How to Scale An Architectural Drawing in Photoshop

The reason for architectural drawings being to scale is so that the information can be understood by those reading it in a way that is relevant to the real-world size of the built thing.

Scaled drawings are useful for architects, builders, contractors, surveyors, engineers, clients and anyone else reading the drawings.

Especially during architecture school, I see a lot of students not properly understanding how to scale their drawings.

They might have a scaled model from Sketchup or Revit which they’ll take a screen-grab of.

Immediately the scale is whacked out of proportion due to screen sizes being different.

Photoshop is usually the last (postproduction) tool used in an architect’s or student’s workflow.

To understand how to scale your drawings in photoshop on the correct and final page size is extremely important for any student or architect.

Let’s learn how to scale any architectural drawing in photoshop, with or without a scale bar or dimensions.