anti-aliassing only for outer edges of symbol

[rcsmit]

Hello,

 

I am making squared tiles. I made an one-eight part of it, clipped masked it in a triangle, made it into a symbol and duplicated, mirrored and rotated that symbol 7 times. So far so good. Unfortunately I have a little edge due to auto-aliassing. I know that I can turn it off, but then the image gets ugly.

How can I apply anti-aliassing only for the outer edge (the clipped triangle) and not for the rest? I tried already to play with the forced on- and off at different hierarchy levels, but no result

antialliassing.afdesign

Edited January 15, 2022 by rcsmit
typo

[NotMyFault]

Check if you have „precise clipping“ enabled in Preferences>Performance

Even with AA active there might remain an visible seam. Is your file pixel or vector based?

 

[NotMyFault]

The best way to avoid the 45 degree line is to merge both triangles (pixel), or merge the shapes and clean the nodes (vector).

 

 

[rcsmit]

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

Check if you have „precise clipping“ enabled in Preferences>Performance

Even with AA active there might remain an visible seam. Is your file pixel or vector based?

 

Thanks Precise clipping didn't help unfortunately.

The visible seam is the problem with AA active. When it's inactive there is no seam but the image is "ugly". The file is totally vector based

4 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

The best way to avoid the 45 degree line is to merge both triangles (pixel), or merge the shapes and clean the nodes (vector).

 

 

Merge the shapes is a lot of work and not possible because they are in symbols

preciseclipping_enabled.afdesign

Edited January 16, 2022 by rcsmit

[NotMyFault]

Ok. This is a known principle issue. Not in the sense of a bug of Affinity, but by design how vector document formats like SVG are defined and interpreted by apps, when rendering curves to pixel based displays.

you may try this:

If possible, try to use a backfill layer having matching colors, below the tiles.

Then, check pixel alignment and size to be 100% whole pixels.

In case of symbols, you may need to inspect all nested layers individually.

You may convert from symbol to normal shapes, and merge the shapes. By using color tags to layers, or global colors, you preserve the option to make global adjustments later.

You may simply increase DPI and turn off AA.

The seam can be caused by multiple factors, on each own or combined:

1. partial transparency, let lower layers shine through (use backfill)
2. mixing of colors with unsuitable gamma / color model (adjust blend gamma)
3. blockiness caused by DPI / pixel resolution (increase DPI)

 

[NotMyFault]

Just out of curiosity: 

• Why do you need to use symbols as basis for tiles? 
• how many tiles do you create per day?
• Its it business, private, for some institution?
• What is your intended level of accuracy / perfection?
• How will the tiles be used?
• Do you need to upload them to a sales platform?

I'm asking because to really depends on those answers to find the best solution. If you do it for your living, many tiles per day: Choose a different app which is better suited to edit curves / nodes, and offers shape builder tools. This is not the strongest part of Affinity.

If you have a small number of tiles per day, and able / willing to spend about 30 minutes  per tile, you can use Affinity without symbols to create perfect vector tiles. This might require using a different workflow / edit style, but deliver the best possible accuracy.

If you are willing to accept less perfect results, you can use a quick & dirty workflow to simply add some backfill rectangles which reflect the colours of your tiles, and. fill-in  semi-transparent areas so these become invisible. But this is not suitable e.g. for cutting machines where you depend on a perfect curve.

 

Not to forget, my tutorial posted earlier (using a levels adjustment on alpha) will remove seams inside the tiles, but it has a minor collateral damage at the outer edge, changing the alpha values of edge pixels from anti-aliasing. This is visually almost unnoticeable. 

[rcsmit]

Thanks for your time. I tried (quickly) the trick with the alpha chanel but didn't see a difference, I'll try again.

I use the symbols to create perfect symmetric tiles (especially because of the round curves etc) and because changes are reflected in all the 1/8th's.

We are talking about a relative small number of tiles for print-on-demand-webshop. I think an extra layer with lines to cover the seams might be the best solution.

preciseclipping_enabled whitlevel trick.afdesign

[JimmyJack]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:14 PM, rcsmit said:

How can I apply anti-aliassing only for the outer edge (the clipped triangle) and not for the rest? I tried already to play with the forced on- and off at different hierarchy levels, but no result

This can be done very simply by rearranging your symbol a bit.
(good thing you used symbols! 👏)

Instead of nesting the design elements as children of your vector triangle, use the triangle as a vector mask. Now it can individually be designated to have no anti-aliasing in the Blend Ranges panel. Everything else will remain nice and soft edged.
You will lose the fill color of the triangle though. You will need to add a square of that color behind everything (edit: or add another element to the symbol).
I've attached a revised file. Sorry, had to change the colors 😎 😄.

jj.afdesign

[rcsmit]

2 minutes ago, JimmyJack said:

This can be done very simply by rearranging your symbol a bit.
(good thing you used symbols! 👏)

Instead of nesting the design elements as children of your vector triangle, use the triangle as a vector mask. Now it can individually be designated to have no anti-aliasing in the Blend Ranges panel. Everything else will remain nice and soft edged.
You will lose the file color of the triangle though. You will need to add a square of that color behind everything.
I've attached a revised file. Sorry, had to change the colors 😎 😄.

Wow!! Looks good ! Thank you so much!

