How to Scale Assets Manually or Automatically in Adobe Premiere Pro

The Adobe Premiere Pro program will automatically preserve the aspect ratio of imported assets, or footage, so that the asset does not look distorted when used in a sequence. You can set your preferences to do so automatically or change your options to scale your footage manually.

  1. Step 1

    Before you bring footage into a sequence, you can choose to automatically scale imported assets to the project’s default size.

  2. Step 2

    Go to Edit, then Preferences, and then General. Choose “Default Scale to Frame Size” and click “OK.”

  3. Step 3

    If you want to scale footage manually, you can rescale the asset without distortion if its pixel aspect ratio has been interpreted correctly. Bring the footage into the sequence by dragging it into the timeline. Select it by clicking on it.

  4. Step 4

    Open the Effect Controls panel, and click on the small arrow next to the Motion effect. This will reveal the motion controls.

  5. Step 5

    Click on the small arrow next to the Scale control to show the Scale slider. Move it to the left or right to decrease or increase the size of the frame.