WOLFRAM

Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center

Scale[g,s]

represents graphics primitives g scaled by a factor s.

Scale[g,s,{x,y,…}]

scales with the point {x,y,…} kept fixed.

Scale[g,{sx,sy,…},…]

scales by different factors along different axes.

Details
Details and Options Details and Options
Examples  
Basic Examples  
Scope  
Generalizations & Extensions  
Properties & Relations  
Possible Issues  
Neat Examples  
See Also
Related Guides
Related Workflows
Related Links
History
Cite this Page

Scale

Scale[g,s]

represents graphics primitives g scaled by a factor s.

Scale[g,s,{x,y,…}]

scales with the point {x,y,…} kept fixed.

Scale[g,{sx,sy,…},…]

scales by different factors along different axes.

Details

  • Scale[g,s] scales with the center of the bounding box of g kept fixed.
  • You can specify special points such as {Left,Bottom} within the bounding box for g to be kept fixed.
  • The x position can be specified as Left, Center, or Right; the y position as Bottom, Center, or Top.
  • Explicit coordinates {x,y} are taken to be in the coordinate system of the graphic in which Scale[…] appears.
  • For objects specified with scaled coordinates Scaled[{x,y}], Scale effectively applies its transformation to the corresponding ordinary coordinates.
  • Scale can modify the regions allocated to Text and Inset objects, but does not directly affect their contents, and does not scale fonts or other textual elements. »
  • Normal[expr] if possible replaces all Scale[gi,…] constructs by versions of the gi in which the coordinates have explicitly been transformed.

Examples

open all close all

Basic Examples  (2)

Transform a 2D shape:

Transform a 3D shape:

Scope  (6)

Transformation applied to a 2D shape:

Transformation applied to a 3D shape:

The transformations can be nested:

Apply transformation to scaled coordinates:

Keep the point fixed:

Keep the top-left corner of the circle's bounding box fixed:

Generalizations & Extensions  (2)

Use Scale to flip text along the axis:

Flip along the axis:

The size of text is affected by Scale only when it is specified using Scaled:

Properties & Relations  (1)

When possible, Normal will transform the coordinates explicitly:

Possible Issues  (1)

By default, scaling in 2D is done to keep the center of the bounding box fixed:

Explicitly set the origin to be fixed:

Neat Examples  (1)

Projections of a cylinder:

Wolfram Research (2007), Scale, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Scale.html (updated 2008).

Text

Wolfram Research (2007), Scale, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Scale.html (updated 2008).

CMS

Wolfram Language. 2007. "Scale." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2008. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Scale.html.

APA

Wolfram Language. (2007). Scale. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Scale.html

BibTeX

@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_scale, author="Wolfram Research", title="{Scale}", year="2008", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Scale.html}", note=[Accessed: 08-August-2025]}

BibLaTeX

@online{reference.wolfram_2025_scale, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={Scale}, year={2008}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/Scale.html}, note=[Accessed: 08-August-2025]}