Designer: Can't expand stroke cleanly (to make typeface thicker)

[Jamesx1]

Hi

I have a custom typeface (vector shape). It is too thin, so to make it uniformly thicker, I assume that adding a stroke is the best way.

When I do that, it looks great. From what I remember of AI, the next steps are to simply expand the stroke, and then merge it with the original shape to make one clean shape.

However, when I expand the stroke in Designer, the corners become jagged/broken - unusable.

Is there a stroke setting I have neglected to configure?

I'd really appreciate guidance for making letter forms thicker/heavier cleanly. Is the process as I described? If so, how to resolve the jagged/broken form?

Thanks

 

The stroke applied:

 

The stroke expanded (notice it is broken in 2 places):

 

Zoomed in on the problem:

[Pšenda]

You must resolve/correct nodes/path in this problematic locations. 

[Jamesx1]

2 minutes ago, Pšenda said:

You must resolve/correct nodes/path in this problematic locations. 

Hi - thanks very much for your reply.

Are you saying I need to fix every letter manually, me with a mouse, trying to perfectly fill in the missing curves of letters like 'S'?

Surely there's a tool or technique to achieve this cleanly as per precise vector requirements...?

[Pšenda]

No manually fill, correct paths / nodes via Node Tool.

The problem will be how you have the letters created, provide a sample.

[Jamesx1]

Ah, I see, thank you. I will try that this evening and post an update....Thanks again.

[lepr]

8 hours ago, Jamesx1 said:

when I expand the stroke in Designer, the corners become jagged/broken - unusable.

There is currently a bug in stroke expansion (and Contour Tool) which can produce distorted corners when nodes are less than 0.5 pixels apart.

A workaround is to temporarily upscale the object or document so nodes become at least 0.5 pixels apart, then perform the stroke expansion and then downscale to original size.

An alternative workaround is to increase the document pixel density while maintaining the physical size so that nodes become at least 0.5 pixels apart, then perform the stroke expansion and then restore the original pixel density.

 

[PixelPest]

59 minutes ago, anon2 said:

which can produce distorted corners when nodes are less than 0.5 pixels apart.

In case of a typeface I´d call it lousy font creation. ;-)

[Old Bruce]

17 hours ago, Jamesx1 said:

Hi

I have a custom typeface (vector shape). It is too thin, so to make it uniformly thicker, I assume that adding a stroke is the best way.

When I do that, it looks great.

Okay, now what you need to do is stop.

[Jamesx1]

15 hours ago, anon2 said:

There is currently a bug in stroke expansion (and Contour Tool) which can produce distorted corners when nodes are less than 0.5 pixels apart.

A workaround is to temporarily upscale the object or document so nodes become at least 0.5 pixels apart, then perform the stroke expansion and then downscale to original size.

Thanks @anon2, that was it. I was just doing it casually at a small size before, assuming that vectors are vectors, but the bug explains it.

Also had to pick the right butt ends to minimize issues. There were a couple of very minor things to clean up, but overall, all good. Was my first use of Designer having to work with nodes, coming from casual AI use.

 

14 hours ago, PixelPest said:

In case of a typeface I´d call it lousy font creation.

I had the design pretty small when I was doing it, assuming maths was maths. Bug explains it. I just made it bigger.

 

6 hours ago, Old Bruce said:

Okay, now what you need to do is stop.

Would've been nice, but good luck sending a stroked file to various companies printing labels, sales material and packaging and telling them to be careful of correct stroke ratios and to deal with all the extra nodes.

[PixelPest]

7 hours ago, Jamesx1 said:

I had the design pretty small when I was doing it, assuming maths was maths. Bug explains it. I just made it bigger.

2 points at the same spot have no reason to be in these places. So I doubt it´s a bug per se. Can you upload a screenshot with Node tool enabled to show the points building the glyph? I´m pretty sure I can tell wether it´s an original or a clone.

[PixelPest]

Whatever you say. 👍

[Jamesx1]

21 hours ago, PixelPest said:

Can you upload a screenshot with Node tool enabled to show the points building the glyph? I´m pretty sure I can tell wether it´s an original or a clone.

It's based on an original that I made previous changes to months ago in AI, and I'm coming back to it. Perhaps a couple of extra nodes, but nothing horrible. I do appreciate your offer to check it out, but I've resolved it to satisfaction for now.

It's pretty hard to create/modify a serif typeface, which I guess is why everyone seems to avoid it and just type brand names with a sans font. I hired multiple genuine experienced designers, but what they came up with was very poor. So as a non-designer, I did it myself. The S is the most 'borrowed', everything is else is from virtual scratch. (Who the hell can easily make a serif 'S'?) Overall, the typeface looks way better than the 'professionals' and is 100% as per the brief, so a couple of extra nodes is not a big issue to overcome and not bad for collateral damage. I can see the improvements still needed, but I don't have the necessary technical skills to achieve perfection. The professionals no doubt had the skills, but had the 'creatives' complex whereby they believed that what was in their head was superior; I caught them out not reading the brief; they just want job in/job out; no conceptual imagination.

20 hours ago, BofG said:

Whether the font is "at fault" or not, this is a bug - the whole point of the expand stroke function is to transform the stroke as you see it into a path. It's not intended to make a path with notches in to highlight substandard font construction (and only when the objects are below an arbitrary size).

At the end of the day, this is correct. People should be able to expand a stroke on whatever shape they want, whether sourced from perfection or not. If the stroke renders nicely but the expansion renders noticeably different, it's a bug.

Thanks to everyone for their help.