Add ability to precisely vary width of a stroke at any given point

[mfarooqi]

... Is there any way to variable width of the stroke? I'm missing this feature a lot ..

 

I

 

... And this is not possible to make such fonts without this tool..

 

 

 

I know a few of you will answer like .. there is one tool under stroke settings.   ....

 

.but doesn't give enough control to precisely change width of stroke wherever we need. ... and this much small box can't cover the whole length of the curve. 

 

Thank you 

 

[2ddpainter]

Don't know if Affinity will ever include something like this into Affinity Designer.
But in the meantime, I'd like to point you to two alternatives.

The first is the Amadine Vector Graphics app (Mac/iPad).
Dont know how exact Amadine could be, but it could work on the iPad.
Here's their Website.
https://amadine.com/

 

The second one is VectorStyler (Mac/PC).
Here an Attemp of mine in VectorStyler, based on your Template.
You can set this Width Tool at any Point you like.
The second picture shows the setting panel where you
can give the Profile Width exactly the values you want.
And, just for the record. I am not a type designer, just have some
experience in vector graphics and just bought VectorStyler a few weeks ago.

 

One additional note about VectorStyler, some people complained about
the cost (99.- USD one time fee). No subscription. But they forget to mention
the shear amount of features you get with VectorStyler, and for that, I think,
VectorStyler is a bargain.

Here the VectorStyler website.
https://www.vectorstyler.com/

 

[mfarooqi]

On 10/16/2021 at 12:15 AM, 2ddpainter said:

The first is the Amadine Vector Graphics app (Mac/iPad).
Dont know how exact Amadine could be, but it could work on the iPad.
Here's their Website.
https://amadine.com/

OMG...wow.. amadine is cool. this is really handling vectors greatly.. i'm not saying affinity is not good but three features I tested and all these three worked great over there.  

 

1. Stroke width --- Amazing. 

2. Divide tool 

Affinity and amadine.. 

AFFINITY

Designer Beta (latest on the date) output.. it is creating un-necessary vector nodes. 

 

And if i move some of them away..  A plenty of garbaged objects are presented there.. see multiple layers and ther eis no way to select them all together.. 

 

 

 

Dear Affinity Designer. We need this.. 

 

I moved all parts away and no garbage at all.. 

 

And 

3rd is. if we need to edit some sublevel object, that is treated absolutely definitely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And about your second suggestion.. they have even better way to set width of the stroke..  that is brush. 

 

I would definitely be going for these features with these tool..  Affinity please don't be offensive but these are good suggestion for you too.. to please bring in affinity. Thank you. 

[fde101]

14 hours ago, mfarooqi said:

amadine is cool. this is really handling vectors greatly.. i'm not saying affinity is not good but three features I tested and all these three worked great over there

VectorStyler does all of that as well and a great deal more.

Amadine is missing a LOT of features that are critical to many pro users, which the Affinity apps (and VectorStyler) do support, such as spot colors and symbols.  It does have a few things it does nicely that are missing from Designer, but overall is a toy in comparison.

[Boldlinedesign]

I second the issue with Affinity having problems with their boolean operations producing "dirty geometry" (stole @mfarooqi's image to make the same point).
Any time you try to add, divide, etc, you get these dirty results, the app freezes sometimes as you try to merge again. You spend more time cleaning up extra nodes than you should have to.
Affinity seems only focused on keeping designs non-destructive. The boolean "add" tool does not really merge things together or collapse them as expected

[kirk23]

I recall this variable width  stroke was a feature in now  defunct Creative House Expression.   Like 20 years ago  maybe. As well as gazilion of other cool features unavailable in Illustrator or elsewhere  .     Sometimes it seems vector soft in general makes a backward  progression.     I am still usinging  Xara from  beginning of 2000.    The current one is actually worse with some cool features disappeared.     It makes any booleans perfectly contrary to  Affinity Designer. 

It's kind of sad state vector soft are in currently .     Looks like Blender soon  would be more  appropriate  choice. 

[mfarooqi]

yeh.. i'm a Blender user .. and I know this is not a space to discuss that.. But that is amazing in vector use.. but I'm still waiting Affinity Designer to bring these old yet very useful features in AD..

