I have been using Photoshop since it was called Photoshop 3.0. No, not Photoshop CS2, Photoshop 3.0 came out in 1995. It was the first time I used Photoshop and decided I wanted a career as a graphic designer. By the time I went to school, it was Photoshop 4.0. Since those days, if you tried to scale an object, one had to hold down the Shift key while dragging a corner handle to make sure the items are constrained proportionately.
Shift Key Now Changed
Let’s fast forward to the present day, and with Photoshop 2019 (24+ years), Adobe has decided to change things up. If you hold the shift key while dragging a corner handle, the objects are no longer constrain; instead, it will be warped and appear disproportionately. What? Yep, the one consistent thing and legacy all of a sudden is now changed.
If you uploaded to the latest update Photoshop (November 2019), dragging a corner handle now scales the layer proportionally by default, indicated by the Maintain Aspect Ratio button (link icon) in the ‘ON’ state in the Options bar.
If you want it off, click the Maintain Aspect Ratio (link icon) button to turn it off. Now, if you hold the Shift key while pressed, it acts as a toggle for the Maintain Aspect Ratio button. But, if the Maintain Aspect Ratio button is ON, the Shift key toggles it OFF while pressed and vice versa. The cool part in all of this, Photoshop will remember the last transformation behaviour setting—proportional or non-proportional scaling—it will be your default transform behaviour when you start Photoshop the next time.
But, if you are unsure in all of this, you could create a text tile, and don’t need to worry anything above, and it will go back to what you once had before the Maintain Aspect Ratio (link icon) or the change in the Shift key. Thankfully, you can create a text file and place it in their respective folder, and you are good to go.
Steps to go back to how it was:
- Quit Photoshop. Mac: Command-Q or PC: Control-Q
- Open Notepad (Windows) or a text editor on Mac OS such as TextEdit. Create a plain text file.
- Either type the text below in the text file or copy and paste this into a text file:
TransformProportionalScale 0 - Save the file as “PSUserConfig.txt”
- Move this text file to Windows: [Installation Drive]:\Users[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019\Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings\
- On a Mac: //Users/[User Name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings/
*Note: On a Mac, the folder may be hidden. If so, you will need to go to the finder and hit Shift-Command-G. Then hit “go.”
Copy and paste this
//Users/[User Name]/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CC 2019 Settings/
Or if you prefer, you can also re-trained yourself, and try to not hold the Shift key while dragging a corner handle!