How To Use Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop – Advanced Method
33.7K views 957 likes 88 comments
Your choices stick across every tutorial on this device.
Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop resizes an image without changing important visual content, such as the people, buildings, and other key items in the photo.
Normal scaling affects all pixels uniformly. Content-Aware Scale mostly affects the pixels in areas that don’t have important visual content, so a wide photo can shrink while the landmarks keep their shape.
It solves a common problem: an image that has to fit a predefined area or aspect ratio. The space might come from a blog post layout, a social media profile, or a magazine page.
This tutorial is for anyone who resizes photos or screenshots to fit a space. I will show you two examples and an advanced method.
By the end, you will be able to shrink a wide photo into a narrower canvas and protect the parts that matter with a channel. You will also fit a user interface screenshot into a layout without cutting it apart.
The video was recorded in Photoshop 2017 (version 18.0), and the tool works the same way in the current version. Content-Aware Scale has been part of Photoshop since CS4 in 2008.
Key Takeaways
- Content-Aware Scale is its own command under the Edit menu, not a setting inside Free Transform.
- The Amount setting is a ratio: 100% is all Content-Aware, 0% is regular scaling, and the values in between blend the two.
- The Protect dropdown reads an alpha channel. White areas stay untouched, and black areas are free to compress.
- The Reference Point grid decides which part of the image stays put while the rest scales.
- The skin tone button tells Photoshop to protect the people in a portrait.
- The same tool shrinks a user interface screenshot, because it keeps the pixels that contain detail and drops the ones that don’t.
Table of contents
- What You Will Learn
- Requirements
- Content-Aware Scale Keyboard Shortcuts
- Why Free Transform Distorts a Wide Image
- Step 1: Open Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop
- Step 2: Content-Aware Scale Options Bar Settings
- Step 3: Protect Pixels With an Alpha Channel
- Advanced Method: Fit a UI Screenshot With Content-Aware Scale
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion
- Related Links
What You Will Learn
- How to open Content-Aware Scale and fit a wide photo into a narrower canvas
- How to move the Reference Point so the image scales from the side you choose
- How to balance Content-Aware and regular scaling with the Amount setting
- How to build an alpha channel that protects one part of the image
- How to fit a user interface screenshot into a layout without deleting rows of pixels
Requirements
Before you start
- Photoshop 2017 (version 18.0 or later) or the current version
- An image or screenshot that is wider or taller than the space it needs to fit
Content-Aware Scale Keyboard Shortcuts
| Action | Windows | macOS |
|---|---|---|
| Free Transform | Ctrl T | Command T |
| Cancel a transform | Esc | Esc |
| Content-Aware Scale | Alt Shift Ctrl C | Option Shift Command C |
| Step Backward (undo several steps) | Ctrl Alt Z | Command Option Z |
| Fill the selection with the background color | Ctrl Backspace | Command Delete |
| Deselect | Ctrl D | Command D |
Why Free Transform Distorts a Wide Image
We’re going to work with this image of the Sydney Harbor. The photo shows the Sydney Opera House, and it is quite wide. It is actually wider than the canvas.
Sometimes you need to fit an image into a required space. It may be a constriction based on the blog post you’re creating, a social media profile, or a magazine layout. Either way, you’re trying to fit the image into a predefined area or aspect ratio.
If the goal is to match another image’s exact width, height, and resolution, the Crop Tool’s Front Image preset does that for you. Here, the problem is different. This layer is way too wide for the space we have.
You can press CtrlT (Windows) or CommandT (macOS) to open Free Transform and scale the image in. If you do that, you stretch the pixels and distort the buildings.
Press Esc to cancel. That is not the best way to do it, and Photoshop has a better tool for this problem.
Note: Since Photoshop 2019, Free Transform scales proportionally by default, and Shift switches that off. The video predates the change. If you prefer the old behavior, learn how to bring back the Shift key proportional scale. Content-Aware Scale is not affected by the change.
Step 1: Open Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop
Go to Edit > Content-Aware Scale, or press AltShiftCtrlC (Windows) or OptionShiftCommandC (macOS).
Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop is a separate command. You won’t find it as an option inside Free Transform, so head to the Edit menu every time.
Watch what happens when you scale now. Click and drag the left handle toward the center. Notice how the image is not really distorting. Instead, Photoshop collapses the pixels that don’t have important content.
The Sydney Opera House keeps its shape, and so do most of the buildings on the left-hand side.
When you’re done, click the check mark in the Options bar. The image now fits within the predefined space.
Photoshop decided on its own which pixels could go. In the next step, you’ll see the settings that let you steer that decision.
Tip: Press CtrlAltZ (Windows) or CommandOptionZ (macOS) to step back through your history. Undo the scale now, so you can try the settings in the next step on the original image.
Step 2: Content-Aware Scale Options Bar Settings
Go back into Edit > Content-Aware Scale and look at the Options bar. You get a few options, and each one changes how the scale behaves.
Reference Point. On the left-hand side, you see a small grid of boxes. The middle box is selected by default, so the reference point is right in the center. This is where the image scales from once you start dragging the handles.
