lilyrose Posted August 27, 2018 Share Posted August 27, 2018 Hello On Affinity designer, I have a stroke on a shape and another shape behind. I'd like to keep a space between my 2 shapes like a transparent border without seeing the shape behind. I didn't find how to do that. Do you have an idea ? Thank you Paul Masri-Stone 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staff Gabe Posted August 28, 2018 Staff Share Posted August 28, 2018 Hi @lilyrose, Welcome to the forums. You can either set the stroke to "None" or use the Opacity Slider. EDIT: My bad. I thought the gray line stopped right on the edge of that black stroke. You can follow @Dazzler, or @Pšenda advice. Actually, setting the blend mode to Erase would be a lot easier. Duplicate the circle, set the blend mode to ERASE, and resize it from the center (Hold CTRL + SHIFT while resizing). Make sure your the bigger shape with erase blend mode is below the base shape and above the gray line. Thanks, Gabe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzler Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 If the above answer is not what you meant (I think you might mean something slightly different, because making the stroke transparent will reveal the shape behind again), then there is another way involving subtracting shapes. First make sure the shape with the stroke is converted to outlines. Then under the Layer menu, select 'expand stroke'. This will make the stroke into an object of it's own. You can then duplicate this outline object and use the subtract tool to subtract it from any shapes that it overlaps - I say duplicate because you'll also need to subtract it from it's original fill shape to maintain the 'outline' thickness. That will give you a completely transparent space that was the thickness of the original stroke. You'll need to duplicate the outline shape for each shape that you need to subtract it from, as the subtract method removes the shape that is being subtracted. buildpax and Paul Masri-Stone 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Group this object, and Blend mode set to Erase. Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzler Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 14 minutes ago, Pšenda said: Group this object, and Blend mode set to Erase. Oooh that's kind of nice! Any idea what happens upon export etc to a vector format? Does it retain it's erase state? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rostron Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 I just clicked on @lilyrose's image (with the boundary stroke on the right in white (transparent). The image which popped up had this stroke as black! Was that intentional? If so, how does one do it? John Quote Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilyrose Posted August 28, 2018 Author Share Posted August 28, 2018 Wow, thank you ! It works and it's really simple with Pšenda method. Dazzle, I tried your method, it was what I tried to do before posting here, but I can't have my blank space, it's only transparent then I see the behind shape. I certainly do something wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carl123 Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 32 minutes ago, John Rostron said: I just clicked on @lilyrose's image (with the boundary stroke on the right in white (transparent). The image which popped up had this stroke as black! Was that intentional? If so, how does one do it? John That's the magic of transparent pngs, download the image and all will be explained Quote To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Rostron Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 3 minutes ago, carl123 said: That's the magic of transparent pngs, download the image and all will be explained Of course! It's obvious really. John Quote Windows 10, Affinity Photo 1.10.5 Designer 1.10.5 and Publisher 1.10.5 (mainly Photo), now ex-Adobe CC CPU: AMD A6-3670. RAM: 16 GB DDR3 @ 666MHz, Graphics: 2047MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 630 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pšenda Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 5 hours ago, Dazzler said: Any idea what happens upon export etc to a vector format? Vector export is problem, because this is a Serif specific function. Quote Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301 Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155. Intel NUC5PGYH, Pentium N3700 2.40 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics, EIZO EV2456 1920 x 1200, Windows 10 Pro, Version 21H1, Build 19043.2130. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzler Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 20 hours ago, Pšenda said: Vector export is problem, because this is a Serif specific function. Yes I tried it out and the effect becomes a raster, so no good for export really unless you are going to raster format, but still a great function to know about for speed/quick proofing etc. On 8/28/2018 at 3:12 PM, lilyrose said: Wow, thank you ! It works and it's really simple with Pšenda method. Dazzle, I tried your method, it was what I tried to do before posting here, but I can't have my blank space, it's only transparent then I see the behind shape. I certainly do something wrong. I'm confused - what do you mean by 'I can't have my blank space'? Maybe you're missing out the 'expand stroke' bit? That is necessary to convert the stroke to it's own shape. It's that shape that you duplicate and subtract from the shapes surrounding your original object. You do also need to subtract from your orginal shape because a stroke normally sits over part of the fill, so if you remove the stroke the object gets larger by half of the stroke width (or smaller that what originally was with the stroke by half the stroke width!). You don't need to make anything transparent with this method - you are simply cutting shapes away from other shapes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buildpax Posted July 12, 2023 Share Posted July 12, 2023 On 8/28/2018 at 8:46 AM, Dazzler said: If the above answer is not what you meant (I think you might mean something slightly different, because making the stroke transparent will reveal the shape behind again), then there is another way involving subtracting shapes. First make sure the shape with the stroke is converted to outlines. Then under the Layer menu, select 'expand stroke'. This will make the stroke into an object of it's own. You can then duplicate this outline object and use the subtract tool to subtract it from any shapes that it overlaps - I say duplicate because you'll also need to subtract it from it's original fill shape to maintain the 'outline' thickness. That will give you a completely transparent space that was the thickness of the original stroke. You'll need to duplicate the outline shape for each shape that you need to subtract it from, as the subtract method removes the shape that is being subtracted. This is exactly what I was looking for! Trying to describe this was tricky, but you totally nailed the answer for me. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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