CS6 Stroke Issue?

[Guest]

Currently using the CS6 trial. I have issues occasionaly when trying to make the stoke less than 1pt, it either immediatly flicks back to 1pt, or says 0.5pt and hasn't changed on my artboard. Is it a glitch with me or illustrator?

[Monika Gause]

Turn off "Align to pixel grid"

[Guest]

Nope tried that no luck

[Monika Gause]

It's an object-based option in the transform panel.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

I agreee with Monika it is the align to pixel option and you must have it turned on.

If you are making a web document it is turned on my default

the transform panel reflects this unless you do not have the options of the transform panel opened.

here it shows it

Here it doesn't

Here witht the option I choose .5 pixels in the stroke panel

The result is 1 pixel

This is the only way this situation manifest itself.

On the web you cannot have less than a pixel.

Otherwise you must have something installed on your system that is drastically effecting AI CS 6.

But I am certain that Monika is correct.

[Guest]

Thank you!

[Nikita_Verma]

Nice one!

[Herodias194]

Hey Wade_Zimmerman,

Thanks for your explination, that was very helpful for me two.

My only question would be, can I change it (the "align new objects to pixel grid" thing) back AFTER my document was created.

My document is too complexe to recreate it

[BrianatArena]

I have noticed that I have to turn "align to pixel grid"on, then back off, for it to work.

[Guest]

But you don't have to use the drop-down menu on the Strokes Panel.  You can just overtype the Stroke Weight with any value you want.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

Rodieck you are missing the point if you have align to pixel option turned on then it will not be possible to assign a weight of less than a pixel because of the nature of align to pixel.

So if youwant to assign less than pixel you hsave toturn thr option off before the weight field will allow it.

[Guest]

But according to her message 2 above, the align to pixel grid is off.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

So she made a mistake we all do! No?

[JETalmage]

But according to her message 2 above, the align to pixel grid is off.

Unknown, however, is which "align to pixel grid" option is turned off. Turning off the option to create new objects aligned to the pixel grid does not retroactively undo the object-specific align to pixel grid option for objects which were created while the former was turned on.

So if the object being manipulated was created while the create new objects... option was on, it will still display the unwanted behavior of snapping Stroke Weight to integer values, unless the object-specific option is also turned off.

It's just another typically horrible interface for another typically ill-conceived and poorly-implemented feature. Another source of chronic Illustrator confusion.

This hideous feature should just be done away with. Other drawing programs are routinely used to rasterize graphics for use on the web without such a cumbersome interface feature. As implemented, I dare say this feature creates more headaches for far more users than those whose complaints (mostly about unwanted antialiasing of screen-res strokes) gave rise to it.

JET

[Guest]

Originally i was looking in the wrong place for the tick box but found it eventually, but using cs6 solidly for the past couple of weeks and I’m becoming annoyed with constantly having to tick the box. Why have they put this in....who is benefiting from it?

[Larry G. Schneider]

It's only on by default in the RGB based New Document Profiles. Make another profile with it turned off and use that one. The people benefitting are those who are working in designing for Web work.

[Wade_Zimmerman1]

You can also simply open the web rgb document turn it off and replace it then it will always be that way.

You find the document profiles here you need to right click or control click on the Illustrator Application and choose Show Packages.

You make the changes then resave the file by doing a save. I am not certain if it is possible to do a Save As to the packages so do a simple save.

They're are in the required folder.

If you ever wish to do a custom arrow head or 3D extrusion profile they are also located in thye Packages.

[Guest]

It actually feels more like a bug then a poor implemented feature to me...

I'm using CS6 for a week now, and I use it to create "technical drawings" (Illustrator just works for everything right) that can be cut using a laser cutter; something totally different then web design, which relies on pixels and rasterisation processes.

I found that even in a Print/CMYK document the strokes of the rectangles would not go below the 1 pt, and immediately jump back. According to my reasoning, this has nothing to do with any of the pixel grid align functions, since I am working in a document with millimeters as the standard measure and pt to define stroke size. In CS5 I did not have these problems and I could easily set the stroke to the desired size < 1pt.

So my thought is: maybe it's an actual bug, these pixel grid options should be ignord when working with print intention right?

[Monika Gause]

pep_F wrote:

So my thought is: maybe it's an actual bug, these pixel grid options should be ignord when working with print intention right?

Depends on how you set up that document. The setting is defined in the document profile. If this is set up correctly, then, yes, Pixel grid is ignored.

[Jacob Bugge]

pep,

There is another possible reason, namely a decimal mark mismatch: in English (with the exception of South Africa, I believe), the decimal mark is a stop (period), and in (some/most) other languages it is a comma (I believe).

Your OS and Illy may disagree about this and make a mess. Illy is right (and in any case you will have to indulge her).

You can see whether that is the issue if you try to create a 0.5pt stroke by typing it in the value box, first with a stop, then with a comma, and see whether either works.

If it works with he opposite decimal mark of the one used in the dropdown you have the mismatch; you may change the decimal mark in the OS Regional & Language settings.

If not, it is something else.

[BrianatArena]

"It actually feels more like a bug then a poor implemented feature to me..."

I agree, I've noticed I can have two objects with "align to pixel" off and the appropriate global settting has been turned off; then, when I do a boolean operation suddenly the new object has "align to pixel" on and all the anchor points get skewed.  Not helpful at all.

[emil_emil]

.... I agree, I've noticed I can have two objects with "align to pixel" off and the appropriate global settting has been turned off; then, when I do a boolean operation suddenly the new object has "align to pixel" on and all the anchor points get skewed. ...

This happens when you have the "Align New Objects To Pixel Grid" checked in the menu of the Transform panel accessible from the top right corner of the panel.

[Mr_Bimg]

Unchecking that does solve the problem but apparently not with the same existing stroke. If you draw a stroke with it checked on then it will remain locked to the grid. Turn it off and draw another stroke and you can now change the value as usual.

[_scott_]

Or simply select the object with the stroke and uncheck Align to Pixel Grid. No need to redraw anything.

[Mr_Bimg]

Are you talking about from the Transform dialogue?  When I do that it doesn't change the selected stroke for me.