Lines are visible between perfectly snapped shapes even after exporting it

[RustyDawn]

I'm new to Designer and I was playing with shapes. So I created three rectangle shapes and snapped them together and placed a yellow background behind them.

Then, if I zoom in just a little bit, I can see as if they are not snapped completely. I thought maybe the behavior is while editing only.
So then I exported it (attached PNG below) and I can still see it.

It's embarrassing. Is it a known issue? Or just me?

 

[Aammppaa]

Since you are viewing the export on screen (rather than print), you need to ensure that your shapes are pixel aligned. All sizes need to be whole pixels, and X, Y position on whole pixels too.

It is not ideal. There have been complaints about the antialiasing of snapped shapes for many years.

Turn ON Force Pixel Alignment, and turn off Move by Whole Pixels, can both help.

Affinity Snapped Rectangles.afdesign

[RustyDawn]

14 hours ago, Aammppaa said:

Since you are viewing the export on screen (rather than print), you need to ensure that your shapes are pixel aligned. All sizes need to be whole pixels, and X, Y position on whole pixels too.

It is not ideal. There have been complaints about the antialiasing of snapped shapes for many years.

Turn ON Force Pixel Alignment, and turn off Move by Whole Pixels, can both help.

Affinity Snapped Rectangles.afdesign 8.85 kB · 0 downloads

Thanks for replying. Oh yes, looks like this fixed it. But I don't understand what is the use of "Move by whole pixels". It worked in both cases even if I turn it on or off. I just keep "Force Pixel Align" option ON. The other I think didn't make any difference.

[RustyDawn]

1 minute ago, vikaskumar2299 said:

Thanks for replying. Oh yes, looks like this fixed it. But I don't understand what is the use of "Move by whole pixels". It worked in both cases even if I turn it on or off. I just keep "Force Pixel Align" option ON. The other I think didn't make any difference.

Oh wait! Actually "move by" option also made effect. If I turn it ON, I could still see those lines. So you have to turn it OFF. Just turning on the "Force pixel" option worked for me.

[GarryP]

The Force Pixel Alignment ON option is overridden by Move By Whole Pixels ON when the layer already has non-integer position/size values.

In other words, Force Pixel Alignment ON doesn’t override existing non-integer position/size values when Move By Whole Pixels is also set to ON.

If you want to be (relatively) sure of exact pixel alignment then you need to set Force Pixel Alignment ON when you first create the document, before you add any layers. That way, it shouldn’t matter what you have Move By Whole Pixels set to, but probably best to keep Move By Whole Pixels switched OFF unless you actually need it.

It’s just one of the ‘quirks’ of the Affinity suite which has always existed, as far as I know, and probably won’t change any time soon.

[RustyDawn]

5 minutes ago, GarryP said:

The Force Pixel Alignment ON option is overridden by Move By Whole Pixels ON when the layer already has non-integer position/size values.

In other words, Force Pixel Alignment ON doesn’t override existing non-integer position/size values when Move By Whole Pixels is also set to ON.

If you want to be (relatively) sure of exact pixel alignment then you need to set Force Pixel Alignment ON when you first create the document, before you add any layers. That way, it shouldn’t matter what you have Move By Whole Pixels set to, but probably best to keep Move By Whole Pixels switched OFF unless you actually need it.

It’s just one of the ‘quirks’ of the Affinity suite which has always existed, as far as I know, and probably won’t change any time soon.

I just practiced these options and looks like I understand how it works now.

Now, this maybe a solution for my original problem, but now when I draw any shape, movements are not smooth. So I think this solution is not ideal. In Illustrator, there were no such issues.

[GarryP]

I don’t know what you mean by “movements are not smooth”.
If you have snapping and/or one of the pixel options on then there will be a certain amount of ‘non-smoothness’ as the software automatically ‘shifts things around’ to suit the snaps/pixels.

I haven’t used Illustrator (as far as I can remember) so I don’t know what happens there.

If you can give us a full-screen video showing what you mean (preferably with the rulers ON) then we might be able to help further.

[RustyDawn]

17 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I don’t know what you mean by “movements are not smooth”.
If you have snapping and/or one of the pixel options on then there will be a certain amount of ‘non-smoothness’ as the software automatically ‘shifts things around’ to suit the snaps/pixels.

I haven’t used Illustrator (as far as I can remember) so I don’t know what happens there.

If you can give us a full-screen video showing what you mean (preferably with the rulers ON) then we might be able to help further.

I mean if you drag Move Tool to draw a shape like rectangle, the movement will look less smooth. Just like low refresh rate. Other example is, once you draw any shape, then move it here and there using Move Tool. You'll again notice movement is not smooth. Hope you understand now.

[GarryP]

If you could show us a video, as requested, then we can see what’s happening for you and consider whether that’s what we would expect to see.
Otherwise all we have to go on is your use of the word "smooth" with no reference point to compare it to.
(We may have a difference in opinion about what we call “smooth”.)

[RustyDawn]

I think I'm not sure about this. I tried to reproduce again to record and I couldn't notice any difference. If I'll notice again, I'll record the video and then share.

[R C-R]

7 hours ago, vikaskumar2299 said:

I mean if you drag Move Tool to draw a shape like rectangle, the movement will look less smooth.

You cannot use the Move Tool to draw anything, so it is still not clear what you mean. But if you are just talking about modifying an existing shape & by 'less smooth' you mean that it jumps from one location to another, check the snapping options, as has been suggested.

[RustyDawn]

2 hours ago, R C-R said:

You cannot use the Move Tool to draw anything, so it is still not clear what you mean. But if you are just talking about modifying an existing shape & by 'less smooth' you mean that it jumps from one location to another, check the snapping options, as has been suggested.

Sorry for mistake. Actually I meant the cursor of any shape tool. E.g. select Rectangle shape tool and left click + move it to draw the shape. But like I said, I'm not sure I'll observe more and then respond if needed.