Equal spacing with path offests

[Nickronus]

In the absence of a line offset tool, I am trying to re-draw (by eye) line paths with an offset from the original. 

I am wondering if there is anyway of either matching/setting the angle of curvature of a path or being able to maintain an equal separation between paths.  I am starting to find it frustrating having to modify each handle and/or eyeballing the desired line offset so there is not a variety of thickness.

I have tried expand stroke , but its not giving me the editing functions I need in the final product.  

I quite often do mascot style logos and to finish off , sometimes give them a bit of an outline. 

Any thoughts? 

[firstdefence]

At the moment expand stroke is about the only way to get the offset path look. What are you finding awkward about expanding a stroke? I know the dimensions are effectively final as any resize will distort the lines and they will not maintain an equal distance from the larger or smaller shape.

 

[toltec]

It is always rather hard without seeing an example and I don't know if this would be suitable but you could use an outline and a double outline layer effect

 

Place one layer with the outline aligned inside, and one aligned outside. Interestingly, the outline effect is placed outside the stroke, so you can use the stroke to get the gap.

See the attached .afphoto file.

 

You would have to experiment a bit to get the various line thicknesses right

heart.afphoto

 

Another method is to make a thick line, then place a duplicate line on top which is thinner. Allowing the line below to show either side.

 

Maybe one will be suitable.

 

 

ellipse.afphoto

[Nickronus]

Thank you both for the really helpful responses.  

 

It is hard for me to provide examples of what I mean , as I have effectively "designed out" this from my work.   I think the outline approach might work in some applications.

 

I guess most of it comes down to patience and ensuring everything looks uniform.  At the moment there is not much that can be done to ensure there is an equal distance between paths (particularly where you are dealing with multiple overlaying shapes) 

 

The attached file , is very very quickly pulled together to try and help show what i mean.  Working outside to inside , there is not very much I can do to ensure either , the angle of curvature is the equal or the spacing between the paths is equal and I think this makes it look really amateur.  If I was able to offset the path , I would know that it was by a certain unit of measurement. 

 

It's almost something that I am thinking about getting illustrator for.  I say that very reluctantly as I love AD. 

 

[Guest]

Hello, nikronus,

 

I don't know if this can help you, but you can apply a "Outline" effect to your shape, with color of the filling, right-click on the shape and choose "Group". Add again a "Outline" effect of the stroke color, right-click and "Group", and continue adding outlines alternately fill color and stroke.

 

The contours are added outwards but the spacing remains the same all around the shape.