it seems the scaled object is pulled along the direction of the cursor....

is it possible to scale an object, so that it expands/shrinks from centre ?

also why is always the whole canvas selected when i scale a path ?

You can float the selection and then use "Layer->Scale Layer..."; however, this will not provide interactive feedback.


Paths themselves are merely mathematical formulas, and those formulas are based upon image(/canvas) coordinates. Scaling (of paths) likewise needs to be based upon image coordinates.

My pet explanation is that paths, like channels, are associated to the canvas and not to a specific layer....

Thanks K1te, saulgoode, and ofnuts for the answers !

Just wanted to say thanks as well about the paths. I've done this by accident before by having my selection hidden and thought I was just forgetting a setting. Oddly enough, I could never recreate it consitantly. =P
The explanation for this behaviour made it all click!
Thank You

Just as a word of warning, when I use alpha to select and then scale the image down a ghost of the image in the original size is left behind. This isn't always obvious as it depends on the complexity of the image scaled and the background that it's on. An easy way to see if this is effecting any other Gimp install is to start with a white canvas, add a new layer, on the new layer use the path tool to make a jagged line, stroke the path, alpha to select on the path layer then scale down using shift T. A ghost image of the original line should be left. It will be interesting to know if others have this problem.

If you want to select the whole image w/o the canvas being messed up select all and do it.

Control + a is the quick way to select everything.

Thank you very much. This one's been bugging me for ages, I even had to resort to using the eraser to remove the ghost image. Not any more though