Hairline Stroke Width

[Fatu]

On 10/13/2022 at 6:28 PM, Bob Bobertson said:

Are we still waiting for the implementation of hairline stroke? I can't find it anywhere. I also had to move the design to another application so that I could laser cut. Please add this feature. Thanks. 

I agree. This feature is nessecary. Without it I need to go back to Illustrator or Corel. I also could not change the width of the brush stroke to 0,001 mm. Can anybody help or knows a work-around?

 

So Affinity is useless with a laser cutter.

[Komatös]

Hi @Fatu

Go to Edit -> Preferences -> User Interface.

[François R]

On 11/14/2022 at 6:15 PM, Komatös said:

Hi @Fatu

Go to Edit -> Preferences -> User Interface.

And what? I don't see v2 operating with hairline strokes either (check the stroke panel, you can't select it).

We are not talking about something looking like a hairline on screen, but that hairlines are used in Affinity.

Definition: Hairline is used to refer to a hairline rule, the thinnest graphic rule (line) printable on a specific output device.

[Komatös]

Hi @François R

Set the Decimal Places for Unit Types: Points to 3 

And be shure you have ticked Show Lines in Points

[François R]

Yes, but a hairline is not a specific number or the smallest number. It is metadata - let me quote the good @sfriedberg:

Quote

 

Yes, "hairline" is a device-dependent width.  It is the thinnest width a given device is capable of rendering, and therefore will be different for different devices

[fde101]

A hairline is the thinnest line that can be produced on a device.  If you are printing at 300dpi, it would be 1/300th of an inch; if you are printing at 600dpi, it would be 1/600th of an inch.

This means that the width of the line is indeed device-dependent, and I am not aware of a way to produce this setting in the Affinity products.

[Pšenda]

21 hours ago, François R said:

And what?

It takes a bit of perception of the context of the posts.

On 11/14/2022 at 4:22 PM, Fatu said:

I also could not change the width of the brush stroke to 0,001 mm. Can anybody help or knows a work-around?

[loukash]

On 11/14/2022 at 4:22 PM, Fatu said:

I also could not change the width of the brush stroke to 0,001 mm

You can.
But you cannot see the value unless you change Preferences > User Interface > Decimal Places > mm (it's not a bug though, rather a conceptual flaw…)
To be in full controll, for my regularly used units (px, pt, mm, °), I'm always keeping the setting at full 6 decimal points.

But even then, if you're using e.g. the Pencil tool, the Width field in the contextual toolbar will round down the display of the value to "0" pt. You have to use and watch the Stroke panel instead, to set and always see the accurate value.

The thinnest stroke I was able to create is 0.000001 pt.
Even at 20000000 % (!) zoom it's barely visible:

The actual problem might be:
What to do with such a thin line?
It won't export as PDF (error), but SVG export works. *)

*) edit:
Reopening the previously exported SVG in Designer now shows the stroke width as 0.000004 pt, so that's apparently the limit with SVG. Still, that's amazingly thin! 

Edited November 28, 2022 by loukash

[Horseflesh]

I'm still unclear if "hairline" is metadata other than the stroke size. If a laser cutter needs a "hairline" to denote a cut line, can that be simulated with a manual stroke width, or do we need some other "hairline=true" bit for proper support?

[loukash]

33 minutes ago, Horseflesh said:

If a laser cutter needs a "hairline" to denote a cut line, can that be simulated with a manual stroke width, or do we need some other "hairline=true" bit for proper support?

That's the $0.000001 question.

[François R]

Let us consult the PostScript Language Reference, third edition

Page 675, https://www.pdfa.org/norm-refs/PLRM.pdf

Quote

setlinewidth num setlinewidth

sets the line width parameter in the graphics state to num. This parameter controls the thickness of lines to be drawn by subsequent invocations of stroke and related operators, such as rectstroke and ustroke. When stroking a path, stroke paints all points whose perpendicular distance from the path in user space is less than or equal to half the absolute value of num.

The effect produced in device space depends on the current transformation matrix (CTM) in effect at the time the path is stroked. If the CTM specifies scaling by different factors in the x and y dimenMiter join Round join Bevel join 8.2 Operator Details 675 sions, the thickness of stroked lines in device space will vary according to their orientation.

A line width of 0 is acceptable, and is interpreted as the thinnest line that can be rendered at device resolution—1 device pixel wide. However, some devices cannot reproduce 1-pixel lines, and on high-resolution devices, they are nearly invisible.

Since the results of rendering such “zero-width” lines are device-dependent, their use is not recommended. The actual line width achieved by stroke can differ from the requested width by as much as 2 device pixels, depending on the positions of lines with respect to the pixel grid. Automatic stroke adjustment (see setstrokeadjust) can be used to ensure uniform line width.

In other words, you use hairline when you know what you are doing and you know which output device you are doing it for. But that's how it's stored in Postscript/PDF.

[Mark.White.340]

I also want to vote for a hairline setting in Affinity.  Having to move to other software for laser cutting is very annoying.

 

[Nobutadas]

Not having this feature is the one thing that is stopping me from moving my lab from Corel to Affinity. I can personally figure out the hairline width for each of my lasers, but having to explain to students that they need to swap for each one is just not worth the effort. 

I would love to see a hairline feature added to Affinity!

[cboy]

On 10/13/2022 at 11:28 AM, Bob Bobertson said:

Are we still waiting for the implementation of hairline stroke? I can't find it anywhere. I also had to move the design to another application so that I could laser cut. Please add this feature. Thanks. 

they added a hairline view mode but it changes all strokes to hairline viewing and its just viewing. so it is basically useless