Introduction

If you want images and video to scale to fit inside the size of the sequence, you can use one of two methods: Scale to Frame Size or Set to Frame Size. They can both be found in the right-click menu for clips in the timeline as shown in the below image. These options can also be selected under menu Clip > Video Options.

Premiere Pro: Scale Image
Scale to Frame Size and Set to Frame Size option in Menu

Scaling Media

To change the scale of the media to match up with sequence resolution

  • Select the media on the Timeline
  • Do one of the following
    • Right on the select clip and from the context menu select Scale to Frame Size or Set to Frame size option as shown in above image.
    • Go to Clip > Video Options and select Scale to Frame Size or Set to Frame size option.
  • Based on the selected option, media will be resized on the Program Monitor.

Scale To Frame Size

This option will scales the clip to fit the size used in the current sequence whilst retaining the original aspect ratio to fit within the frame. Essentially, the clip has been re-sampled to match the resolution used on the current sequence. Scale setting in the Effect Controls (Window > Effect Controls) panel for the clip will remain as 100%.

In the below example image with resolution of 3800 x 2534 is placed on sequence with resolution 1920 x 1080. Image is scaled to fit using Scale to Frame Size option, the resulting image will be reduced in resolution. So zoom in the image by scaling back to 100% will lose the original quality.

Premiere Pro: Scale To Frame Size Example
Scale To Frame Size Example

Set To Frame Size

Set to Frame Size option will not resample the image, but instead set scale in the Effect Controls panel to whatever it needs to be to fit the image inside the current sequence. Clip retains the original resolution. All the pixels are still intact, which is useful when you want to scale the image further in the Effect Controls panel.

Default Media Scaling

To set the default scaling of the imported media

  • Go to Preferences > Media > Default Media Scaling
  • Set it to Set to Frame Size or Scale to Frame Size
Premiere Pro: Media Scaling Default Setting
Media Scaling Default Setting

Reference

Working With Still Images In Premiere Pro