhanced features | Latest release of Photoshop CC ). In the same page I just referred to they seem to be saying that this is a major improvement that will make it easier to scale. I agree with Ton that this is not very intelligent in that it does not factor in long time users and that changing this function at this point just doesn't make sense. Let us hope that they realize the foolhardiness of this move and that this isn't the beginning of the era of fixing things that aren't broken.

[Ton Frederiks · Accepted solution]

To rant a little more, it is not consistent in the application, it is only for layers:

"Photoshop now transforms most layer types (such as pixel layers, type layers, bitmaps, Placed Smart Objects) proportionally by default. Shapes and paths, that is vectors, still transform non-proportionally by default."

[Barbara Ash]

Oh. Good to know. It would have been more appropriate if Adobe had saved this change for April 1.

[jay fresno]

Thanks Ton for clarifying when and where this new "feature" kicks in, and thanks to everyone who answered. For some reason I'm not able to mark this question as answered. I hope that the moderator can step in and do so.

[jane-e]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/jay+fresno  wrote

For some reason I'm not able to mark this question as answered. I hope that the moderator can step in and do so.

Hi Jay,

The reason you couldn’t mark Ton’s answer correct is that this was a “discussion”. I changed it to “question”, so please try again.

[negus48]

Totally agree. They have change the action after over 40 years of it being an industry standard. Second nature when you are under deadline pressure. The only reason for it, in my humble opinion, is to conform with Microsoft Office. For a software company as huge and slick as Adobe it's a retrograde step. I am waiting to see if they follow through updating InDesign and Illustrator the same way. It's going to drive us crazy and will certainly slow down productivity having to 'think' every time before we resize an item. I do not see any benefit to reversing a procedure which has become second nature globally. I think some whipper-snapper-programmer has convinced the 'Suits' that it's a good idea, just to make a name for him/herself in the boardroom. Pointless. He/she should be fired and the wrong should be put right.

[Nicktendo28]

Check this out. Might help with the changes and new features to Photoshop cc 2019. Not sure why they did it to photoshop and not Illustrator cc 2019.

New and enhanced features | Latest release of Photoshop CC

[Barbara Ash]

The new Shift key behavior seems to be a change only in Photoshop.

[AshutoshChaturvedi]

there has been no change to Illustrator's behaviour

[Bill Silbert]

there has been no change to Illustrator's behaviour

We can all be thankful for that. Hopefully any future changes to Illustrator will not be as ill-advised as this Photoshop one is.

[magnum opusd80002177]

It's extremely frustrating when you've used the shift key to constrain scale/transform content for over 10 years and Adobe just decides, "Hey, let's just roll this out to one program and not the others."

This is why 90% of the designers I talk to say they don't update their software for months—the updates seemingly ALWAYS carries some weird change to default/classic workflows.

changeshiftback​

[Barbara Ash]

If I wasn't teaching I would do the same and wait until the bugs are worked out before installing a new update.

[nathana53006134]

I can't get things to scale proportionally in indesign (cc 2019) whether i hold down shift or don't. What's the answer? There must be some way to do it that doesn't involve coding.

[Ton Frederiks]

nathana53006134  wrote

I can't get things to scale proportionally in indesign (cc 2019) whether i hold down shift or don't. What's the answer? There must be some way to do it that doesn't involve coding.

Please post this question in the InDesign forum:

InDesign

[SPROCK3T]

I'll save you some time.  Adobe doesn't read these posts. At all.

If they did, we'd see it.  At the very minimum, we'd see their software getting better, not worse don't you think?

If you thought this was a place to give them some honest feedback about how to improve their software, I'm afraid you are mistaken.  It seems like this would be a great venue for collecting good, solid feedback so they could make their software better, but unfortunately, this isn't the case. These forums are set up only a place for us to vent.

There is an upside to it. Not responding to users advice about what could be improved is helping us all to look to other software.  Perhaps we all have put too many eggs into the Adobe basket. 

Affinity should be sending gift baskets to Adobe for their nonsense.  Adobe has left the door wide open for us to see what else is out there.

So go through the door, try some other software, but really give it a try.  It won't have the same shortcuts and it will feel a lot different for a little bit, but so did Photoshop until we all got used to it.

[Bill Silbert]

If you want to post where the Adobe engineers actually do read what you write then go here: Adobe Illustrator Feedback .