Lack of precision in Illustrator

[IglooGirl]

What is going on with strokes in Illustrator? When using strokes, you get weird jagged artifacts, and when converting strokes to outlines, the conversion is terribly imprecise half the time! We use Illustrator because of the precision it is supposed to offer - this has become incredibly frustrating and a time waste! The issues seemingly started when they began introducing the garbage AI tools in the software. I've fiddled with the stroke preferences, the file resolution, and so on, but - no luck.  Has anyone found a solution to the issues?

[Ton Frederiks]

I wonder what you are showing here?

A 100% view screendump? CPU or GPU Preview?

An export  as an image at what resolution and what zoom factor?

An export with what anti-aliasing option, Art or Type?

[IglooGirl]

Hi, Tom, This is a side-by-side screenshot of the artwork as a stroke and expanded stroke being displayed in Illustrator with CPU preview - it is not a display issue - this prints with the same error from the app/ripped/exported, etc.

[Ton Frederiks]

So the additional black stroke is appearing and the purple one gets smaller?

Can you share that part of file before expanding? Rename the extension from .ai to .pdf before attaching to a post

[IglooGirl]

I pasted the expanded stroke (purple) over the applied stroke (black) to compare the discrepancy between the two states.

[Ton Frederiks]

Can you share that part of file before expanding? Rename the extension from .ai to .pdf before attaching to a post

[Jacob Bugge]

IglooGirl,

In addition to what Ton and Bobby said:

As I (mis)understand it, the expanding of the purple stroked path shown to the left creates a thinner filled path (about 60% of the Stroke Weight) with a lower boundary corresponding to the lower boundary of the original (visible) Stroke.

As far as I can see, this would visually correspond to a reduction of the Stroke Weight to 60% based on a Stroke Alignment to the lower boundary (which could be Inside or Outside) rather than to Center in the Stroke palette.

Is this how you see it, too?

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm not sure I understand the technical problem you're experiencing with Illustrator. Generally, the application is very precise. However, artwork precision may vary depending on how large or how tiny artwork elements may be.

What kind of project are you creating? Is it something for standard printed pages or something output on large format (signs, banners, etc)?

Generally when I'm working on big things I'll only use line strokes on a limited basis. I prefer working with raw paths. If I need an outline effect applied to something I'll use the Offset Path command rather than apply a line stroke style effect.

Illustrator has been a bit quirky lately with how it renders line strokes on certain curved paths if the path is trying to bend in too demanding of a way between two anchor points the line stroke can get funky looking. This may vary between CPU and GPU Preview modes. One solution is adding more anchor points in between the two origingal anchor points. I haven't seen issues regarding straight diagonal line segments.

[IglooGirl]

Simply put, the last few updates to Illustrator have been buggy - janky strokes, wacky pen tool, and well - a lot of pain-in-the-butt stuff.

I have been using Illustrator for 20 years, so I'm pretty sure I get the capabilities of the tool - and why things go awry. I find the offset path command to be inefficient and does not economize with anchor points particularly bad form when creating something like fonts or creating art for die-cutting.

The sample image above is on a curve btw - however - the issue is not limited to curves - it is more pronounced on curves - but on any stroked lines converted to outlines.

I do think the issues are related to changes to the software engineering. I'm surprised to not see more comments about it.

[Bobby Henderson]

I don't find the Offset Path command producing any more anchor points than a live line stroke does when it is converted into an editable object. I prefer using the Offset Path command for creating outline effects because little if any clean-up work is required when the path is expanded. When a line stroke's appearance is expanded into an editable object there is often overlapping paths at the corners that must be welded. And the path is often a compound one that must be released (and often ungrouped) in order to get rid of the unwanted inside path. The Offset Path command creates only one path either on the outside of the source object or on the inside of the object when using negative number values.

Illustrator has had its ups and downs over the years. I've been using Illustrator over 30 years (still have the old 1.44MB floppies from the first version I bought and a collection of CD and DVD installers from then on). The current general release build has a couple of bugs I find pretty inconvenient. One is bad enough that I have to keep the 2024 version installed to get around the bug. Despite the technical problems some good improvements and feature additions have been made in recent years that make my work easier.

I don't know which applications Adobe ranks as its highest priorities for development. I would like to see more improvements made to Illustrator since it's one of the applications I use most frequently. Some of the glitches fall outside of Adobe's control, such as issues with graphics accelerator drivers or the drivers of attached periphreal devices (like Wacom tablets). I intensely dislike Microsoft's Windows Ink software and what it does to harm the operation of Wacom tablets.

[IglooGirl]

Are you sure you don't work for Microsoft? Although your answer may be technically accurate, it is 100% unhelpful.

[Bobby Henderson]

If I worked for Microsoft (and had any authority there) Windows Ink would not exist.

As for being "helpful," going by the images you posted earlier I still don't see what is janky in those line strokes. The way line strokes are rendered on screen in Illustrator can be affected by more than just Adobe's software. Graphics card drivers can affect that too. As I said earlier, the size of the artwork can also be a factor. If the elements are too gigantic or very microscopic the level of precision in Illustrator can be affected. This is true for all vector graphics applications.