Uneven Line Weights

Hi there,
I'm looking for a way to draw lines with uneven weight along
its length, to achieve a result similar to the cartoons of Mark
Fiore (markfiore.com) or the video game Alien Hominid
(alienhominid.com).
The only methods I've had success with are individually
manipulating lines by converting them to fills and using certain
brush-heads. Unfortunately, the first method is far more time
consuming than I need and the second doesn't quite achieve the
exact effect.
Is there a method similar to the advanced properties for
lines that allow you to draw varieties of dotted/dashed lines? Or
perhaps my best bet is a seperate program and import the resultant
vector graphics into flash (vector graphics are ideal for my
purposes).
Thanks in advance,
-Jag

keep in mind this still only works with the brush tool - not
the line tool.
Line tool can not have a varied weight - using Illustrator
and importing
into flash is the recommended way but in the end flash will
convert the AI
lines into shapes anyway - I have had much success using
wacom tablets and
the brush tool in flash.
-chris
"rritchey" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:fociqc$hoq$[email protected]..
> The best method for doing this in Flash is to use a
Wacom tablet. With
> the
> Wacom tablet and Pen, you can vary the pressure of the
pen to vary the
> line-weights. Otherwise, you can create it in
Illustrator and bring the
> vectors straight into Flash.
>

Similar Messages

Cell Border Line Weight

I would like to use different Line Weights on spreadsheet cell borders, but no matter what Line Weight I choose from the Accents window, I always get (both visually and printed) the same Line Weight (hairline?) when I set a cell border. Am I missing something?

I didn't enter the system details because the problem appeared on all the (different) systems I tried: iBook G4 (OS X 10.3.8), iMac G4 (OS X 10.3.9), iMac G5 (OS X 10.4.?), AppleWorks 6.2.7 and 6.2.9. I understand the need in general, but since this problem persisted across all these platforms, I thought that it would either be a well-known usage problem or bug (even though my best efforts could find no mention of it).
Thanks for your response.
Pete

Line weights, dpi in Illustrator to Photoshop illustration work

I'm creating illustrations in Illustrator then importing the line art into Photoshop to add color to the drawings. The client needs 2 versions - first a tif, 3" x 3" then a .gif 225 pixels. They've asked for fairly detailed drawings and I'm finding details getting lost - even at .25 line weight in Illustrator, once in Photoshop they get jaggedy and I lose detail.
Can someone advise on best line weight to use for this situation, and best way to import into Photoshop and keep smoothness of lines. Thanks to all respondents -
Leslie

Any line which isn't truly horizontal or vertical will be jagged in Photoshop. That's the nature of raster images. The further from horizontal or vertical, the closer together the "stair steps" will be, and the more apparent, relative to other lines in the same image.
I'm not sure how Photoshop handles line weights when you import Illustrator art, but I'd guess it calculates how many pixels are required at the current resolution to make that dimension, then rounds to the nearest or next whole pixel.
You didn't say what resolution you are using for the 3 x 3 tiff, but the higher it is (and consequently more pixels and larger file), the better your lines will render. As for the gif, you have what you have, in terms of pixels to use, and the art will be rendered the best possible, but a .25 pt line is pretty small if you are saying that 255 pixels represents more than a few picas.
Peter

How do I set a PDF Export Preset to force a minimum line weight on output?

How do I set a PDF Export Preset to force a minimum line weight on output? I'm currently using one that came from a printer that works great - but I can't seem to find the option when creating one myself. I have some placed Illustrator line art that is built with .25 line thickness and when I have it placed at 20% scale the lines are too thin to see in the PDF output.

