Photoshop: Expand the background - so it'll work
Do you want to extend the background of an almost finished image in Photoshop without having to create a new file? In this article you will find two quick and practical solutions.
Extend Photoshop Background: Scale image size
- The first way to get more space on the Photoshop surface is to scale the entire image.
- To do this, go to the taskbar and click on "Image". Then select "Image size".
- This also works with the shortcut [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [I].
- Now a window appears. In this you can set the desired dimensions. Photoshop allows scaling in terms of pixels as well as percentages.
- You can also specify here whether you want to scale the styles and keep the proportions.
- By ticking the last checkbox "Recalculate image with:" the entire levels are created from scratch. You can choose between five calculation options.
Extend Photoshop background: enlarge workspace
- The second option is to adapt the work surface to yourself. All elements and objects in the file keep their normal dimensions. Only the background is enlarged.
- Find "Image" in the task bar and then select "Workspace". It is also quicker with the shortcut [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [C].
- In the "working area" window you can set the desired size with width and height.
- If you activate the "Relative" check box, the dimensions refer to the ratio in which the working surface changes. If it is deactivated, the entered dimensions are considered absolute.
- The last shot is the anchor. Here you select the direction in which the existing objects are aligned in relation to the new work surface.
On the next page you will learn how to crop objects in Photoshop.