Line (Stroke) Width Tool

[Bryan Rieger]

One other thing to consider is renaming the 'Pressure' graph in the Stroke panel to Profile, as it's not always reflective of what controller/data (velocity, pressure, etc) is affecting the width profile of the stroke. Also, the Stroke pressure graph itself has a button labelled 'Save Profile', so simply renaming it to profile would make it much clearer. Then adding a 'Profile' attribute in the Attributes panel (see my previous post) to indicate strokes that have profile data applied would make things much clearer for users. 

The profile controller (see above) in the pencil tool can be set to velocity, pressure, etc, while the Stroke profile graph (see below) uses inconsistent language with the profile graph always labelled 'Pressure', with the 'Save Profile' button confusing things further. Using consistent language and labels will help user understanding.

Edited April 19 by Bryan Rieger
Updated images.

[EricP]

Thanks for this feature, it's going to be great

Found an issue when expanding strokes

[Sean P]

2 minutes ago, EricP said:

Thanks for this feature, it's going to be great

Found an issue when expanding strokes

Could you attach a copy of that line with the curve (pre-expanded please). I've got one to expand slightly incorrectly, but not had anything expand quite like that has!

[EricP]

1 minute ago, Sean P said:

Could you attach a copy of that line with the curve (pre-expanded please). I've got one to expand slightly incorrectly, but not had anything expand quite like that has!

sure, here it is

expand variable width line.afdesign

[JGD]

9 minutes ago, EricP said:

Thanks for this feature, it's going to be great

Found an issue when expanding strokes

Oooooh, looks like something straight out of FontLab Studio 5.x…

[Intuos5]

3 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

I love this! Works great! 

Only thing that's related to this tool that I hope gets improved is this panel:

It's too small. Being able to resize it and the Profile feature could be more global so other features could reuse them, i.e. brush settings. Also needs an option to invert the profile.

1. And I hate it that the end points often get moved together. It's a real trial and error clicking them and hoping you can get to move just one of them.

2. Also, when you make a steep curve profile with a high peak or low valley, it can be that you can't actually double click to add a pressure point in the graph, because it is out of view.

3. Could the option be added that the graph is not an interpolate curve? I'd like to specify on a per point basis whether it's a linear or smooth pressure transition.

4. If the panel ends up being reworked, please add the reset pressure button to the strole panel immediately? That'll save lots of clicks, especially if you can reset multiple curves this way at once. Perhaps adding a reset shortcut could also be added?

5. Will the bug that strokes cannot be expanded when they have a pressure curve applied (i.e. the pressure curve is omitted and treated as single width) also be fixed?

That said, I'm really happy to finally see this tool. It's been on the top of my wish list for a long time! 🥳🎉

[Jon S]

Just wanted to say thanks so much for adding this feature, have been waiting a long time for it. Will test when I have time, currently too busy.

[The Artifex Forge]

Thanks for adding this - it's going to be a great timesaver. It seems to work well with vector brushes too!

[loukash]

50 minutes ago, Intuos5 said:

the end points often get moved together

For closed curves, it's a Good Thing™.
Perhaps the profile panel should be a bit smarter and differentiate between closed and open curves.

52 minutes ago, Intuos5 said:

3. Could the option be added that the graph is not an interpolate curve? I'd like to specify on a per point basis whether it's a linear or smooth pressure transition.

Agreed

[Intuos5]

I usually have the issue with open curves. Can the pressure points be used to change where a profile starts as well? Say you reuse a profile, but need to take an object's rotation or perspective into account.

[Sean P]

11 minutes ago, Intuos5 said:

I usually have the issue with open curves. Can the pressure points be used to change where a profile starts as well? Say you reuse a profile, but need to take an object's rotation or perspective into account.

There is an indicator on the nodes themselves to let you know if you're changing one or both.
When they have a dot in the middle it means you're affecting both start and end node. If there isn't then it will only adjust the one you change. You can single click on them to switch between the two states.

Adjusting both start and end node position:

Adjusting single node position:

[Aurea Ratio]

Finally this feature arrived. 🙂

Unfortunately not impressed. You should look at usability from bigger players, or even Amadine. Much easier and much more precise. 

I also see some pretty weird or unorganic shapes with even pretty basic editing. Never had such trouble in other programs.

