Outline the stroke of a path/curve

[CrazyInfin8]

Hey,

is it possible to outline the stroke of a path or curve in Affinity Photo?

for example could I take this random curve with varying stroke size and get a shape from the outline?

 

Thanks

Edit: I meant designer instead of photo sorry 

Edited January 10, 2020 by CrazyInfin8

[mpowell]

Found a way to do it in Affinity Photo.

[GarryP]

Another method (as per attached image) is to:
* Select the curve;
* menu “Select → Select from Layer” (or CTRL+click on the layer in the Layers Panel);
* menu “Select →Outline”;
* make sure “Circular” is checked in the dialog;
* drag the slider to your required size and press the Apply button;
* go to the Layers Panel and press the “Add Pixel Layer” icon;
* select the Flood Fill Tool, choose your colour, and click inside the selection;
* menu “Select - > Deselect”.
You now have an outline of the original curve.
See the attached GIF for a run-through.

[R C-R]

Is there some reason you do not want to use Outline ƒx for this? They provide an almost endless number of variations & if you change the path you do not have to redo the outline.

Outline ƒx examples.afphoto

[CrazyInfin8]

I guess to be more specific I kinda want to do what is shown in step nine on this page https://m.wikihow.com/Create-an-Outline-in-Adobe-Illustrator. Don’t know if it’s possible in Affinity as yet.

@GarryP this is close to what I want but I didn’t want to make a pixel layer. I wanted the outline to be a vector shape so it can still be edited.

@R C-R I don’t suppose I can take the outline of an fx and turn it into an editable curve right?

[MikeW]

17 minutes ago, CrazyInfin8 said:

I guess to be more specific I kinda want to do what is shown in step nine on this page https://m.wikihow.com/Create-an-Outline-in-Adobe-Illustrator. Don’t know if it’s possible in Affinity as yet.

Step 9 is just converting a stroke to an object (Expand Stroke). Then they add an outline to that object.

AI's Appearance Panel can add strokes to strokes, though. Much nicer effect/control.

Then add another stroke...

And so on. Then it is easy to alter the base, single path to change the shape of the stroke.

 

[mpowell]

10 hours ago, GarryP said:

Another method (as per attached image) is to:
* Select the curve;
* menu “Select → Select from Layer” (or CTRL+click on the layer in the Layers Panel);
* menu “Select →Outline”;
* make sure “Circular” is checked in the dialog;
* drag the slider to your required size and press the Apply button;
* go to the Layers Panel and press the “Add Pixel Layer” icon;
* select the Flood Fill Tool, choose your colour, and click inside the selection;
* menu “Select - > Deselect”.
You now have an outline of the original curve.
See the attached GIF for a run-through.

Cool, thanks, I did it a lot faster with this method.

[v_kyr]

11 hours ago, GarryP said:

....

The bad here, from a previous curve/vector object, the applied outline selection get's pixel then in APh.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, MikeW said:

Step 9 is just converting a stroke to an object (Expand Stroke).

True, but in the OP @CrazyInfin8 asked how to outline the stroke in Affinity Photo. Since there is no Expand Stoke feature in AP, one of the suggested methods would have to be used.  

 

2 hours ago, CrazyInfin8 said:

@R C-R I don’t suppose I can take the outline of an fx and turn it into an editable curve right?

Not unless you have Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, or some other app that can expand the stroke like Mike suggested. But if you want the outline to always follow the shape of your curve, the outline  ƒx method will do that.

[Move Along People]

-

[R C-R]

4 minutes ago, haakoo said:

create curve,duplicate make smaller,blend mode erase, group

How do you make a curve smaller in AP & still retain its shape?

[MikeW]

19 minutes ago, R C-R said:

True, but in the OP @CrazyInfin8 asked how to outline the stroke in Affinity Photo. Since there is no Expand Stoke feature in AP, one of the suggested methods would have to be used.  

 

Not unless you have Affinity Designer, Adobe Illustrator, or some other app that can expand the stroke like Mike suggested. But if you want the outline to always follow the shape of your curve, the outline  ƒx method will do that.

If the OP wants do emulate AI, then they should be using AD...

But, I failed to read the first paragraph properly. Else I suspect I wouldn't have posted...

[Move Along People]

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[CrazyInfin8]

16 minutes ago, MikeW said:

should be using AD...

shoot... I meant Affinity Designer sorry

[v_kyr]

2 hours ago, CrazyInfin8 said:

I guess to be more specific I kinda want to do what is shown in step nine on this page https://m.wikihow.com/Create-an-Outline-in-Adobe-Illustrator. Don’t know if it’s possible in Affinity as yet.

@GarryP this is close to what I want but I didn’t want to make a pixel layer. I wanted the outline to be a vector shape so it can still be edited.

@R C-R I don’t suppose I can take the outline of an fx and turn it into an editable curve right?

The things showed here so far will not preserve a vector shape then and instead give you a pixel based shape outline. With APh alone it's difficult to get the vector outline you want, especially if you don't have a companion vector tool (AD, Ai, Inkscape etc.) or some tracer helpertool as a workaround.

[v_kyr]

7 minutes ago, haakoo said:

 

Curve.afphoto

No real curve outline nodes this way.

[v_kyr]

4 minutes ago, CrazyInfin8 said:

shoot... I meant Affinity Designer sorry

Well, that's another story then and easy to do, aka vector to vector.

[Move Along People]

-

 

 

[v_kyr]

@CrazyInfin8Just do what MikeW showed above for Ai, Affinity Designer has too an Appearence panel for such multiple strokes.

[CrazyInfin8]

1 minute ago, v_kyr said:

@CrazyInfin8Just do what MikeW showed above for Ai, Affinity Designer has too an Appearence panel for such multiple strokes.

Yeah i could puts strokes on top of strokes but wanted to if I could have the outline become a shape

I guess one reason to do this is I could take a line or a curve that isn't really "closed" and turn it into a shape that is "closed"

But i'm not sure if it is possible to do similar to how Ai can do it

[CrazyInfin8]

I kinda was wondering if there was a way to do this

I kinda did this example by tracing by hand hand so they aren't purfect but close to what I'm looking for

[R C-R]

9 minutes ago, CrazyInfin8 said:

I kinda was wondering if there was a way to do this

In AD, expand stroke does that but because the expand stroke algorithm is (to put it kindly) somewhat less than what one might hope for, it tends to produce a hugely excessive number of nodes:

[CrazyInfin8]

Just now, R C-R said:

In AD, expand stroke does that but because the expand stroke algorithm is (to put it kindly) somewhat less than what one might hope for, it tends to produce a hugely excessive number of nodes:

 

Oh actually that was exactly was I was searching for

so Outline Stroke from Adobe is the same or similar Expand Stroke in AD

Thanks!

 

[Move Along People]

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[R C-R]

46 minutes ago, haakoo said:

Unless you do it in the 1.8 beta 

The latest Mac beta handles that much better but unfortunately, at least on my iMac, it has some serious stability & usability issues that make it unsuitable for anything other than some quick & careful tests. 

It would not be so bad except that when it hangs it can take several minutes for the Mac Force Quit function to actually quit the app, during which it remains on screen & interferes with anything else I am trying to do.