Token scaling issue --and "Disable default Snap-to-Grid" suggestion

I just noticed that when a token isn't more or less square in proportions, it resizes oddly/badly in Roll20. I'm attaching a screenshot in which you can see a few well scaled tokens, and between them the instances of the "black guy" are the anomalies. Also, this may have to do with the automatic "snap to grid" feature that seemingly Roll20 has (*), because the newly scaled token seems constrained to fit in the hexgrid by force. (*) I would suggest (maybe in another thread) to be able to enable or disable "snap to grid". Sometimes there are advantages playing with a grid but not with automatic "snap to . . .": for instance, one of the "sword and shield black fighter" appears off-centered because the automatic snap-to-grid that Roll20 currently forces on tokens.

You can also resize while holding "Shift" to constrain proportions. It's just the unfortunate truth that if the token was originally not square to begin with, it's gonna look squished and ugly if you shoehorn it into a square box. (You should have seen the dire boar in my game last Friday :)

I would love the ability to disable the automatic token scaling used by Roll20. I'm using a lot of token images that aren't perfectly square, and they are all squished into odd shapes when placed on the map. This problem is present on both the hexagonal and square grids. Maybe a player could designate a circular area inside/around the token's image to be its "base." Roll20 could then treat the image as though it were a model attached to that base -- the base would snap into place on the grid and could be re-sized by the player to enlarge or shrink the image. A circular base fits comfortably on a hexagonal or square grid and allows re-sizing, rotating, and grid snapping without unintentionally warping the image.

Thank you for your reply, Ken Bauer. Yes, if I use the Shift key I can keep the proportions correctly, although as you already know, the "wrong" token resizing issue remains: the results of using the Shift key for scaling tokens can be seen in the attached screenshot, in which the "black fighter" must have the same size than the "blue woman" (they are a sort of couple!). Poor Dire Boar! I'm certain it didn't deserve such painful squishing . . . :-)

Note that you can disable snap-to-grid for the page by opening the page drawer and clicking the gear next to the page. I'll go post a suggestion on having a checkbox to treat the token as "square" even if rectangular though I'm not sure how much control the devs have over that. If you're interested I can share some Gimp scripts I've used to take token images and make them square and add a semi-transparent background which I found handy.

Hi Eric Dalquist, If I understand correctly, yes, I can disable the grid in a Roll20 page by opening the page settings clicking on the gear button and deactivating the Grid checkbox. But then, the very grid disappears -and of course, snap to grid too. What I meant is that I haven't found a way of disabling "snap to grid" without removing the grid itself. (It goes without saying that without grid, Roll20 allows token scaling without issues.) By adding the option of "disabling snap to grid" I meant leaving the grid in place, but without any snap. - Regarding the Gimp scripts, ATM I'm not using that application, but maybe in the future I'll do . . . so thanks for your offering!

Ah good clarification. So for: - non-broken scaling of rectangular tokens - disabling snap-to-grid Do you want both or would fixing the first issue resolve the second?

Eric Dalquist, Well, if I could choose, I'd take both: -*non-broken scaling of rectangular tokens*, because a lot of tokens of creatures (snakes, dragons, horses) and vehicles (tanks, cars, trunks, trains) will not fit into a square frame. and - *allowing to enable and disable snap-to-grid*, because many times it is useful to have it activated (it arranges tokens with ease, preventing disorder and mess in the map), while there are times in which there are some disadvantages if you want to have a grid and still allow some freehand for placing tokens: The off-centered "sword and shield black warrior" token of the earlier screenshots is, I think, an example of a case in which snap-to-grid can be a handicap; with snap-to-grid disabled, one can place "unorthodox" tokens like that with the body centered in the hex (or square).

Off-centered "sword and shield black warrior" token

Is there a way yet to disable snap-to-grid???

KCRift: Yes, hold down the Alt key while resizing or moving the token. Alternately, you can turn off the grid. - Gauss

What @Gauss has said is the answer to the issues I posed in this thread. Holding the ALT key while moving or resizing images or tokens  ignores  Roll20's automatic "Snap to Grid".