• Merge and divide shapes with no "garbage" stuff as mentioned above..
• 
•  
• Vector Width tool
• 
• Expand stroke for Brushes..
• 
• symbols spray tool with shifting.. random rotation expanding and collecting etc.(even Macromedia Flash had it)
• 
• Distribute objects Randomly
• 
• Distribute Objects along path and rotate as needed (like text along path)
• 
• Shape Blend tools 
• 
• Mesh Warp tools for Designer (AP does have this thing but only for once!) 
• 
• Gradient mesh tools are very important if you are making vector art 
• 
• perspective transform kind of tools.. (there are ISO and that is very cool )
• 
• And a bunch of more.. 

 

@acapstick @AdamW @Andrew MacDonald @James Ritson I dont' know who should I add in. 

 

Thank you

 

@b

[kirk23]

I especially miss  distribute /scatter  a number of different symbols randomly  alone a vectore stroke /path  feature.      The current  "text "way to do it in  ADesigner is so terribly painful .

[PanthenEye]

Looks like the newly released Affinity Designer 2 hasn't improved anything in this regard. Unfortunate. 

[mfarooqi]

On 11/8/2021 at 10:11 PM, mfarooqi said:

yeh.. i'm a Blender user .. and I know this is not a space to discuss that.. But that is amazing in vector use.. but I'm still waiting Affinity Designer to bring these old yet very useful features in AD..

• Merge and divide shapes with no "garbage" stuff as mentioned above..
• 
•  
• Vector Width tool
• 
• Expand stroke for Brushes..
• 
• symbols spray tool with shifting.. random rotation expanding and collecting etc.(even Macromedia Flash had it)
• 
• Distribute objects Randomly
• 
• Distribute Objects along path and rotate as needed (like text along path)
• 
• Shape Blend tools 
• 
• Mesh Warp tools for Designer (AP does have this thing but only for once!) 
• 
• Gradient mesh tools are very important if you are making vector art 
• 
• perspective transform kind of tools.. (there are ISO and that is very cool )
• 
• And a bunch of more.. 

 

@acapstick @AdamW @Andrew MacDonald @James Ritson I dont' know who should I add in. 

 

Thank you

 

@b

Any update in any new versions?? not in even v2

[uneMule]

@mfarooqi, bonjour

Mesh tormentor peut avoir un intérêt pour vous.
Mesh tormentor may be of interest to you.
 http://www.meshtormentor.com/

Si vous utilisez illustrator, bien sûr
If you use illustrator, of course

 

[mfarooqi]

if this is how we 've to deal with issues.. wasn't illustration a good idea. we can't afford so many application.  

using Affinity Designer was a good idea or not!...?? 

[uneMule]

38 minutes ago, mfarooqi said:

using Affinity Designer was a good idea or not!...?? 

Hi @mfarooqi

En ce qui me concerne, oui.
Bien que je regrette quelques fonctionnalités absentes. Et on ne parle que de Designer. Que dire du find/search de Publisher !?
Patiente et longueur de temps...
Mais à chacun de définir ses besoins.
Sinon Tormentor est excellent et libre. Il permet entre autre de faire des formes de pinceau avec des meshs, diviser ou assembler des mesh, réaliser des maillages...
Mais avec illustrator

As far as I am concerned, yes.
Although I regret a few missing features. And we're only talking about Designer. What about Publisher's find/search!?
But it's up to you to define your needs.
Otherwise Tormentor is excellent and free. It allows, among other things, to make brush shapes with mesh, to divide or assemble mesh, make meshes from path...
But Illustrator

[mfarooqi]

1 hour ago, uneMule said:

As far as I am concerned, yes.
Although I regret a few missing features. And we're only talking about Designer. What about Publisher's find/search!?
But it's up to you to define your needs.
Otherwise Tormentor is excellent and free. It allows, among other things, to make brush shapes with mesh, to divide or assemble mesh, make meshes from path...
But Illustrator

I checked on website.. I can't afford Illustrator. It is expensive. I know AD is good. I'm using it smoothly but I'm missing so many things. 

Tormentor is free but can we use it without Illustrator? 

[uneMule]

1 hour ago, mfarooqi said:

Tormentor is free but can we use it without Illustrator? 

Unfortunately not.
But as there is no mesh in AD, tormentor has no use here!