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T
TimCreateALase
Participant
March 10, 2012
Answered

Hairline Outlines in Illustrator

  • March 10, 2012
  • 4 replies
  • 59823 views

How do I create a Hairline outline in ai? I am printing to a laser that only accepts colour as raster to engrave and a hairline RGB Red as vector to cut along. The 0.1mm stroke does not work.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Monika Gause

    The pathfinder "Outline" creates strokes of 0 Pt, which are in fact Hairlines. Create a graphic style out of this and apply to your stroke.

    4 replies

    D
    defaultcf8okl0zm3yg
    Participant
    November 23, 2021

    Wouldn't it be just great if Adobe fixed this.  I guess its simply not possible. 

    None of this works for me and I simply can not cut with Adobe and the universal Laser system.  Hopeless, thanks

    U
    umututkus
    Participant
    November 17, 2023

    Still no luck 2023 NOV !!!

    Anubhav M
    Community Manager
    Anubhav MCommunity Manager
    Community Manager
    December 18, 2023

    Hello @umututkus,

    Thanks for reaching out. Would you mind sharing some more details, like the exact version of the OS/Illustrator, details about your workflow, and a screen recording of the problem (https://adobe.ly/4aprck2), so we can investigate this further?


    Looking forward to hearing from you.

     

    Thanks,

    Anubhav

    G
    Gernot_Hoffmann
    Participating Frequently
    March 13, 2012

    PostScript doesn't define hairlines. If the stroke is smaller than a device dependent

    limit or zero, then the stroked path is drawn by the smallest rasterized(!) line which

    the device is able to draw. That's much more than a device pixel. For rasterizers

    with raster cells one may get about two lines per raster cell (cell width= 1/Lpi).

    Some tests, mainly p.13:

    http://www.fho-emden.de/~hoffmann/raster16052003.pdf

    Help text from PSAlter (PostScript editor by Quite):

    setlinewidth operator

    width setlinewidth -

    ...

    A width of zero is accepted. The effect of this is implementation dependent, and means 'draw the

    thinnest possible line'. The use of this is discouraged, because on some devices, such as high-resoution typesetters, single pixel wide lines are effectively invisible.

    The last statement is wrong. The thinnest possible line is much thicker than a single pixel.

    Best regards --Gernot Hoffmann

    Monika Gause
    Community Expert
    Monika GauseCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    March 10, 2012

    The pathfinder "Outline" creates strokes of 0 Pt, which are in fact Hairlines. Create a graphic style out of this and apply to your stroke.

    A
    Anonymous
    March 10, 2012

    Monika, has this always been the intended use of the Outline pathfinder, and I've just never known it?! All these years I wondered. Do you know of other uses for this command?

    Also, I'd always been taught that .25 points is a hairline and that 0 points simply doesn't register (won't print). I think what you're saying is that a 0 point stroke is in fact a hairline – not .25 – and 0 points will in fact output, yes?

    A
    Anonymous
    March 11, 2012

    Doug,

    A true hairline always prints and displays as the thinest width that the output device can render. I use them all the time in programs which properly provide them.

    In FreeHand, I have always set my default working style to black hairline, no fill. This lets me draw paths accurately at any zoom without ever having the path display become fat and bulky. (Yes, in actual preview mode--no one needs to trot out Illustrator's hideous "outline mode," which is merely an archaic workaround for this omission and other basic shortcomings of Illustrator.)

    Working this way is also advantageous for paths drawn as temporary construction aids. That is, they always display as the thinnest path possible on screen, but without having to be converted to pathGuides.

    In FreeHand, I've always drawn my custom printer marks (crops/folds) in the bleed area as hairlines, and also use hairlines for die cut outlines.

    In short, hairlines by their nature are advantageous anytime you want to draw, construct, and convey things with a working feel and visual display of maximum accuracy.

    Merely setting very thin strokes is an unsatisfying workaround for this hugely practical feature. True hairline stroke settings should be standard fare in any decent drawing program.

    JET


    This makes sense, JET. So hairline isn't defined as a software stroke width setting, but rather by the limits of the output device. Put another way, a hairline on one device may very well be a different stroke weight than a hairline on another device. OK. Now I'm getting somewhere.

    Been a while since I was in FreeHand. Do I recall incorrectly that a hairline in that program is .25 points? Or is that a setting I learned from Olav to define a hairline stroke? An old idea that's no longer necessary? With today's technology, it can be set at 0 (or 0.0001)?

    Steve Fairbairn
    Steve Fairbairn
    Inspiring
    March 10, 2012

    Turn off Align to Pixel Grid and you can make strokes of any weight.

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