Free Transfrom Tool

When to use

To scale, rotate, skew, or distort a selection, a Text layer, or a Shape layer.

Drag actions

• Scale : Corner handle drag.

• One-axis scale : Side handle drag.

• Rotate : Drag the disc outside the bounding box.

• Skew : Ctrl + side handle.

• Distort : Ctrl + corner handle.

• Symmetric distort : Ctrl + Shift + corner.

• Move the rotation pivot : Drag the disc center.

• Increase the rotation handle size : page up button.
• Decrease the rotation handle size : page down button.

• Reset the rotation pivot : Double click the disc center.

How to use

1. Make a selection, or select a Text / Shape layer.
2. Press 'Ctrl+T' to invoke Free transform. For Text/Shape layers, you can use free transform function directly without having to select the Free Transform tool.
3. The bounding box and rotation disc appear. Drag any handle to transform.

Numeric Input (Position · Size · Rotation)

When Free Transform is active, the toolbar exposes the center coordinates (X, Y), size (W, H), and rotation (°) of the selection. Each field accepts direct keyboard input for precise adjustment, and any value entered is recorded in the Undo history.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Consecutive arrow-key presses are merged into a single Undo step.

Auto Bounding-Box Detection

Just like the Move Tool, hovering over the canvas highlights the layer's bounding box, and left-clicking switches Free Transform to that layer.