Photoshop How-To: Copying Between Images of Different Size

It’s happened to most of us at one time or another. We drag a layer from the Layers panel to the window of another image to copy it and — surprise! — it’s way too big. Here’s a way to fix that problem quickly.

To copy from a smaller image to a larger image, Shift-drag the layer from the source image’s Layers panel to the window of the destination image. If you have tabbed documents, drag the layer to the destination document’s tab. Holding the Shift key centers the copied layer on the canvas.

Then press Command/Ctrl+T or choose Edit > Transform > Scale to re-size the layer. Drag a corner anchor of the bounding box to resize it.

To scale from the center (increasing the size in all directions), move your pointer over the Width or Height labels on the Properties panel or Options bar so your pointer turns into a scrubby slider  and drag to the right to increase size or to the left to decrease it. The scrubby sliders come in very handy when the copied layer is so large that you can’t even see its bounding box.

Alternatively, you can hold down the Option/Alt key as you drag an handle on the bounding box. Tip: To fit the bounding box onscreen choose View > Fit Layer(s) on Screen.

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