Export dimensions glitch

[abra100pro]

When I export two graphics with exact the same size they end up with different heights - see movie.

An I making a mistake or is this a bug? Any help welcome.

[Old Bruce]

Not sure if this is the solution but your movie shows that you have the  Move by Whole pixels turned on for snapping which could result in the rectangles being made on but not quite a pixel location. Check your Transform panel for the x,y co-ordinates as well as the sizes. You may want to use the arrow keys while selecting the x, y and the w, h boxes to bump them up and down so they will be exactly pixels and not fractional values.

EDIT: I just noticed the Transform panel up in the top right (mine is always in the bottom right) You have fractions for size and location, change them to whole (integer) values.

[abra100pro]

Thanks for the info - It wasn't the problem - I tried whole pixel values after my first post. I really wonder what it is with these fractions anyway - worst occurrence: having the artboard not exactly "on a pixel" has influence of the export-proportions - this is more than weird and makes no sense at all.

[Hangman]

The issue seems to relate to the arrows in the graphics.

Export Size

When you export the first graphic (on the left), at the point where you choose 'Selection without background' the size for the selected exported graphic, prior to you scaling it is 328px x 230px which makes sense because the 1pt stroke on your grey rectangle is set as 'Stroke to outside' so when allowing for the 2pt additional width and height together with the 'rounding' of the non integer X and Y coordinates of the grey rectangle this size is correct.

However, exporting your second graphic you'll note that when choosing 'Selection without background' the second graphic size is 360px x 230px (i.e. 32px wider) despite both grey rectangles being identically sized with their 1pt strokes set to 'Outside'.

This is the cause of the difference in the exported sizes between the two graphics when you are scaling the width to 800px wide, i.e. the source aspect ratios when 'Selection without background' is selected is different despite the actual grey recatangles being identical in size.

The cause appears to be the arrows, I'm assuming they've been created as lines with an Ending Arrow. When you uncheck the arrow layers for both graphics so they are no longer visible and repeat the exports, both graphics, when exported using the 'Selection without background' are identical in size and aspect ratio and therefore scale to the same size as well. When the arrows are visible, the greater the 'arrow' is scaled, the greater the width of the exported graphic, despite the arrow bounding boxes being contained within the grey rectangle. If you scale the arrows up, the exported graphic width increases.

If you 'Expand Stroke' for both arrows the problem goes away and both graphics again export at the same size, so the issue appears to be related to 'arrow scaling' which I assume is a bug?

[abra100pro]

First of all: Thanks for this comprehensive explanation! This is a lot of work and time, I know.

I already expanded the arrows. And (to serif:) If I explicitly place an box that is larger than all inside it - which is confirmed by selecting all and seeing, that all inside the mentioned rectangle has its bounding box inside the rectangle I really expect the width, height and proportion to be defined by this very rectangle in all applications of it.

And please: It makes absolutely NO sense to consider the X- and Y- values of the artboard on a canvas that has absolutely NO reference to whatever in the output/result. Please, Serif, remove this relation - it slows down my otherwise very fast workflow when designing with multiple artboards. Thanks!

So, yes, I consider this a bug, too.

[SPaceBar]

Hi @abra100pro 

Would you be able to upload your document so I can take a closer look please? I can provide you with a dropbox folder link if you don't want to upload publicly.

[Hangman]

Simple example attached...

One rectangle sized at 650px x 450px with a stroke of 0.1pt aligned to the inside of the rectangle. Contained within the rectangle on individual layers are the following:

1. a set of two green lines without arrows
2. a set of two red lines with end arrows set to 100%
3. a set of two red lines with end arrows set to 150%
4. a set of two red lines with end arrows set to 200%

The bounding box for the lines/arrows is contained well within the bounding box of the rectangle in all cases.

Selecting the 'Rectangle' Group, containing all the elements and then exporting the rectangle together with each individual set of lines/arrows as either a PNG, JPEG, GIF or TIFF file whilst setting the Area to 'Select without background' results in the following exported sizes:

1. the rectange with the two green lines without arrows - exported graphic is 650px x 450px
2. the rectange with the two red lines with end arrows set to 100% - exported graphic is 658px x 450px
3. the rectange with the two red lines with end arrows set to 150% - exported graphic is 746px x 468px
4. the rectange with the two red lines with end arrows set to 200% - exported graphic is 834px x 556px

It appears that both adding and scaling end arrows is somehow increasing the bounding box for the lines with arrows so it is outside the bounding box for the rectangle (mathematically but not visually) which in turn is causing the exported graphics to be exported at the incorrect size. Since in each case bounding box for the lines/arrows is contained within the bounding box of the rectangle, all versions of the graphic should export to the same 650px x 450px size.

 

Arrows Bug.afdesign