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### 4.5. Shear Tool

Shear tool is used to shift one part of an image, a layer, a selection or a path to a direction and the other part to the opposite direction. For instance, a horizontal shearing will shift the upper part to the right and the lower part to the left. A rectangle becomes a diamond. This is not a rotation: the image is distorted. To use this tool after selecting, click on the image or the selection: a grid is surperimposed and the Shearing Information dialog is opened. By dragging the mouse pointer on the image you distort the image, horizontally or vertically according to the the direction given to the pointer. When you are satisfied, click on the Shear button in the info dialog to validate.

#### Activate Tool

- The Shear Tool can be called in the following order, from the image-menu: Tools/ Transform Tools/Shear .

- The Tool can also be called by clicking the tool icon:

#### Key modifiers (Defaults)

Shortcut

  The Shift-s key combination will change the active tool to Shear.

#### Options

Overview

  The available tool options for the Shear Tool can be accessed by double clicking the Shear Tool icon.

Affect

  The shear can affect the Layer, the Selection, and the Path differently. These three buttons associate the remainder of the options to one of those three elements. Remember that your choice persists after quitting the tool.

Transform Direction

  Forward (Traditional): performs transformation in preview moving direction.

  Backward (Corrective): performs transformation in reverse preview moving direction.

Interpolation

  The Interpolation drop-down list allows you to choose the quality of the transformation. For more information about the different methods that can be employed, see the glossary entry Interpolation.

Supersampling

  See glossary for Supersampling

Clip Result

  This option will clip the rotated layer to the original layer size.

Preview

  Here, Preview is superimposed on the image. The drop-down list gives you four possibilities:

  1. Outline: Puts a frame to mark the image outline, with a handle on each corner. Movements will affect this frame only.

  2. Grid: Puts a grid on the image, with four handles. Movements will affect this grid only.

  3. Image: Here, the preview is a copy of the image superimposed on the image, with an outline. Movements affect this copy and the underlying image appears.

  4. Grid+Image: Both turn at the same time.

  Preview type is only for greater convenience. Whatever your choice, result will be the same when you clic on the Shear button in the Shear information dialog.

  Options with grid activate a drop-list with two options: Number of Grid Lines will allow control over the total number of displayed grid lines. Use the slider to set the number of grid lines. Grid Line Spacing allows control over the distance between the grid lines. Use the slider to set the distance.

  | Note
  When shearing a path, Preview options are not valid: only Outline is active.

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