Inner and outher glow

[G-Sun]

Hi!

Inkscape is such a good program,
but one thing is driving me nuts:

Where are inner and outer glow filters?
(working with text)

What I really would like to see, is stroke to be able to set inner/middle/outer (middle only today)
and to have text with no overlapping stroke.

Thanks!

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Filters menu > Shadows and Glows

There are a few choices there which you might want to try out.  Also, if you find a filter that's close to what you want, but you want to change something about it, such as the color of the glow, or the intensity, or whatever; there is a way to do that.  Just let us know what kind of change you want to make and we can tell you how.

Are your questions about the stroke separate from the question about the filters?  If you want to apply the filter only to the stroke, then you'll need to make the stroke a separate object (duplicate the text, and remove the fill, also remove the stroke from the original).   If you want the filter to only be applied to the middle, inner or outer part of the stroke.....that might be tricky.  I guess it would have to be a pretty wide stroke, or else it would be hard to really see the difference.

However, I'm thinking your question about the stroke is separate from the filter question.  As far as I know, Inkscape doesn't have an option for whether the stroke is aligned from the middle, inner or outer edge, although it's a long time requested feature.  There are ways to achieve the appearance of a stroke being aligned this way or that, but not by actually using a stroke.  You'd have to use a regular path.  We can show you how, if you like.  Hhmm....actually it might be possible to do it with a stroke, but the stroke would be a separate object from the fill.

Inkscape uses a middle alignment.

There are options for the z-order of strokes, fills and markers.  So you might be able to sort of fake the stroke alignments using z-order, depending what you want.

And your last question, "no overlapping stroke".  Do you mean you want the stroke to be aligned from its inner edge?  Or do you mean you don't want any stroke at all?

[G-Sun]

Thank you!

This is a typical example:

Stroke and glows.png
(23.24 kB . 365x251)
(viewed 787 times)

I want the text to stand out, using stroke.
But, as the stroke is middle-position, it makes the white smaller. (so, here it should be outside, or other glow)
The other issue, is overlapping letters, where the stroke should have z-order behind fill

[brynn]

So having the glow only showing on the outer edge of the stroke, would it be acceptable to have a sharp edge on the inner side?  That could be accomplished with clipping.  It would make for a pretty complex clipping path, but I think it should be do-able.  Assuming the sharp edge is ok.

Or it might work to use the z-order of strokes and fills that I mentioned.  Although I just realized I forgot to tell you where the buttons are.  Look in Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Stroke Style tab > Order.  So you would just put the fill on top of the stroke.  As long as the fill is 100% opaque, it ought to work.

Using z-order, it might be possible to make a non-sharp border between the inner and outer - possibly by using a tiny bit of blur on the upper object.

Can you share that image in an SVG file?  Then I could test easily, without having to trace it first.

The overlapping of the letters can be fixed with Path menu > Union.  However, that will make the text into paths.  If it must remain as text, I guess you'd have to use individual letters, so you can change the z-order.

[G-Sun]

Or it might work to use the z-order of strokes and fills that I mentioned.  Although I just realized I forgot to tell you where the buttons are.  Look in Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Stroke Style tab > Order.  So you would just put the fill on top of the stroke.  As long as the fill is 100% opaque, it ought to work.

Thank you!
Stroke z-order is super-helpful, and gives me a sharp outer stroke

But, what about that soft outer stroke with a little blur?

[G-Sun]

Often I need to change text:
- Words
- Size
- Position
- Color
- Strokes, glows and shadows

So, complex rendered filters are not ideal. As is anything that needs to be rendered as complex paths.
But, if that's the only option, then so be it

Anyway, that stroke-order will help me tremendously

[brynn]

I'm not clear exactly what kind of glow you want.  But for the attached screenshot, I did this:

 - duplicate the text
 - remove the fill
 - change the color of the stroke to a gold color
 - I did not make the stroke wider, but you could, if you wanted more glow
 - add some blur
 - move to the bottom in z-order (not using the Stroke Style tab, but just using the regular z-order buttons in Selection control bar ( ) or also Object menu > Lower or Lower to Bottom)

So you can see that makes a sharp border between the text and the glow.  If you want a softer border, there's probably some way or other to do it.  I can experiment if you like.

(click to make attachment larger)

[G-Sun]

I'm not clear exactly what kind of glow you want.  But for the attached screenshot, I did this:

 - duplicate the text
 - remove the fill
 - change the color of the stroke to a gold color
 - I did not make the stroke wider, but you could, if you wanted more glow
 - add some blur
 - move to the bottom in z-order (not using the Stroke Style tab, but just using the regular z-order buttons in Selection control bar ( ) or also Object menu > Lower or Lower to Bottom)

So you can see that makes a sharp border between the text and the glow.  If you want a softer border, there's probably some way or other to do it.  I can experiment if you like.

(click to make attachment larger)

Thank you!
That's quite nice:) Softness of border is controlled by stroke color transparency, but yes, needs to be a separate object if blur.
Both stroke and glow would typically be black(ish) or white(ish).