Outline designed with a vector brush / EPS

[Designer1]

@NotMyFault

@Alex M

Can an outline designed with a vector brush be exported as an EPS vector graphic? It did not work for me. This is just one example.

[walt.farrell]

Most of the vector brushes are raster images stretched along a vector path, @Designer1. They will not export as true vectors.

[Designer1]

12 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Most of the vector brushes are raster images stretched along a vector path, @Designer1. They will not export as true vectors.

This is very bad if they cannot then be exported as vector graphics. Is there no possibility?

[Designer1]

@walt.farrell

Is it possible to convert this brush outline into a vector object?

[walt.farrell]

12 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

Is it possible to convert this brush outline into a vector object?

Sorry; I don't know.

[iconoclast]

You could make a vector image outoff it by autotracing. Unfortunately Affinity Designer doesn't offer this feature at the moment. But you could f.e. export it as a png and then load it into the free Vector Graphics App Inkscape (freely downloadable at inkscape.org). In that program there is a feature "trace Bitmap" (or so) in the menu "Path". This is for autotracing. There are also other apps out there that can do similar things. I prefer Inkscape.

[iuli]

44 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

@walt.farrell

Is it possible to convert this brush outline into a vector object?

It’s not (with Affinity), but if you don’t want to deal with yet another software for a particular function, you can use an online converter like discussed in this topic

Vectornator (free) also has a raster to vector function which was improved a lot with the latest update. All the best!

[Designer1]

43 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

You could make a vector image outoff it by autotracing. Unfortunately Affinity Designer doesn't offer this feature at the moment. But you could f.e. export it as a png and then load it into the free Vector Graphics App Inkscape (freely downloadable at inkscape.org). In that program there is a feature "trace Bitmap" (or so) in the menu "Path". This is for autotracing. There are also other apps out there that can do similar things. I prefer Inkscape.

That is not a solution. I meant just the possibilities in Affinity Designer. These are vector brushes. So it's absolutely incomprehensible why you can't convert them as a vector object and export them.

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, Designer1 said:

That is not a solution. I meant just the possibilities in Affinity Designer. These are vector brushes. So it's absolutely incomprehensible why you can't convert them as a vector object and export them.

That is a misunderstanding. Those vector brushes only use vectors as a core to align image informations (pixels) to. So they are indeed vector brushes, but their texture doesn't consist of vectors.

I don't really know if Adobe Illustrator's vector brushes really consist of vectors only. To be honest, I would be surprised about that, because it would create a huge amount of data, depending on the complexity of the texture of the brush. Think of how many nodes it would need to create complex textures.

However, I'm afraid this will not work only in Designer.

[Designer1]

4 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

That is a misunderstanding. Those vector brushes only use vectors as a core to align image informations (pixels) to. So they are indeed vector brushes, but their texture doesn't consist of vectors.

I don't really know if Adobe Illustrator's vector brushes really consist of vectors only. To be honest, I would be surprised about that, because it would create a huge amount of data, depending on the complexity of the texture of the brush. Think of how many nodes it would need to create complex textures.

However, I'm afraid this will not work only in Designer.

This is really an embarrassment for Affinity Designer. Yes, in Illustrator the real vectors are brushes.

[iconoclast]

1 minute ago, Designer1 said:

This is really an embarrassment for Affinity Designer. Yes, in Illustrator the real vectors are brushes.

OK, that's interesting. Can vector brush strokes in Illustrator be modified? I mean, do they have a core vector or so to modify the way of the stroke itself - without modifying the texture? Can't imagine clearly how that works.

[Designer1]

4 minutes ago, iconoclast said:

OK, that's interesting. Can vector brush strokes in Illustrator be modified? I mean, do they have a core vector or so to modify the way of the stroke itself - without modifying the texture? Can't imagine clearly how that works.

The best way is to try for yourself.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

The best way is to try for yourself.

Hard to do for those of us that do not have Illustrator.

[Designer1]

6 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Hard to do for those of us that do not have Illustrator.

You can try Adobe Illustrator for 7 days for free.

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, Designer1 said:

You can try Adobe Illustrator for 7 days for free.

I could but I have no interest in cluttering up my system with any more Adobe software than is absolutely necessary, particularly just for something like this that anyone who already uses it could answer in a few words in a reply to this topic.

[Designer1]

4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I could but I have no interest in cluttering up my system with any more Adobe software than is absolutely necessary, particularly just for something like this that anyone who already uses it could answer in a few words in a reply to this topic.

I don't currently use Illustrator either.

[R C-R]

2 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

I don't currently use Illustrator either.

So i guess you don't want to install it either, even if it is free for 7 days?

[Designer1]

31 minutes ago, R C-R said:

So i guess you don't want to install it either, even if it is free for 7 days?

I don't currently plan to use Illustrator. There are an extensive number of vector brushes for Illustrator on the internet. These are vector graphics. It's really bad that in Affinity Designer the vector brushes don't make real vectors that you can export as a vector file. A very big disadvantage.

[R C-R]

7 minutes ago, Designer1 said:

A very big disadvantage.

Yes, it is.

[Jimo]

1 hour ago, iconoclast said:

OK, that's interesting. Can vector brush strokes in Illustrator be modified? I mean, do they have a core vector or so to modify the way of the stroke itself - without modifying the texture? Can't imagine clearly how that works.

This thread below sorta answers the question. People commenting there who do use or have used Illustrator confirm it has 'true' vector brushes and are disappointed Affinity doesn't:

 

[Designer1]

8 minutes ago, Jimo said:

This thread below sorta answers the question. People commenting there who do use or have used Illustrator confirm it has 'true' vector brushes and are disappointed Affinity doesn't:

 

It's horrible !!! Really disillusioned and disappointed !!!

[Jimo]

From time to time I find things missing from the Affinity packages that disappointment me. But then I remember they only cost me 30 quid each.

[iconoclast]

Hm, to install a trial version of Illustrator is not an option for me too. But I still wonder if those vector strokes, created with the only true vector brushes, can be modified. And how do those strokes affect on the file size? Are there only the well known advantages of vector graphics or also disadvantages? That's still not clear to me.

[firstdefence]

Illustrators brushes are True vector brushes consisting of paths and vector shapes.

Affinity Designers brushes can only really be called hybrid vector/raster brushes, with 50% of the brush being vector and 50% being a raster image.

An Illustrator brush, the left is a true vector brush stroke consisting of groups of paths (curves), on the right is the brush expanded, with a small selection selected

example zoomed in

[firstdefence]

I applied a bristle brush to some of the selected paths/curves to give an example of how a vector bristle brush is constructed.

 

 

Illustrator brush import.afdesign