Resizing layers

To adjust a layer’s height or width, you can drag any of its edges. To adjust both the height and width at once, you can use the corner handles.

Holding ⇧ will resize the layer proportionately, keeping its height and width at the same ratio.

Holding ⌥ will resize the layer from its center, rather than the edge you’re dragging from.

Note: resizing will be affected by any Resizing constraints applied.

Resizing layers in the Inspector

You can also resize a layer by selecting it and typing new dimensions in the Inspector. As you type, you’ll be able to preview how it will look. Once you are happy, click ⏎ to apply your changes.

By default, this will resize layers from their top-left corners, but you can change this using the following keyboard operators:

You can use the operators w,h,x, andy as stand-ins for the width, height, X, and Y of the selected element. For example, if you set a rectangle’s height tow it will turn it into a square.

The Inspector also lets you use math to resize or move layers with the following:

You can also use percentages to change the height or width of layers relative to its group or Artboard. For example, setting a layer’s height to 10% in a 960 pixel-wide Artboard will change its width to 96px.

Finally, if you’re editing the corner radius of a rounded rectangle, you can use ; to specify a different value for each corner (e.g. 30;40;20;30).

You can click the lock icon that’s between the width and the height values or use the shortcut ⌥⌘L to make sure the layer resizes proportionately.

Resizing layers with keyboard shortcuts

For precise adjustments, you can select layers and resize them using the following keyboard shortcuts:

You can set your own increment values for these shortcuts using the Nudging options in the Canvas tab of the Preferences window.