Two problems specifying line width and height

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spacediver
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 8:59 am

Two problems specifying line width and height

Postby spacediver » Wed Jun 25, 2014 12:56 pm

I'm in the process of creating some test patterns for display calibration, and am running into some difficulties.

Right now, I'm trying to create a line that is 10 pixels thick, and 1200 pixels high.

There are two problems I'm encountering:

1: I don't seem to be able to specify the width completely independently of the height. When I change the width, the height changes slightly within a few decimal points. I keep having to go back and forth iteratively until I get both dimensions specified to the exact pixel dimensions I'm going for. I've tried changing the bounding box from visual to geometric, but when I do this, I am unable to make any direct changes to the dimensions of the line, unless I change stroke width or manually drag the line with the cursor.

2: With visual bounding box, when I make the line 10 pixels thick, and 1200 pixels high, the bounding box indeed occupies 1200 pixels of height, but the actual line is slightly shorter. The thicker I make the line, the more the vertical dimension of the bounding box extends.

I'm finding it very difficult to specify the line height with any sort of precision. I've tried grids and snaps and the pixelsnap extension - nothing seems to help.

You can do this experiment. Create a vertical line, and then hold down the increase stroke width button (or the width button), and watch what happens. The line increases in width, but the bounding box grows in both dimensions.

Is this behavior meant to occur, and if so, what am I misunderstanding here?

thanks for any help!

Lazur
Posts: 4717
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:38 am

Re: Two problems specifying line width and height

Postby Lazur » Wed Jun 25, 2014 2:16 pm

Hi.

Be avare that the visual bounding box is calculated with a stroke's rounded ending.
If you want to make such geometric shapes, it is more safe to use filled paths with no strokes given,
so I suggest to draw a rectangle instead.

spacediver
Posts: 8
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 8:59 am

Re: Two problems specifying line width and height

Postby spacediver » Wed Jun 25, 2014 2:33 pm

thanks very much, I was just about to try that, and indeed it works perfectly. I didn't realize that about stroke's bounding boxes - makes sense the way you described it, cheers :)


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