There is absolutely no way to force minimum line widths within InDesign itself, certainly not as part of the PDF export process!! And even one writes a script to go through every object within an InDesign document and both validate and fix line widths less than some particular threshold, such a script would be useless against placed artwork, the contents of which are not available for manual or programmatic inspection within InDesign.
Note that one should be exceptionally careful in “fixing” hairlines, especially if you are placing vector artwork at very low magnification. It may actually be OK to let certain lines drop out. After a fixup on some content, you could end up with a messy mass of lines.
- Dov

Line weight problem

When I convert fonts to outline then export from CS5 AI or ID as a PDF I sometimes get distortion in vertical strokes ie. the letter L, where the line weight will appear bolder than the original font.
The PDF will print showing the bolder line weight but if I re-open the same PDF file in Illustrator the line weight is correct. I also occasionally get the same problem in line artwork.
I have Adobe Reader X and I'm working on an XP PC
Hoping someone can help - thanks.

rwl3,
You may have Align to Pixel Grid ticked in the Transform palette. You can see it when the object is selected.
If so, you probably have Align New Objects to Pixel Grid ticked in the Options.
To cure this, you may select everything and untick both.

Signature in PDF appears too heavy (line weight)

Hello,
I have excel documents which need to have an actual signature. I have scanned in my signature and have it as a TIF file amongst others. I have the full Adobe CS3 suite so I have cleaned up the sig in PS and saved it in various formats.
When I import the picture file into excel the signature looks and prints fine, but as soon as I create a PDF the line weight on the signature becomes extremely heavy and it looks awful, both on-screen and printed.
I have used the Save For Web & Devices option to create a transparent GIF from the TIF file and this also results in extremely thick line weights in the PDF only.
If I simply copy and paste the signature in from PS or AI, the line weight is fine both pre/post PDF, however the background is no longer transparent.
I have tried searching for this issue in the forums with no luck so if the answer lies under a topic I have missed I would appreciate being redirected there.
Thanks,
Dave

Hi Mike,
I need the signature to sign off on data that is sent to our clients.
As an update...
We have a couple of tablet PCs here so I have created my signature using one of these. I now have a crisp/clean image of my signature which I have saved as an EPS file. It looks great both pre/post PDF creation.
Attaching the image to a digital signature is definitely something I am going to explore.
I am still curious as to why distilling the scanned signature yields the ultra fat line weights.
Thanks,
Dave

Line Weights in Acrobat X Pro

Hi People,
When I opened a pdf attachment in email (Outlook) the "Line Weight" is very very small. When I save the attachment and then open it in the free reader the line weights are all OK.
I have tried toggling the "Line Weight" option in "View, Show/Hide, Rulers & Grids, Line Weights", but I see no change in the display.
What am I missing?
http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk297/Oldbloke49/Acrobat%20X%20Problem/Acrobat.jpg
Regards
Doug Price

Hi Anoop9178,
YES, YES! That fixed it. I am very grateful
Regards
Doug

Export or Print different line weights (like in AutoCAD)

Is there a way to Export / Print / Save As artwork with reduced line weights like you can in AutoCAD? i.e. Export a PDF and all line thickness is reduced by 50%
I have a map project that I'm working on and I want to export different sections of the map at different scales (different zoom levels) which when you export a PDF, displays line thickess differently for each level of zoom. I'd like to have it setup similar to AutoCAD where I can create a window and now matter what level of zoom, the lines are exported at the same thickness (I'd use Artboards as export windows)
Sorry if this is confusing! Is there a Plug-In or another way to do this without physically changing the line weights?

Do you want a PDF that displays different line weights depending on zoom level? Not possible. Or do you want to export a PDF with line weights different from the ones in your Illustrator file? Possible, even recordable as an action.
Once the artwork is selected, go to Object > Transform > Scale. Scale to 50% and turn on Scale Strokes & Effects, then click OK. Repeat, this time with scaling set to 200% and turn off Scale Strokes & Effects. Save or Save a Copy, then undo twice.
Here it is an an action: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5005292/Set_1.aia

Problems with line weight below 1pt

In Illustrator CS6, when I draw a horizontal line, either with the pen tool or the line tool, the line weight cannot be set below 1pt. If I draw the line at an angle, I can set the line weight to be smaller than 1pt. If I change the position of this line from diagonal to horizontal, then the line weight snaps back to 1pt. Does anyone have any idea why this happening or how to fix it? Thank you!

