To scale the selection down, click on any of the transform handles (red arrow in the image above) and drag your mouse inwards while holding the ctrl key (to scale it from the center). You can hit the “Reset” button in the Scale tool dialogue box (red arrow in the image above) at any time to revert your selection area back to its original size. If you want to scale the selection area up from the bottom left corner (green arrow in the image above), for example, grab the opposite handle in the top right corner (red arrow) and drag it outward (without holding the ctrl key). If you’d like to scale the selection area up (make it larger), click and drag any transform handle (red arrow in the image above) outward and hold the ctrl key (this will scale the selection area from the center of the rectangle). Once your scale tool is active, navigate over to your Tool Options panel (this panel is usually underneath the Toolbox by default – though I’ve customized my GIMP workspace to have it on the right side of my image window – outlined in green in the image above).įor starters, make sure your chain-link icon is locked (red arrow in the image above) so that the selection area will maintain its original aspect ratio while you scale it up or down (this just ensures you don’t end up with a squished or stretched out selection area). I’ll click on the “Scale” option from the tool group to activate my scale tool (green arrow). Once you have your selection area drawn, as I do in the image above (red arrow), you can grab the scale tool from your toolbox (tools are grouped together as of GIMP 2.10.18, so you can find your scale tool in the Transformation group denoted by the yellow arrow in the image above – you can also use the shortcut key “shift+s” to grab the scale tool).

Step 2: Grab Your Scale Tool and Change the Mode I won’t go into detail as to how to draw a selection for this tutorial – though you can check out my GIMP Selection Areas Basics and GIMP Selection Areas Advanced tutorials on YouTube for more on that subject.

You can use the Rectangle Select tool, Ellipse Select tool, Free Select tool, Foreground Select tool, Scissors, Fuzzy Select, Select by Color, Paths tool, or even a Quick Mask or Layer Mask to Selection. There are a variety of ways to draw a selection in GIMP.

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