Pixels between lines and around artboard

[OG!!]

Is there a setting i am missing to turn this off ?

[Pšenda]

Position and size is whole pixels? 

[OG!!]

sorry for the late answer.

but what do you mean ?

[MEB]

Hi @OG!!,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
This happens when the objects (in this case the modules that compose the pattern) are not correctly pixel aligned. Check if the coordinates (X,Y) of the modules (the individual rectangles that compose the pattern) are integer values in the Transform panel. If not, click the X and Y input fields in the Transform panel and delete the decimal part for each one. Make sure their width/height are equally integer values in the same panel. You may have to go to Affinity Preferences, User Interface tab, Decimal Places for Unit Types section and change the Pixels value to 3 or more so you can see more decimal places in the Transform panel (and elsewhere) in the application, otherwise you may miss values like 23,005 for example.

Note: You may also have to change the document units to pixels temporarily to check their  X,Y coordinates/values in the Transform panel if you have set it up in a different unit.

[Pšenda]

Hi @MEB,
the problem with pixel alignment is very common here. Would it not be appropriate to include this with a detailed description (such as yours), in the FAQ section?

 

[OG!!]

Tried it but did not help here is the file ? for anyone that can help

thanks in advance.

leaf pattern.afdesign

[thomaso]

You can reduce those disturbing edges by adjusting the antialiasing of your background rectangles. –> Layers Panel > Cog icon > Blend Range options > Coverage Map
(Note: such object edge display is a typical occurrence in affinity apps and related to the rendering method. It's rather 'cosmetical', you will not see this lines in exported files.)

[OG!!]

Thanks that did it. is there a option to turn this off when creating a new file ? or do you re do it every time?

thanks in advance

(o when exporting i had the lines in it thats why i was asking/ or because of the lines i was aligning them wrong)

[MEB]

Hi @OG!!,
The file you have attached above is correctly pixel aligned and should export correctly (no lines) without the need to mess with the Coverage Map, unless you are resampling the image on export. Are you entering new dimensions when exporting the file? If so, you may be getting the lines on the exported files however there's other ways to tackle this without changing the Coverage Map of all objects by adding a rectangle with the same color as the rectangle's modules and with the same size of them all together to the bottom of the layers stack when applicable (or changing the colour of the artboard itself when it encompasses/fills the modules area) or exporting first at 2x or 4x or more the original size then downsampling to the desired (arbitrary) size using an appropriate resample algorithm.

Regarding the display on canvas, it should also render equally fine when viewing at 100% zoom (or multiples). Arbitrary zoom levels may display the those lines in varying places depending on the zoom level.

[thomaso]

15 hours ago, OG!! said:

is there a option to turn this off when creating a new file ? or do you re do it every time?

I don't know of a general preference for the Coverage Map curve. Actually it makes sense to affect single, selected layers only – you wouldn't need or want the app to suppress antialiasing for all objects in general. In your case the rectangular, not rotated objects appear to work fine whereas if applied to a curved shape the edge would appear differently, less rounded/smoothed but slightly jaggy instead:

15 hours ago, OG!! said:

when exporting i had the lines in it

6 hours ago, MEB said:

should export correctly (no lines) without the need to mess with the Coverage Map,

In an exported PDF (vector) the occurrence of these lines may depend on the PDF viewer app, e.g. I see them in macOS' Preview.app (where they don't scale but vary with zooming + also appear at 100%) and I don't see them in Acrobat (regardless of the zoom level and of my settings in the app prefs for vector smoothing or thin lines).

[MEB]

@thomaso

I'm not sure why you are referring to PDF files in particular. The OP never mentioned a specific file format. But considering the PDF format, that's a PDF Viewer issue not an issue with the generated PDF. Actually it doesn't matter if you use coverage map or not for this (vectors/PDF) - it will display the lines depending on the zoom level and the PDF Viewer and its display settings. If you are seeing the lines in Apple Preview at 100% go to the Preferences, PDF tab and tick Define 100% scale as 1point equal 1 screen pixel then check the exported PDF at 100% again (with or without coverage map doesn't matter) - you will see the file displays correctly at 100% zoom (and 200%, 400%, 800% etc) in both cases.

The coverage map also doesn't fix cases where part of the object has an internal edge and external edge at the same time. Filling the internal gap with the coverage map will mess with the antialiasing/smoothness of the external edge (if the surrounding objects also have external edges/boundaries) unless the outside edges are vertical or horizontal lines.

[thomaso]

5 minutes ago, MEB said:

I'm not sure why you are referring to PDF files in particular.

Just because these lines can appear on vector export (= PDF) while they don't show in a raster image export. So my post was rather to point the OP to this difference and to illustrate that these lines are mainly an Affinity internal displaying issue. (... since the OP had answered "when exporting i had the lines in it" ... and you replied "should export correctly (no lines)..." )

Thank you for the Preview.app preference hint – it works perfect against this lines!
(unfortunately with this setting the page sizes of PDFs aren't 100% at zoom of 100%, – never mind, I am aware to get display issues in Preview which, e.g. it also can lack in respecting color profiles for displaying PDFs.)

[OG!!]

Exporting is good btw.

my problem was that cause of the lines when editing i was confused and tried to align them and then when exporting it there was i line.

so i just want to see my file the same as when i am going to export it. Cause the lines are annoying when working with a lot of shapes.

 

[MEB]

Hi OG!!,
If the shapes are correctly pixel aligned (as in the sample file you posted above), those lines shouldn't appear when you see the file at 100%. 200% 400% etc zoom. So always make sure to check the file at these zoom levels.

[OG!!]

Ok i will do that thanks