Affinity Designer drawn vector lines very pixelated -Help!-

[Stuckagain]

I have drawn a light aircraft in Affinity designer using 1pt lines (pen tool) but they display very pixelated on my monitor (1920x1080)

When I saved and shut down last night, the problem didn't appear nearly so severe or else I would likely have noticed.

Back to work on it today and it jumps right at me. As if drawn on early 90s MS Paint.

DPI is already 300.

Am I doing something wrong ?

Need help

thanks a million.

[v_kyr]

Looks normal and Ok to me at 100% zoom ...

 

But if you want, you can finetune the antialising slightly ...

[Dan C]

Hi Stuckagain, 

Check your performance settings in Edit > Settings > Performance, particularly the view quality and retina rendering options.

Lee

[R C-R]

@v_kyr & @Lee_T, I think I must be missing something because if the drawing is entirely vector objects, as it seems from the first screenshot, how would antialiasing or view quality or retina rendering Performance setting options have any effect on how pixelated the drawing looks, unless the document View Mode was set to something other than Vector, which from the screenshot it does not appear to be?

[firstdefence]

Only way to really check or test is to have the PO's @Stuckagain afdesign file to see how it renders on our systems.

[R C-R]

8 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Only way to really check or test is to have the PO's @Stuckagain afdesign file to see how it renders on our systems.

I think you mean OP but assuming in the first post the comment that "using 1pt lines (pen tool)" is accurate & nothing was rasterized, wouldn't how it looks depend only on the view mode?

[firstdefence]

10 hours ago, R C-R said:

I think you mean OP but assuming in the first post the comment that "using 1pt lines (pen tool)" is accurate & nothing was rasterized, wouldn't how it looks depend only on the view mode?

Yes meant OP, I cannot replicate the pixelised nature the OP is seeing, maybe a zoomed in shot would also help.

There are also parameters within the performance tab under settings that may have a bearing on the rendering of these vector lines, although I have changed these settings and had no change in render quality on my system, and to that end what are system do you have?

Also, has the OP got the latest drivers for their GPU?

...and DPI won't affect vector drawing rendering in-app, you could have the document set to 72-DPI and it should still render cleanly.

Edited October 15, 2023 by firstdefence
PO OP

[v_kyr]

48 minutes ago, R C-R said:

how would antialiasing or view quality or retina rendering Performance setting options have any effect on how pixelated the drawing looks, unless the document View Mode was set to something other than Vector, which from the screenshot it does not appear to be?

If you look carefully at the OP's screenshot (when enhanced to it's max size) you can see that diagonal lines are slightly jagged (zick-zacked), so like when I alter my vector view of those accordingly into the direction the OP probably sees on his screen ...

Adjusting the coverage map accordingly can straighten even slightly jagged diagonals here view wise. - Now you know!

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, firstdefence said:

Yes meant PO

Then what does PO stand for? In the English vernacular it usually stands for something like 'pissed off' or 'parole officer' or 'post office' or 'petty officer' or 'purchase order' but none of those seem to fit here.

[HCl]

.

[R C-R]

11 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

If you look carefully at the OP's screenshot (when enhanced to it's max size) you can see that diagonal lines are slightly jagged (zick-zacked), so like when I alter my vector view of those accordingly into the direction the OP probably sees on his screen ...

Maybe I'm just having a senior moment but I'm still confused about this. The OP's screenshot is a JPEG of what is (presumably) a drawing made entirely of 1 px wide vector lines made with the Pen Tool. So while I would expect some antialiasing in a JPEG screenshot version of it, if it is indeed all vector curves then changing the coverage map of the original should have no effect because vectors are resolution independent. I'm also not sure where or how you got the Curves object used in your video unless the OP sent you a copy of the original AD file.

[lepr]

18 minutes ago, R C-R said:

if it is indeed all vector curves then changing the coverage map of the original should have no effect because vectors are resolution independent

Coverage Map affects the antialiasing of the rendering of vector objects, specifically.

(I think the OP's screenshot shows normal antialiasing, so I don't know why he finds the display to seem distinctly more jagged than it did the day before.)

[R C-R]

1 minute ago, lepr said:

Coverage Map affects the antialiasing of the rendering of vector objects, specifically.

In the default Vector View Mode at any zoom level there is no antialiasing regardless of how the coverage map is set. Of course, if I change the View Mode to Pixel or Retina Pixel it does change the amount of onscreen antialiasing there is, but like I said there no indication the OP is using either of them from the screenshot in the first post.

