Simplify issues (in CD11 ???)

[Sark]

Hi all.

I’ve posted a thread about this issue in CD12, but would just like to know if the same problem arises under CD11.

First create a number of overlapping objects, give them a dark fill, select all, and then remove their outline colour, by right clicking the no colour swatch.
Now, if you click Simplify, do the shapes show a white line around the areas that butt up against one another?

Sark

[Sark]

Hi all.

I’ve posted a thread about this issue in CD12, but would just like to know if the same problem arises under CD11.

First create a number of overlapping objects, give them a dark fill, select all, and then remove their outline colour, by right clicking the no colour swatch.
Now, if you click Simplify, do the shapes show a white line around the areas that butt up against one another?

Sark

[Peter Clifton]

This is a display only issue, related to anti-aliasing 'enhancements' introduced from From Draw 10 onwards.

Change the view from Enhanced to normal and there will be no white line.

I hope that it is possible to alter the engine at some point to provide exceptions to touching straight line shapes. However this may add a speed penalty.

Until then if creating images for the web, you may have to overlap one of the shapes slightly and move it behind the previously touching shape.

FWIW this anti-aliasing issue is not exclusive to Draw.

HTH

Peter

[Sark]

Peter

While it may not notice in normal mode, it appears if you export as an antialiased bitmap.

It's not difficult to resolve with a couple of objects, but using Simplify on more than a few objects, it is not very practical to try nudging every object a few pixels left or right.

It just seems to be one step forward, one step backwards with each new version.

Sark

[Peter Clifton]

Sark

Just curious why you would simplify a vector drawing for export to bitmap?

By its very nature there is extreme simplification during convertion of vectors to bitmaps.

Peter

[sallybode]

Another suggestion, Sark as to getting rid of your white line is make an additional copy of all objects in the simplify command, and merge them, you can place this at the bottom of the stacking order and color it whatever you wish in order to blend correctly. Gradients might work best, or just a line that follows the seem, converted to an object and filled with a gradient, you get the idea.

[Grafixman]

I tried the simplify and got those thin outlines, too. As others had already said, there is really no need for the simplify operation if you're going to output it as a bitmap anyway. Just overlap your shapes.
It's an anti-aliasing thing. If you export as bitmap without the anti-aliasing option, you get a clean shape without the white outlines. Maybe you could export twice the size without anti-aliasing, then reduce the size by 50% to get a smoother outline? It's a 3D rendering trick some people recommend, too. (Rendering 3D images with anti-aliasing slows down the process, specially for lower powered pc's)...

[Sark]

Just curious why you would simplify a vector drawing for export to bitmap?

Peter, I wasn't suggesting I would do this, but mentioned it in relation to your comment suggesting this was a "display" issue. I assumed, maybe wrongly, you were suggesting it only related to enhanced view, exporting with antialiasing suggests otherwise. It's clearly a new approach to antialiasing, but why?

Maybe you could export twice the size without anti-aliasing, then reduce the size by 50% to get a smoother outline?

Grafixman, that's basically what I do when exporting to bitmap.

It just seems an uneccersary change to a previously adequate method of antialiasing, for which I can think of no good reason to incorporate.

Sark

[sallybode]

Just curious, since Xara does many of the same things that DRAW does, does Xara produce this line? I don't use Xara that much, DRAW pastes right over the top, Xara duplicates are offset. However, did an experiment, best way to get something dead on in the same spot over the top is copy the layer. Since there is no simplify command but a Subtract command in Xara, I made two gradient filled spheres, turned off editablilty & visibiliy on the copy layer. Subtracted the shapes on layer one, turned on the copy layer and deleted the shape subtracted from, and guess what I got, a thin line just like the one you get in CorelDRAW.

A lot more complications to get the same effect you have gotten, Sark. And no solution for you, sorry.

Xara and Corel run lightyears around Illustrator. Does that do this, because Adobe may consider itself the number one in vector graphics, but competitively speaking, the reason print shops can charge less whose work is produced in CorelDRAW is because it takes so much less design time. The other shop must charge more to stay in business, and then they say their work is better. In an race at Daytona, the car that finishes first is considered the superior one. But there is no reasoning with Adobe, they have made Photoshop, so I will bow down for that, but hardly for the speed of Illustrator.

Maybe it is the American way, packaging, Cheerios tastes better costing you more than the store brand, (of course you eat the box--doesn't everybody???)

I know what the problem is, if Illustrator works better, we are just not in etiquette, holding up our little pinky when we draw. How totally bourgeouis of us.

[Sark]

Sally, wasn't sure exactly what you were suggesting in your previous post, but last night I tried duplicating the simplified objects in place and this solved the problem. This increases the antialiased edges enough to make them opaque. Not an ideal solution, but it works.

Its clear the problem can be solved a number of ways. It just doesn't make sense to me, to antialias inwards rather than outwards, as in CD9. I guess I can put up with the problem being only visual until I'm ready to print or export.

To be fair I was probably over emphasising the importance of this to me. It's just frustrating that Corel sometimes seem to go backwards with some of there changes for no good reason.

And yes, it's still considerably better than Illustrator, though Photoshop is way ahead of Paint.

Sark

PS...Peter,you suggested working in Normal view mode to solve the problem. While this is far from ideal, the result is actually considerably worse, on my system at least.