There are numerous changes made to The Free Transform Tool since Photoshop 2020. While they’re quite useful, it does take a while to get used to and can be annoying at times. This tutorial teaches you how to switch back to the Legacy Free Transform Tool via a simple preference setting.
Why We Would Want to Use Legacy Free Transform?
Some of us have been using Photoshop for a long time. We have got used to the shortcuts and behavior of certain tools. While the latest upgrade brings many cool new features, it’s not easy to adapt the new controls straight away.
There is one distinct change with the Free Transform Tool in Photoshop 2020, which makes the “constraint aspect ratio” option sticky:
This makes things awkward for us.
Thankfully Photoshop 2020 left the option open to let us go back. Perhaps Adobe also realizes there will be a demand for this!
Let’s Enable It
To Enable Legacy Free Transform in Photoshop 2020, go to “Edit > Preferences”:
Go to the “General” tab, then tick the “Use Legacy Free Transform” option:
Click “Ok” to apply this change. That’s it! Pretty simple isn’t it. Now the Free Transform Tool will behave exactly the way it was prior to the 2020 update.
While you’re in the “Preference” window, go ahead and check out all the options you have available in it. There are an abundance of cool options you can set there. They are going to make your life as a designer much easier.
That’s it for this tutorial! If you wish to explore more about free transform tool, check out this tutorial on PSD Vault:
How to Use Transform Tools & Distort Filters to Achieve Amazing Photo Effect in Photoshop
There is also a comprehensive guide on reshaping & transforming on the Adobe site.
Till next time, have a great day!