Unwanted Edges/Strokes around Shapes

[VeganPete]

Is there a way to draw a shape (a square for example) without it having crappy edges? Seems to be a bug.
Whenever I draw a layer, it adds an edge with the secondary colour - even if "Stroke width is 0" and even if "Outline FX is off".

There are quite a few annoying little glitches like this.
2 other annoyances are:

Cropping the image usually makes it extremely blurry (regardless of resolution) - probably an issue with the Affinity's resampling algorithm.
Cropping an image then screws up any subsequent filters (such as affine) - because the filters are calculated using the original canvas size, not the newer cropped one.

Glitch.afphoto

[VeganPete]

OK, solved it - you need to increase the stroke with to any value, then click "None" again to turn it off.

[Ron P.]

2 hours ago, VeganPete said:

OK, solved it - you need to increase the stroke with to any value, then click "None" again to turn it off.

You do not need to increase the stroke width. Simply click on the NO icon, circle with diagonal line through it.

[VeganPete]

True but as you can see in the image, strike width was already set to "none".

[walt.farrell]

Just now, VeganPete said:

True but as you can see in the image, strike width was already set to "none".

But in your screenshot you were showing the Context Toolbar for the Ellipse Tool, not for one of the Layers you've drawn.

[VeganPete]

Exactly my point - If I set the stroke width to "none" in the shape's toolbar settings, surely it shouldn't be drawing an outline at all.

To remove it, I then have to select the shape, then change the stroke with to "any value" then click "none".
It's as if (sometimes) it ignores the fact that I had set "stroke width" to "none" prior to drawing the shape.

Another glitch along the same theme - if I select a fill colour, it sometimes automatically switches back to the outline colour when I draw the shape or write text.
It (sometimes) just ignores the fact that I've switched the colour prior to drawing a shape/text.

[walt.farrell]

10 minutes ago, VeganPete said:

Exactly my point - If I set the stroke width to "none" in the shape's toolbar settings, surely it shouldn't be drawing an outline at all.

But you were setting it for the Ellipse Tool (when you have Rectangles). Additionally, you were not setting it for one of your existing layers. To set it for one of your existing layers you would need to have the layer selected, and according to the Layers panel none of your existing layers are selected.

The setting you have in the Context Toolbar should apply if you were to draw a new Ellipse at that point,  but they do not apply to anything you've done previously.

[VeganPete]

I know that. Don't worry about it. You've misunderstood.

[walt.farrell]

OK

[JimmyJack]

Pete, I don't get any of the results you're describing in working with your file (or in general). If you haven't tried already, perhaps a simple app restart will jog it's brain.
If not then maybe a reset (start with ctrl. I think the first three check marks is all you need)

[VeganPete]

If I select Stroke width as "none, then draw a shape..... If I later click the colour pallete, is it meant to be retrospectively adding an outline?

If not, you can reproduce the problem by clicking shape, clicking "stroke width - none", draw the shape, click the colour pallet swatch.

It adds an outline to previously drawn shapes, even though stroke width was set to zero at the time of drawing - is that normal or is it a bug?

Thanks. (PS- app restart didn't fix). I can make a video to demonstrate if required).

[walt.farrell]

17 minutes ago, VeganPete said:

If not, you can reproduce the problem by clicking shape, clicking "stroke width - none", draw the shape, click the colour pallet swatch.

It adds an outline to previously drawn shapes, even though stroke width was set to zero at the time of drawing - is that normal or is it a bug?

It's probably normal and jus something we don't yet understand about your workflow.

Tell us more about "click the colour palette swatch". A screenshot of what you're clicking might be enough, but if you can make a video that might be even better. Especially if you can start from the very beginning of creating the document

 

[thomaso]

7 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

25 minutes ago, VeganPete said:

If not, you can reproduce the problem by clicking shape, clicking "stroke width - none", draw the shape, click the colour pallet swatch.
It adds an outline to previously drawn shapes, even though stroke width was set to zero at the time of drawing - is that normal or is it a bug?

It's probably normal and jus something we don't yet understand about your workflow.

"Usual" isn't necessarily "normal". Indeed the UI can be confusing by keeping a recently used stroke width in mind, regardless of a selected colour "None". This way what maybe meant as an advantage can result in the need of more clicks and feel buggy, or at least cumbersome.

[VeganPete]

Yes, possibly my workflow is non-standard or maybe I just don't fully understand the UI properly yet.

For me, if I click the little circles (swatches?) of colour (black/white in example - not the red sample colour or the transparency) or if I click the swap front/back colour arrows (next to the colour picker/pipette), it will add an outline (always 1 pixel wide) to whichever shape layer is selected in the "layers" window.

This is mildly frustrating when I want to retrospectively change the colour of a shape, as I then also often have to delete the extra outline stroke that's generated. I do notice it doesn't happen all the time so it's probably something I'm doing wrong.

[walt.farrell]

Thanks. Not something I've ever seen.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

Not something I've ever seen.

Maybe not seen or not noticed yet. Anyway, you still can't reproduce this behavior?

