Align stroke: Center/Inside/Outside?

[Craig Deeley]

I have a question about how a textured stroke is aligned to its vector spine (or framework) in Affinity Designer.

 

I have a stroke that I want to use as the outline of a fill.

I am including a .afbrushes brush file with one brush in it and a .afdesign file with the stroke applied as an example. 

The example uses a brush stroke I created: CD_hairtest’’.

This has a base and “hairs” standing up off the base. See attached image.

This stroke is was built to be drawn freehand as an outline. I would apply a fill to the outline as a second step.

 

My problem is: The textured bitmap seems to be aligned/placed in the center of the strokes “spine” and when I apply the fill - the fill shows halfway up the “hairs” of the stroke.

 

I would like to be able to change the placement of the stroke on its "spine" or "frame" (not sure what word might be used to describe the vector container the bitmap stroke resides in) at the bottom (or top) or outside/inside of the strokes shape.

 

I am including an image that may make what I am writing about more clear.

I do not know if there is an option already in AD to set the stroke on the outside or inside edge of its spine/frame. I wasn’t able to find something that does this. Does anyone know if this feature exists and how to get to it? Thanks in advance if I am just being thick and need someone to point out the obvious.

 

If the feature isn’t there - I can deal with adding a fill fitting under the stroke. It’s just a lot of extra work.

If the ability to change the way a stroke is aligned around a fill isn’t available as an option - I would definitely like to see the idea added to a future feature list. Align stroke: Center. Inside. Outside.

CD_hairtest.afbrushes.zip

cd_hairtest.afdesign

[R C-R]

I expected the Stroke panel align buttons to control this ... & they do, but unfortunately only for closed curves. For open ones, they have no effect, which I guess in a way makes sense: open curves do not have an inside or outside.

 

So the only thing I can suggest is to use the "Draw behind fill" option, but that is going to hide part of the brush stroke, so it won't really do what you want.

[Craig Deeley]

R C-R,

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

Yes - those align tools are the right idea. But, as you noted - not for open curves.

I could see an arbitrary allocation of Inside, Center, Outside being applied to open curves.

Something defined like the attached image.

 

 

The tools as is:

Draw behind fill just covers the base of my stroke.

Align center (closing the curves) is no good

Align outside also cover the base of my stroke - so it is not really outside all the way.

 

Looks like maybe I am asking for a feature request!

: )