Size, position, rotation, and opacity

Summary

Transform controls a selected layer's exact width, height, position, rotation, and opacity by number, plus quick Flip H/Flip V and Rotate 90° buttons. Lock aspect ratio constrains width and height changes to whatever ratio was active when you turned it on.

Use it when

• You need an exact size or position rather than an eyeballed drag.
• You want to resize a layer without distorting its proportions.
• You need to rotate, mirror, or fade a layer precisely.

Before you begin

Select a layer — Transform only appears once one is selected, in the inspector on desktop or the Adjust sheet on mobile.

Steps

1. Select a layer to reveal Transform: W, H, rotation (∠), X, Y, Lock aspect ratio, Opacity, Flip H, Flip V, Rotate 90°.
2. Edit W or H directly to set an exact size in inches. Commit the value by pressing Enter or clicking away from the field.
3. Select Lock aspect ratio before resizing if you want W and H to change together, preserving proportions.
4. Edit X and Y to set the layer's exact center position, measured from the artboard's top-left corner.
5. Edit ∠ for a specific rotation angle, or select Rotate 90° to add a quick quarter-turn.
6. Select Flip H or Flip V to mirror the layer horizontally or vertically.
7. Drag the Opacity slider to fade the layer, from fully transparent (0%) to fully opaque (100%).

What changes

• W and H are independent by default — changing one does not affect the other.
• Lock aspect ratio captures whatever W:H ratio is active at the moment you check it, not the layer's original source ratio. Confirmed by resizing a layer to a 1:2 ratio, then enabling Lock aspect ratio afterward — subsequent edits preserved 1:2, not the source image's native 1:1.
• With Lock aspect ratio on, editing either W or H updates the other to match — it works in both directions.
• Rotate 90° adds 90° to whatever rotation is already set — clicking it on a layer already rotated to 45° produced 135°, not a reset to the nearest multiple of 90.
• X/Y represent the layer's center point, not its top-left corner, per the inspector's own label: X / Y are the layer center, measured from the artboard top-left.
• Numeric field edits commit on Enter or on losing focus (clicking or tabbing away) — both were confirmed to apply the new value.

Print note

Size, position, rotation, opacity, and flip all affect the actual exported artwork — none of these are preview-only. Opacity below 100% means whatever is beneath the layer (another layer, or the artboard itself) shows through proportionally in the final output, not just on screen.

Warnings and limits

• Typing a new value into W, H, X, Y, or ∠ does not take effect while you're still typing — it applies once you press Enter or move focus elsewhere. If you're scripting or automating input, account for this; ordinary typing and tabbing away works naturally.
• Lock aspect ratio is a per-session toggle tied to whatever ratio was current when enabled — turning it off and resizing non-proportionally, then turning it back on, locks in the new ratio, not the original one.
• Rotate 90° accumulates — repeated clicks keep adding 90° rather than cycling through a fixed set of orientations relative to zero.

Desktop and mobile

Transform is reachable the same way on desktop (inline in the inspector once a layer is selected) and mobile (the Adjust sheet from the bottom bar, once a layer is selected) — Lock aspect ratio, Opacity, Flip H, and Rotate 90° were all confirmed present in the mobile Adjust sheet. Selecting Adjust on mobile with no layer selected shows no Transform group at all — select a layer first.

Troubleshooting

Related topics

• Select, reorder, and rename
• Duplicate, hide, lock & delete
• Align, distribute & pattern across cells
• Artboard, stage, and tool rail

Verification note

Verified against Blotter Builder on 2026-07-20.

Source notes

Primary observations — all from the live application at https://blotterbuilder.tdl.fyi, 2026-07-20:

• Observed — with Lock aspect ratio off, changing W from 7.50 to 5 left H at 7.50 unchanged.
• Observed — enabled Lock aspect ratio while W/H were 5/7.5 (a 2:3 ratio, not the source image's native 1:1), then set W to 8: H became 16 — exactly 2× W, confirming the ratio locked was the one active at toggle time, not the source's native ratio.
• Observed — with the same lock active, editing H instead updated W to match, confirming the constraint works bidirectionally.
• Observed — setting ∠ to 45 via direct input rotated the layer visibly; selecting Rotate 90° afterward changed ∠ to 135 — an addition, not a reset.
• Observed — dragging Opacity to 0.4 visibly faded the layer, showing the white artboard through it.
• Observed — selecting Flip H visibly mirrored the layer horizontally (text in the source image reversed left-to-right).
• Observed — setting X via direct input and committing with blur alone (no Enter) persisted the new value on a fresh read of the field afterward.
• Observed — at 390 × 844, selecting a layer and opening Adjust from the bottom bar showed a Transform group containing Lock aspect ratio, Opacity, Flip H, and Rotate 90° — the same controls as desktop. With no layer selected, opening Adjust showed no Transform group at all.

Verification log