Look for align to pixel grid
Illustrator: Problems with Align to pixel grid

Line weight/thickness update

Hey all,
The line tool is not functionning too intuitively for me. It creates a line in a new layer - so far, so good - named "Shape n" (where n is its number). Why not "Line n" ? And then the line weight or thickness won't update when I go to the option bar, having the "path selection" tool on. I can change the colors though. Care to explain, if you've been there ?
Thanks in advance for the support.
Charles

Wow, I knew I was mostly new to this, but I didn't think it was this bad. I say this because there's not a word in two I know the meaning of in your answer ^^
I do however have ideas about this :
1) So the line tool essentially creates a fully painted layer, but then masks it with a vector mask, and that mask has a hard time updating itself ?
2) Stroke feature ? I'll look around for this one and see what this yields.
3) Now, open or closed paths, what does that mean ? As in, the path loops on itself and surrounds a finite portion of the canvas' plane ? And at any rate, what's a subPathItem ?
Thanks again for your concern.

How do I make a sort of bumpy, uneven line?

Hi everyone, Illustrator newbie here:p I was wondering how I could create a bumpy-ish, uneven line like the black outlines in the image of this t-shirt: http://store.delias.com/item.do?itemID=57535&categoryID=2571 (you can zoom in by mousing over). Any help much appreciated. Thanks!

The roughen filter will do what you want. Keep the detail and size at a low value will create a similar effect to what is used in that image on the stalk (I assume thats what you meant, if not maybe you could explain a bit better).

Line weight consistency

Hello,
I have created some line drawings (floor plans) in illustrator (CS5), that need to be dropped into several inDesign (CS5)
Documents. They are fairly simple drawings with annotations for measurements etc..
In the indesign doc there will be 1 or 2 plans on some pages and up to 4 on others
Is it possible to keep the line weights and type (annotation) consistent bearing in mind that the plans will be resized
to fit the respective areas in the ID document?
I know you can do this in Ai if you uncheck the scale/effects box.
Thanks in Advance

No. InDesign will scale everything, effects, fills, strokes, text… the works. You could copy and paste the illustrations into InDesign, but I don’t recommend it. InDesign is just not as suitable for editing illustrations as Illustrator is.
I would import the illustrations, position them, and scale them as needed. Near the end of production, when sizes have been approved, click on each drawing with the direct select tool (white arrow) and note the scaling in the control panel. Edit the Illustrator file and scale according the the value in InDesign, then update.

Line weight print options

We are using "line weights view" to view drawings at a high zoom level. We would like to print the current view including the "line weights view".
Is there a possibility to print the "line weights view"?

Hi marybelleanne
Sorry, but what you see is what you get. Why would you want
to change it? Are you finding it difficult to see? If so, perhaps
you should consider submitting a feature request that would ask for
us to have the ability to define the color and width? You may do
this by
clicking
here.
Cheers... Rick

Line weight printing options

We are using "line weights view" to view drawings at a high zoom level. We would like to print the current view including the "line weights view".
Is there a possibility to print the "line weights view"?

Hi marybelleanne
Sorry, but what you see is what you get. Why would you want
to change it? Are you finding it difficult to see? If so, perhaps
you should consider submitting a feature request that would ask for
us to have the ability to define the color and width? You may do
this by
clicking
here.
Cheers... Rick

Line Weight

I open a PDF of a drawing. I turn off line weights to be able to view it better. I want to save it in that format to send to someone. How do I do this? Also, can I change the preferences of the program to automatically turn off line weight?

The "fix" is in the transform panel. Click on the scale
portion of the panel with anything on the paste board selected. You
will then be able to turn on the function to scale strokes. Just
click on the box to select that option and turn it off when you
dont want strokes to scale.

Uneven Line Weights

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for