Adobe Illustrator - scale bounding box

Author

scale bounding box

email@isanoniem.nl

2006-06-27, 6:29 pm

I've noticed the following (the effect is more noticeable with smaller
graphics e.g. 5 mm).
When I create a small square (5 x 5 mm) and scale it to 210 x 297 mm, I
do this: I select the square. A bounding box around the square appears.
I click on the bottom-right anchor point of the bounding box. I drag it
to the bottom-right (the square is at coordinates 0/0 and I drag it to
210/297). Then not only does the graphic resizes, but also the distance
between the bounding box's anchor points and the square's path points
(which are centered inside the thickness of the line). The result isn't
a scaled square of 210 by 297, but a centered square about halve that
size, centered on the page. In other words the top left point of the
square doesn't stay at coordinates 0/0 but moves along the drag to the
bottom right. As I said, this is more noticeable with extremely small
graphics. That's why I didn't notice that before. I'm using Illustrator
8 on OS 9. On this page you can see a screendump of it, scaling the
green square and holding the mouse botton after I've dragged/scaled it.

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/5538/scaling0ph.jpg

is there something I can do to prevent this?

Doug Winger

2006-06-27, 6:29 pm

In article <1150809061.859323.85610@b68g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
email@isanoniem.nl wrote:

> I've noticed the following (the effect is more noticeable with smaller
> graphics e.g. 5 mm).
> When I create a small square (5 x 5 mm) and scale it to 210 x 297 mm, I
.....
>
> is there something I can do to prevent this?

Use the scale tool or transform rather than the bounding box. A bounding
box is just that: it encloses the entire element's boundary, including
stroke width. From what you've written, I assume you want the actual
line's points to be scaled to the desired dimensions. You'd be better
off working with the actual points rather than the bounding box.

If you have a complex/grouped object, the bounding box can often be
noticeably offset, sometimes including curve point's handle locations in
its dimensions. Scaling with the bouncing box is generally left to those
times when several elements are being sized and it's not an exact thing,
but rather a visual, "Well, that looks good..." sort of thing.

My normal approach when scaling a rectangle in this manner is set
snap-to point using guides or a previous element and then to anchor the
scale tool at the 'stationary' corner point, and then 'grab' the
opposite corner to scale/drag it to where I want it. However, that's
rarely used when holding a particular dimension is important. I normally
just create a rectangle of the desired size.

- Doug