An important distinction when you are creating and editing images in Adobe Photoshop CS5 is the distinction between layers and images. Many of the tools and utilities in Photoshop, especially those that change the size or orientation of your selection, will affect the entire image. We have written about flipping layers in Photoshop CS5 and rotating Photoshop CS5 layers, but both of those options will leave your layer the same size as it started. Learning how to change the size of a layer in Photoshop CS5, instead of changing the entire image size, will make the selected layer smaller or larger while leaving the rest of the image alone. Use this feature when you want to change the size of a layer element in relation to the rest of your image.
Adjust a Layer’s Size in Photoshop CS5
It can be difficult to blindly tell how large an image element should be, especially when you are copying the element from another image. Different resolutions and pixels per inch can affect the size of an element, forcing you to resize that element to make it work with your current image. Using layers allows you to isolate the elements that you want to work with into smaller units that can be edited independently from one another.
Begin the process of changing your layer size in Photoshop CS5 by opening the image containing the layer you want to resize.
Click the layer that you want to resize from the Layers panel at the right side of the window. If the Layers panel is not visible, press F7 on your keyboard to display it.
Click Edit at the top of the window, click Transform, then click Scale. You can also press Ctrl + T on your keyboard to bring up the transformation tools.
The toolbar at the top of your window will change so that it looks like the image below.
The X and Y values indicate the center of the layer. If you adjust the values in these fields, your layer will be moved to the new center point that you have defined. The default values for these fields place the center of the layer at the center of your canvas.
The W and H fields are the ones that you will use to change your layer size. To keep the image in scale, you will need to change the values by the same size. For example, in the image below, I have adjusted my settings so that my W value is 50% and my H value is 50%.
Note that there are also boxes on each side and corner of the image. If you click and drag these boxes, you can also resize the layer. It is often helpful to use the boxes to manually resize the image, then adjust the W and H field values so that the layer stays in scale.
When you have finished resizing the layer, press the Enter key on your keyboard to apply the changes. if you decide that you do not like the layer size change, press Ctrl + Z on your keyboard to undo the action.