By default the builder keeps every item's proportions when you resize it, so a piece of text or an image cannot be squashed or stretched by accident. Unlocking the aspect ratio lets you set width and height independently — useful for filling an awkward space or for a deliberately condensed or extended look.
The same controls work for images as well as text.
Stretch an Item
- Click the item on your gang sheet to select it. The settings panel on the right shows Width, Height and Aspect Ratio.
- Click the padlock icon at the right-hand end of the Aspect Ratio row. The closed padlock becomes an open one.
- Aspect Ratio turns from a read-only number into an editable field, and two extra handles appear on the item — one on its right edge, one on its bottom edge.
- Type a new Width or Height, or type a value into Aspect Ratio directly. Each one now changes without dragging the other with it.
- You can also drag the right-edge handle to change width alone, or the bottom-edge handle to change height alone. The corner handles always resize proportionally, locked or not.
Clicking the padlock again does not just stop further stretching — it recalculates the height from the item's original proportions and snaps the item back, discarding your stretch. Leave the ratio unlocked while you work.
Getting Good Results
Stretch by eye against the rest of the sheet, not by a number. A little stretch reads as a type style; a lot reads as a mistake, and heavily distorted lettering with a stroke on it tends to show the distortion in the stroke first.
Stretching does not add pixels. A stretched image is being scaled, so watch the resolution outline around it — if it changes colour, you have pushed the effective resolution into a lower band. See the article on zooming and checking image quality for what the colours mean.