From the help topic:

 

Quote

 

Vector view mode

Drawn objects are displayed as vectors by default. This means that, regardless of the current zoom level, objects (and applied effects) are always presented with smooth vector edges and transitions.

 

 

[v_kyr]

47 minutes ago, R C-R said:

In the default Vector View Mode at any zoom level there is no antialiasing regardless of how the coverage map is set.

I've shown you above just that, aka the default vector View Mode and altering the coverage map and how that affects the line views obviously. - You can prove that on your own visually, instead of always believing what the doc tells!

[lepr]

55 minutes ago, R C-R said:

In the default Vector View Mode at any zoom level there is no antialiasing regardless of how the coverage map is set.

One word:  bullsh!t  wrong.

 

[R C-R]

23 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

I've shown you above just that, aka the default vector View Mode and altering the coverage map and how that affects the line views obviously. - You can prove that on your own visually, instead of always believing what the doc tells!

I tried that several times in AD V2 before I posted & in every case the result is exactly as I & the help topic both said it was -- in Vector View mode changing the coverage map has zero effect -- vector curves are always drawn with smooth edges.  

Since you do not have V2, the best I can do for you is to show you these two examples of two selected vector 1 px wide curves with the coverage map set two different ways (zoom level is about 3500%):

 

Double-click on either one to see the full sized screen capture.

For V2 users, this is the file I was testing with for the above: Two 1 px wide curves.afdesign

Edited October 14, 2023 by R C-R
added zoom level info

[R C-R]

24 minutes ago, lepr said:

One word:  bullsh!t  wrong.

What do you get when using my just uploaded Two 1 px curves example?

EDIT: When I change the coverage map very quickly for this file on my Mac, for a very short time (like about 3/10ths of a second) I see stair stepped edges at high zoom levels, but then it re-renders with smooth edges.

[v_kyr]

 

• diag_line.afdesign

 

And in case of the OP's drawing ...

• shessna.afdesign

 

 

[R C-R]

5 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

• diag_line.afdesign

Doesn't happen for me in V2 -- it is just like the screen captures I posted above.

8 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

And in case of the OP's drawing ...

• shessna.afdesign

Same results as above -- even at extreme zoom levels like 50,000% there is no visible change in edge smoothness & no visible pixilation at all.

[v_kyr]

2 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Same results as above -- even at extreme zoom levels like 50,000% there is no visible change in edge smoothness & no visible pixilation at all.

Make a screencast of that so we can see what you did!

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Make a screencast of that so we can see what you did!

It's dinner time here so that will have to wait but I can assure you that all I did was select the diagonal line, zoom in to about 30,000%, open Blend Options & change the coverage map settings in the same two ways I did in as in my earlier screenshot. 

[v_kyr]

8 minutes ago, R C-R said:

It's dinner time here so that will have to wait but I can assure you that all I did was select the diagonal line, zoom in to about 30,000% ...

Don't zoom to 30.000% just once, instead zoom in much lower incrementing steps, aka 100%, 150%, 200%, 300% via the zoom tool.

Here's late night, thus time to go to sleep now. - GN8.

[R C-R]

6 minutes ago, v_kyr said:

Don't zoom to 30.000% just once, instead zoom in much lower incrementing steps, aka 100%, 150%, 200%, 300% via the zoom tool.

If I do that very quickly, there sometimes is a momentary pixilation but it immediately goes away when I stop zooming.

[R C-R]

4 hours ago, v_kyr said:

Don't zoom to 30.000% just once, instead zoom in much lower incrementing steps, aka 100%, 150%, 200%, 300% via the zoom tool. 

I don't know if this is what you want but as you should be be able to see, at high enough zoom levels to clearly see if there is any pixelation there is none.

 

BTW, this is about as small as I can make the UI on my 27" iMac & keep the file size of a video capture from becoming massive, while still showing the workspace window & the Blend Options window. Several Studio panels on the right are not included but it should show everything of importance. It is not a configuration I normally use -- I normally keep the workspace window sized much larger about 3/5th of the screen width, with the Layers & Brushes panels floating to the right of that.

Also note that I have enabled the V2 Advanced View Mode buttons on the Toolbar but none are enabled so I'm using Vector view mode.

[firstdefence]

9 hours ago, R C-R said:

Then what does PO stand for? In the English vernacular it usually stands for something like 'pissed off' or 'parole officer' or 'post office' or 'petty officer' or 'purchase order' but none of those seem to fit here.

Stands for dyslexia and or 12 hours of work and or FFF (Fat Freaking Fingers) and or Posters Original.