Decimal Places for Units doesn't actually round to chosen units

[thatFloozie]

This is going to be tricky to explain - I hope this makes sense.

 

I would expect that if I set the Decimal Places for Unit Types on points, for example, to 0, that my stroke width options would be limited to whole numbers when I use the slider to select a stroke width. What actually happens is that the slider is just displaying the nearest whole number to the actual stroke width.

 

For example, I set my decimal limit to 0 in preferences, I drag the slider for stroke width to 1, and draw a rectangle. I would assume that the stroke of the rectangle is exactly 1 pt.  This is NOT the case.

 

If I switch the decimal limit to 6, I see that the actual stroke of my rectangle is something like 1.002345. This can also be clearly seen using the pixel grid. The stroke I thought was exactly 1 pixel is visibly wider than grid lines set to one pixel.

 

I discovered this while trying to make a checkerboard pattern. I couldn't figure out why my rectangles, snapped to the grid, with stroke set to 0, seemed to have gaps. When I changed the decimal places to 6, I discovered the rectangles actually had strokes of 0.000238. 

 

So unless you type a whole number instead of using the slider, you can never be certain that your stroke is exactly what you want it to be. Even with 6 decimal places, sliding the slider to 1 could still actually be something like 1.00000039865. This is very problematic for pixel-perfect exports, and negates the entire purpose of the slider bar.

 

[Alfred]

I would expect that if I set the Decimal Places for Unit Types on points, for example, to 0, that my stroke width options would be limited to whole numbers when I use the slider to select a stroke width. What actually happens is that the slider is just displaying the nearest whole number to the actual stroke width.

 

I believe it's by design that the 'Decimal Places for Unit Types' setting only affects the display, not the internal values. If you want whole numbers, you can use the round() function to tweak the values in the Transform panel.

[thatFloozie]

I'm not sure I understand the point of the decimal places setting then. Just so it visually looks cleaner? So I see '0' instead of having to look at the uglier actual number of, say, '0.783564'?

[A_B_C]

Indeed, that’s the case. It helps to unclutter the user interface, but apart from that, the setting does not quantize your slider input and perform any rounding in that context.

[thatFloozie]

Well that's highly disappointing. It's all the little things like this that keep me going back to Illustrator for new projects. Every time I give AD a chance, I end up getting annoyed and starting over in Illustrator. I really wanted to like this software, but I give up. 

[ronnyb]

I agree this is problematic and tedious to circumvent.

 

Would be nice to have a pref setting for Mínimum Slider Increments where the user can input their preferred unit increment...

 

And/or a checkbox for the current decimal limit pref to specify if it's for display purposes or to actually round values to that setting.

[Chris_K]

This preference is just visual. Internally i believe we actually work up to 64 decimal places (could be more) which would not work well on screen. I'm moving this to our feature request section for consideration

[Mithferion]

It's be a good way to help for those "pixel perfect" scenarios (I thought the same but I then realized that it was just a visual thing).

 

Best regards!

[A_B_C]

Hmm … I added a feature suggestion (modifier-based input rastering) to the beta thread:

 

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/43177-affinity-designer-customer-beta-16-beta-21/?p=216330

 

What would you think?  :unsure: