This tool is used to perform a nonlinear resize (or "warp") of an image. By warping, you can resize an image such that the objects in the center of an image remain clear and undistorted, and distortion occurs near the edges of the image. This tool is useful for situations where you need to convert an image from one aspect ratio to another without cropping. I often use it when creating wallpapers when I have a wallpaper that is not the correct aspect ratio to display on my desktop.

For example, take a look at the screen shot at the right. The graphic was originally 747x923 and was stretched to 1024x768. Normally, this would result in the image becoming distorted. However, when the nonlinear warp effect was used, the center of the image remained undistorted, with the stretches ocurring at the edges, which contained only background scenary.