Click a different box, and the point moves. Choose the center box on the right, and the image now scales from that point.
Amount. By default it’s set to 100, and that’s the ratio between Content-Aware Scale and regular scale. At 100%, you’re doing all Content-Aware Scale.
Bring the Amount back to 0, and the image reverts to normal, regular scaling. Around 50% gives you a half-and-half blend. In most cases, 100% is what you need.
Protect skin tones. Click the skin tone icon to protect the people in a portrait. This image has no skin tones, so you don’t need to worry about it here.
Protect. This dropdown menu lets you protect pixels in the image with a channel. The next step shows how it works.
Click Cancel for now.
Step 3: Protect Pixels With an Alpha Channel
Move the image over to the right, so the buildings on the left-hand side are easy to see. Those are the pixels you’ll protect.
Select the Lasso Tool and draw a selection around the area you want to protect. It doesn’t have to be precise.
Note: A feather of about 10 pixels is okay. It means the selection won’t be sharp, and the edge of the protected area will have some blurriness to it.
Go into the Channels panel and create a new channel. Photoshop names it Alpha 1.
White is the background color, so press CtrlBackspace (Windows) or CommandDelete (macOS) to fill the selection with white.
Anything that is white will be protected. Anything that is black can be adjusted by Content-Aware Scale.
Press CtrlD (Windows) or CommandD (macOS) to deselect. Click on RGB, and go back into the Layers panel.
Go to Edit > Content-Aware Scale. Under Protect, choose Alpha 1, because that’s the name of the channel you created.
Scale the image in. None of the pixels in the white area change. Click the check mark, and the scale is complete.
The saved channel is the foundation of a longer workflow. To take the same channel trick through a full resize and crop, see how to resize an image without squeezing it.
Advanced Method: Fit a UI Screenshot With Content-Aware Scale
Now I’ll show you how I use this feature for something completely different. I write for magazines and blogs about Photoshop, and the articles need screenshots of the user interface. Those screenshots have to fit within specific spaces.
Here is a screenshot of the Layers panel in Photoshop. The white space represents the area it needs to fit in, and the screenshot is too tall for it.
In the past, I would figure out the space I needed, make a selection, and hit the Delete key. Then I would make another selection and move the rest up to try to fit it within that space. It’s very time-consuming and not very efficient.
Press CtrlAltZ (Windows) or CommandOptionZ (macOS) to undo those steps.
The same Content-Aware technology solves this problem. Take your UI element, figure out how big it needs to be, then go to Edit > Content-Aware Scale and scale it in.
Photoshop knows exactly which pixels are irrelevant, and it keeps every pixel that contains detail.
This technique speeds up the process of creating screenshots for the articles I write. For a longer walkthrough that includes the same screenshot trick and a cleanup pass, see how to resize an image without stretching it in Photoshop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Content-Aware Scale resizes an image while leaving important visual content, such as people and buildings, mostly untouched. Normal scaling stretches every pixel uniformly. Content-Aware Scale compresses the areas that don’t hold important detail instead.
It lives under Edit > Content-Aware Scale. The shortcut is Alt Shift Ctrl C on Windows or Option Shift Command C on macOS. It is a separate command from Free Transform.
Amount is the ratio between Content-Aware scaling and regular scaling. At 100% the whole resize is content aware, and at 0% you get a normal stretch. Values in between blend the two, and 100% is the right choice for most images.
Select the area with the Lasso Tool, then create a new channel in the Channels panel and fill the selection with white. Back in the Layers panel, open Content-Aware Scale and choose that channel from the Protect dropdown. White pixels stay fixed, and black pixels are allowed to compress.
The skin tone icon in the Options bar tells Photoshop to protect areas that contain skin tones. Click it when you scale a portrait so the person keeps their proportions. A landscape with no people doesn’t need it.
The Reference Point is the small grid of boxes on the left of the Options bar. The selected box marks the spot the image scales from. The center box is the default, and clicking another box moves the point.
Yes. A user interface screenshot that is too tall for a layout can be scaled down with Content-Aware Scale, and Photoshop keeps the pixels that contain detail. That is faster than selecting and deleting strips of the image by hand.
Content-Aware Scale first shipped in Photoshop CS4 in 2008. It has stayed in the Edit menu through Photoshop 2017 (version 18.0), the version used in the video, and the current version. You do not need a newer release to follow along.
Conclusion
Content-Aware Scale in Photoshop shrinks a photo to a new space while the Sydney Opera House, or whatever matters in your image, keeps its shape. The Reference Point, Amount, and Protect settings give you control over what moves.
An alpha channel protects any area you choose, and the same tool fits a user interface screenshot into a layout without slicing it apart.
Watch the video to see each example in motion. If you come up with any other interesting ways of using Content-Aware Scale, comment on the video and let me know.
Selections and Masking Mastery
Complete course includes 2.5 hours of step-by-step lessons, 6 structured modules, downloadable practice files, and custom Photoshop brushes. Everything you need to master selections and masks in one place.
Keep going
Next, learn how to resize an image without squeezing it in Photoshop.