I instantly saw the jagged artifacts after pulling a few nodes - you could too, Serif. This is not ready for beta testing. 😞

This end of a curve looks weird? A simple experiment.

Expand it and it gets even worse:

You are rushing half features into releases. There is a serious risk that these feature releases will be launched with serious flaws and defects. Here you see the outlines of all the problems that the good @debraspicher has mentioned.

I would seriously recommend that you put this feature in parentheses in release 2.5. It is a feature that works excellently in all the programs I have and have tried, so you are hardly interested in being last in the race, let alone bothering customers with errors, deficiencies, and half-finished algorithms.

I will not test further until there is a serious build.

[Intuos5]

Just now, Sean P said:

There is an indicator on the nodes themselves to let you know if you're changing one or both.
When they have a dot in the middle it means you're affecting both start and end node. If there isn't then it will only adjust the one you change. You can single click on them to switch between the two states.

Adjusting both start and end node position:

Adjusting single node position:

Yeah I know, but it is tricky to spot at times, or the clicks aren't registering the way I want then to. Granted, I tend to use a double click button, so that may have something to do with it. Will try it again in the beta anyways.👍

[loukash]

11 minutes ago, Aurea Ratio said:

I also see some pretty weird or unorganic shapes with even pretty basic editing. Never had such trouble in other programs.

I instantly saw the jagged artifacts after pulling a few nodes

This has been a general issue with the pressure feature since it was introduced in v1. 
In that sense, the new Line Width tool is apparently "only" a different front end to what's been there for a long time and only editable via the Pressure curve until now. But at least it's more convenient.
(Considering this, I can't say that I'm overwhelmed either… )

[Bryan Rieger]

7 minutes ago, loukash said:

This has been a general issue with the pressure feature since it was introduced in v1. 
In that sense, the new Line Width tool is apparently "only" a different front end to what's been there for a long time and only editable via the Pressure curve until now.

And let’s not forget that you can also use velocity to set ‘pressure’ (ahem, profile) values. Improving naming/labels here would go along way to creating a consistent mental model of what all these tools are doing. Defining the line/curve width profile.

[Petar Petrenko]

There is no Line Width Tool on Windows for me, so I updated the Mac apps.

This tool works really great with Pen and Pencil tools equally, but why just another tool? Couldn't it be done using CTRL button while dragging nodes?

[Bryan Rieger]

The width tool isn’t locked to nodes as you can drag anywhere on the curve to change the width profile. So you’d either need to radically change the node edit tool, or require a new width specific tool.

Also hiding features behind keyboard shortcuts obscures them, and impedes discoverability—especially on the iPad where keyboard shortcuts (or that weird Affinity shortcut control) are not something most users are familiar with.

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

There is no Line Width Tool on Windows for me

I got it automatically, Petar, but you may find that you need to reset your toolbars.

 

[Petar Petrenko]

9 minutes ago, Alfred said:

I got it automatically, Petar, but you may find that you need to reset your toolbars.

I've already asked for this few posts above. I can't see how to do that. When I start the app with CTRL pressed, there isn't Reset Toolbar on the menu.

[Return]

It is just to be added through the customize tools option in the regular menu.

Drag the tool to the panel and/or use the reset button.

[Return]

Also Ctrl+runup may do the trick without a designated option for toolbars.

Just try it, close the app and restart pc.

[Jon S]

36 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

I've already asked for this few posts above. I can't see how to do that. When I start the app with CTRL pressed, there isn't Reset Toolbar on the menu.

I didn't check any of the options but just clicked on 'clear' at the bottom of the box you showed in your earlier post. The tool then appeared expected.

[Petar Petrenko]

19 minutes ago, Return said:

It is just to be added through the customize tools option in the regular menu.

It is not there.

[Alfred]

27 minutes ago, Return said:

It is just to be added through the customize tools option in the regular menu.

The ‘Customize Tools’ option on the View menu offers me three (count ’em!) instances of the Pencil Tool: one standalone, one paired with the Line Width Tool, and one paired with the Vector Brush Tool.

[Alfred]

12 minutes ago, Petar Petrenko said:

It is not there.

What happens if you choose ‘View > Customize Tools…’ and then press ‘Reset’ followed by ‘Close’ in the tool customization panel?