[JimmyJack]

2 hours ago, VeganPete said:

For me, if I click the little circles (swatches?) of colour (black/white in example - not the red sample colour or the transparency) or if I click the swap front/back colour arrows (next to the colour picker/pipette), it will add an outline (always 1 pixel wide) to whichever shape layer is selected in the "layers" window.

Ahh, ok I get 50% of that. Clicking the individual ink wells does nothing. But the swap arrow does add a stroke.

Can't image that's by design. Should be reported... at least to see what they say.

[Old Bruce]

15 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Maybe not seen or not noticed yet. Anyway, you still can't reproduce this behavior?

I cannot see the movie, but I never noticed the change from 0 points to 0.2 points when swapping the foreground and background colours. Only happens when I have a vector layer chosen.

So there is a bug in that we cannot get 0 points (pixels, any unit of measurement) stroke to stick if we change the foreground and background colours.

[VeganPete]

As for the second part of my post....  if you manually change the stroke width to any value (say 10), then manually set it back to zero, the stroke width will remain at zero, even if the swap arrow is clicked - it's as if it remembers the last setting and applies it when the swap arrow is clicked.

It's a workaround but also may help to bug fix it - assuming indeed it is a bug and not a short-cut/feature.

Hope that makes sense, Sorry I'm not too great at explaining.

[walt.farrell]

56 minutes ago, thomaso said:

Maybe not seen or not noticed yet. Anyway, you still can't reproduce this behavior?

Never seen. But as you and @VeganPete have shown, I can get it to happen.

It was subtle in my limited testing, and if I had not been looking for it specifically I might not have noticed it, as the stroke it assigned was only .2pt. In a document where I was using larger strokes it would probably be more obvious, as you showed.

So we seem to have 2 Windows and 2 Mac users who can see this happening, and I agree it seems like a bug.

Thanks.

[thomaso]

1 hour ago, Old Bruce said:

So there is a bug in that we cannot get 0 points (pixels, any unit of measurement) stroke to stick if we change the foreground and background colours.

45 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

I agree it seems like a bug.

I am not sure about bug or not. In the eyes of Serif it might be a feature for two reasons:

a) If you toggle the circular back/front colour well to get the stroke colour in foreground you probably do this with the goal to assign a stroke. Then the auto-default of 0,24 pt – (that's what I get, to me also known as "hairline") – can be indeed helpful and be desired in many cases, for instance when adding a subtle standard border to picture frames. 

b) The 36 pt displayed in my video are a consequence of the feature that Affinity keeps the recently used setting in mind and applies it for new objects. So, also this sample with 36 pt can be wanted and expected in a certain workflow.

I remember this auto-applying of a recently used setting by default was discussed in various threads and includes text formatting.

[R C-R]

26 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I am not sure about bug or not. In the eyes of Serif it might be a feature for two reasons:

a) If you toggle the circular back/front colour well to get the stroke colour in foreground you probably do this with the goal to assign a stroke.

Since for me that only happens if I have a shape selected when I use the toggle, I think it probably is by design.

[VeganPete]

Thanks R C-R. If it's there as a feature, do you know if there is any way to turn it off? Possibly the devs can add an option for it in a future update sometime.

Thinking about it, I'm sure it's handy for most people - for me it's a little bit of a hindrance - I use affinity to make transparent png's and transparent screen bezles for game overlays and layered art. It's usually only after import to the game engine that I notice the stray lines that weren't there by my design - or after a final render of an art piece, on closer inspection, I'll notice something not quite as I intended. For quite a while, I assumed the game engine was at fault, so I was offsetting the position and scale by a few pixels to move the lines off the screen - this affected the resolution, so I had to deliberately make the images 1 pixel larger and force sharpness and use a forced aspect-ratio in the game engine (which affects performance).

The ambiera forum suggested I inspect my images in case the lines were actually part of the image. They were correct. Once I realsied it was actually the image at fault, I then had to go back and edit them (or worst case scenario, create them again from scratch - although in most cases, I had saved the .aphoto file along with the render).

A similar thing occasionally happens when I select text, under certain circumstances, it switches back to the previously used colour - rather than the colour I currently have selected. I think it's related but it may be a different issue.

If I could switch those features off, it would fit my workflow a lot more reliable.

I suppose as a workaround, I can go back and double check everything before a final render and just manually erase the lines with the marquee selector and cut tool (possible even the eraser with a steady hand) if they're rasterised - or I can just try to get in the habit of adding the extra steps to revert it back to zero stroke width whenever I click on the switch button - or I suppose I can even add a "dummy" raster-layer which I can select prior to making make any changes to colour (as it only happens with vector layers) - then once the changes are made safely (without adding the previously-stored width), I can then switch back to the vector layer I was working on. As a final option, I can convert all the vectors and text to rasters so this doesn't happen at all, then if I want to go back and edit them in the future, I can just delete the layers and re-draw them all as vectors again.

Thanks.

[Wosven]

@VeganPete

Like you, if I design an object without contour/stroke, I don't expect one being added just by switching colours. It should be done by the designer, modifying the stroke's width, and not by the apps.

Especially in AP, where foreground/background are difficult to differentiate, and you can easily disregard a 0 pt black stroke, and end up instead with a real stroke.