Pasting picture over existing fixed canvas and resizing pasted

[tny]

I am working on a cover for a book, with a background picture and pictures collated over in different sizes.   I was doing this in MS Word, where it s relatively easy, but I have to edit some pictures and thought paint.net, would be better, with one layer per picture.

 

I opened the background picture and resized to desired to cover size, in 300DPI.   I opened to be pasted one, rather vertical, 1200DPI, way bigger, must be reduced upon pasting.   I am not finding an intuitive way to paste into another layer of the first, and go and pull a corner in to reduced while preserving  ratio.    Obviously I must be missing something.

 

Any tips will be appretiated.   

[ardneh]

Hold the Shift key down while adjusting to preserve ratio.

[Pixey]

1 hour ago, tny said:

rather vertical, 1200DPI, way bigger, must be reduced upon pasting.  

 

Perhaps you need to reduce the bigger images first, before pasting into a new layer.

 

Here is a good article on DPI:

 

 

[tny]

Thank you for the answers.  The shift did it.    I don't understand why developers think that users want to deform images more often that resize preserving.   I would think the default would be preserve ratio.

 

Thanks again.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

9 hours ago, tny said:

I don't understand why developers think that users want to deform images more often that resize preserving. I would think the default would be preserve ratio.

 

I disagree. The resize ratio is probably more applicable to dealing with photos and other finished images. When creating, I think the deform option would be more used. Using the Shift key is well understood as a modifier, and I think it's use here as a limiter makes perfect sense.