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[rcsmit]

16 minutes ago, JimmyJack said:

This can be done very simply by rearranging your symbol a bit.
(good thing you used symbols! 👏)

Instead of nesting the design elements as children of your vector triangle, use the triangle as a vector mask. Now it can individually be designated to have no anti-aliasing in the Blend Ranges panel. Everything else will remain nice and soft edged.
You will lose the fill color of the triangle though. You will need to add a square of that color behind everything.
I've attached a revised file. Sorry, had to change the colors 😎 😄.

jj.afdesign

Thank you so much! Works perfect!

 

 

9 minutes ago, Lagarto said:

Another method to produce raster patterns without antialiasing artifacts is using supersampling (the method Illustrator uses without needing to perform it manually). E.g. turn off all antialiasing using the Antlaliasing "Forced off" option in the Blend Optiond dialog box, then create a PNG e.g. 10 times the size needed using the Nearest Neighbor resampling method, and then open this file and reduce it to the required size using "Bicubic" resampling method. 

Supersampled.zip 188.31 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks also!

[rcsmit]

I made a little tutorial how to make the tiles.
https://rcsmit.medium.com/making-vintage-tiles-with-affinity-designer-2cac429fbdaa

TILE TEMPLATE 8 AND 16 PARTS.afdesign

Edited January 17, 2022 by rcsmit
added template

[NotMyFault]

Nice tutorial. Unfortunately the last image shows a lot of imperfections we discussed, a seam at the hor/vert axis and really visible non-touching edges on 45 degree. (Sorry I’m a perfectionist and did the tiles from scratch without using symbols. Far more work, about an hour, but far better result by avoiding the root cause)

In my perspective this tutorial shows again the limits of Affinity Designer: a good idea cannot be directly implemented. You can try dozens of workarounds without success.  Lack of shape builder and symmetry tools for building vector shapes make your life really hard.

one cause might be the source image may show some distortion like lens barrel distortion, and titled focus plane. The 45 degree symmetry angle is not exact in the source image.

This comment is interned to discuss the limits / missing functionality of Affinity Designer, not as criticism about your work.

[rcsmit]

The horizontal seamand maybe the 45 degrees error was due to an error in the curves; I corrected it. But indeed, it could be made much easier`.. 

[NotMyFault]

Still unfixed in the center of the tile

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[rcsmit]

I thought to be smart and made my tile 202x202, made a square of 200 with anti aliassing off, centered it and used it as a vector mask. The seams in between the tiles are gone, but now the original 90 and 45 degrees seams are back..

test no seams 4x4D.pdf

[NotMyFault]

This time probably caused by fractional pixel positions. 
It goes away if you add a levels adjustment, select alpha channel, select white level, and lower it to 75% or 50%.

But this will impact the anti-aliasing effect.

The only way to avoid a seam under all circumstances is to manually join the curves. This needs a bit of practice to do it fast an reliable, but then you need only a few extra minutes. 
 

Whatever you try with clipping / masking etc, anti- aliasing at some point will bite you with partial transparency.

This is by design. To avoid it, affinity would need to manipulate the curves itself, or automatically create extra shapes as backfill. The limits are coming from the file formats like SVG itself, it is not (solely) a fault of Affinity. 

[lacerto]

Obsolete.

[Old Bruce]

I looked at this briefly and figured that the problem(s) was maybe due to the triangle mask being not 90 45 45 degrees and/or that things weren't on integer pixels. Another thing is that I would have made the little shapes symbols and not the whole triangle.

[NotMyFault]

I found another workaround to 100% avoid seams.

most tiles can be partitioned into 2 areas:

• one area suitable for 90° rotation along for/vert axis without seams
• one area suitable for 90° rotation along +/- 45° axis without seams

I would create 

1. A triangle from top edge to centre node
2. A rectangle covering the upper right edge

 Then use symbols to cover 1/4 within those partitions.

These partitions can be then power-duplicated and rotated 4 times and rotated by 90°

The trick is: fully cover the area (along 45/90° axis) which could show a seam with one shape / curve. It is a minor additional effort, but will guarantee seamless tiles.

You can see spot some seams in the first 2 screenshots caused by non-overlapping curves and other edit mistakes on my side. Corrected in the 3rd screenshot showing the final result.

 

PS the source image is not perfectly symmetrical, and my trace preserves that imperfections. Depending on your personal preferences  you can do it differently. 

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by NotMyFault

[rcsmit]

On 1/23/2022 at 5:57 AM, NotMyFault said:

I found another workaround to 100% avoid seams.

most tiles can be partitioned into 2 areas:

• one area suitable for 90° rotation along for/vert axis without seams
• one area suitable for 90° rotation along +/- 45° axis without seams

I would create 

1. A triangle from top edge to centre node
2. A rectangle covering the upper right edge

 Then use symbols to cover 1/4 within those partitions.

These partitions can be then power-duplicated and rotated 4 times and rotated by 90°

The trick is: fully cover the area (along 45/90° axis) which could show a seam with one shape / curve. It is a minor additional effort, but will guarantee seamless tiles.

You can see spot some seams in the first 2 screenshots caused by non-overlapping curves and other edit mistakes on my side. Corrected in the 3rd screenshot showing the final result.

 

Looks great, could you share the affdesign file?

[NotMyFault]

22 minutes ago, rcsmit said:

Looks great, could you share the affdesign file?

here you go

tile symbol master.afdesign

[rcsmit]

At Dafont.com I found some fonts with tiles and elements of tiles which can be used to make your own

https://www.dafont.com/theme.php?cat=721&l[]=10&l[]=1