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Alexander2777
Participating Frequently
March 11, 2023
Question

Illustrator - worst vector prog for creating Icons

  • March 11, 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 3831 views

After so many years this prog is still so bad. Sadly I started creating icons in illustrator while ago, now Im spending months to fix stuff like this, what a mess...

- It cant even outline the simple thing like a rectangle without a bugs (screenshots 1-1, 1-2)

- the left side of the men is literally mirrowed with the right side, but its creating a hole on the left, not to mention the coordinates (2-1, 2-2)

- just no words on this, the little circle in the small weel, why is that line there? Also those all additional vector points inside the icon. And the size & coordinates again (3-1, 3-2).

I just picked up 3 icons, I could you post 100s of screenshots...

Paying so much money for buggy mess like this, even free Figma does much better job on working with vector elements & outlining them.

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4 replies

B
Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 12, 2023

Have you tried using the Offset Path command instead? I prefer it for creating precise outline effects as opposed to converting outline strokes to outlines. More steps may be involved to create the inner and outer paths, but I think it delivers slightly better quality results. Astute Graphics has a pretty cool function in its Stylism plugin called AG Offset, which can produce complex outline effects.

    Ton Frederiks
    Community Expert
    Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    March 12, 2023

    That is a very good idea, Bobby.

    Especially when you use Graphic Styles that use the  Appearance panel with an additonal fills (no stroke) and the Pathfinder Exclude effect. Gives clean outlines after expanding.

      Ton Frederiks
      Community Expert
      Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 11, 2023

      Alexander, the best place to report these problems is Uservoice where the Illustrator engineers are looking:

      https://illustrator.uservoice.com/

      To get rid of the additional points you showed after outlining, you could try to make an action that makes the icon a Live Paint object and immediately Expands the Live Paint object.

      Or make a single action: Outline Stroke > Live Paint Make > Live Paint Expand.

      A
      Alexander2777Author
      Participating Frequently
      March 12, 2023

      Thx for tipps.

      But why should I do/create some extra complex actions if it should be a basic thing object > expand? 

      Also live pain didnt solve the problems

      Ton Frederiks
      Community Expert
      Ton FrederiksCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      March 12, 2023

      It was meant as a workaround. I replicated your 1-2 example and could correct it with Live Paint. But that does not mean it will solve everything.

      A
      Alexander2777Author
      Participating Frequently
      March 11, 2023

      working in CPU Pixel preview (adding points, moving them etc.) is just laggy as hell. Selecting one point to move it so I can correct the coordinates/size of the Icon (see prev screenshots how it screw up the size/coordinates) taking sometimes up to 3 sec to respond on one action only, even tho im on Ryzen 9 3900x.

      Actually CPU doesnt matter this was laggy since decades, also on intel CPUs... but in the late versions its just nighmare

      A
      Alexander2777Author
      Participating Frequently
      March 11, 2023

      another example with simple rectangle... can you see how it screw up the straight lines?

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