Let's say you have an image that is 200 units wide and 100 units high. In order to avoid squeezing or stretching, whenever you resize that image it needs to stay in proportion of 2 x 1. It can be shrunk down to 20 x 10 or it can be enlarged to 400 x 200, but the proportion always needs to stay the same.
Your original image starts out as 2,089 x 883 pixels. If you want to shrink it to 480 pixels wide, then the height must be 203 pixels in order to preserve the original proportions.
Alternatively, if you want the height to be 109 pixels, then the width needs to be 258. Any deviations from these proportions will cause squeezing or stretching.
The easiest way to resize an image is using the Image Size command.
- First, save your work as a new file name because once you shrink it, it's not so easy to enlarge it again without introducing distortion.
- Go to Image>Image Size and you should see the pop-up window below. At the bottom, make sure the box is checked for "Constrain Proportions".
- Then, in the top part of the box, enter the desired width in pixels. The height will automatically recalculate itself.
- Alternatively, you can enter the desired height and then let the width recalculate itself.