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INDD vs AI Stroke Alignment Inside and Outside

Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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Hi together,

I do 99.9% of my work in InDesign and here is something I can do with InDesign, what I like to repeat with Illustrator:

 

Two open paths with identical path point positions are stacked. One of the paths' stroke has inside alignment, the other one outside alignment like that ( from my German InDesign 2021 ) :

 

StrokeAlignment-InsideAlignment-InDesign-2021.png

StrokeAlignment-OutsideAlignment-InDesign-2021.png

 

Now my task is do "the same" with Adobe Illustrator. I know, that the option is missing to align a stroke inside or outside if the path is not closed. To copy/paste the path from InDesign to Illustrator is no good idea, the look will be identical, but both paths will change position, the number of path points will increase and both paths are not identical:

 

PastedFromINDD-to-AI-PathsDoNotRegister.png

 

The yellow stroke's weight is 9 Pt, the black one's is 6 Pt.

 

I have to draw on that path in Illustrator following some roads in a placed image of a map.

To make that clear: The path is an open path and must stay open.

I'd like to avoid any clipping path or mask, just one path or two identical paths stacked.

 

In InDesign there is a way to do a nearly identical design with a single path and a custom stroke style. The ratio of the two stroke weights in my sample above is 40% for the black and 60% for the yellow part, so it can be done in InDesign like that. Not ideal, because I want the path running along the "terminator" of the yellow and the black stroke:

 

OnePath-CustomStrokeStyle-INDD.PNG

 

Back to Adobe Illustrator: I solved this now with a custom pattern brush with 3 rectangles as basic pattern: The vertical center of all three items is the "terminator" between the yellow and the black stroke. The top rectangle has no stroke and no fill:

 

BasicPattern-1-AI.PNG

CustomPatternBrush-50-33.33-16.67-AI.PNG

 

 

Is there something I can do with the Appearance panel to achieve the identical look? I tried some of the effects, but found nothing that is really working. Is a custom pattern brush the only way to go?

 

Illustrator 2020 on Windows 10.

 

Thanks,

Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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correct answers 2 Correct answers

Community Expert , May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

Hi Uwe,

 

You can make inside/outside strokes on non-closed paths using custom width profiles. Use thhe width tool (Shift+W) to make a stroke like this (hold alt to edit only one side of the stroke at a time):

 

Screen Shot 2021-05-08 at 17.37.35.jpg

 

Then save it as a profile (bottom of the stroke panel). After that I think your path should be easy to make.

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Community Expert , May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

Double click the width points. Enter 1 for each of them to whatever side you want. Then use the stroke width to set their final width on the artboard. To get the stroke to the other side, reflect it in the stroke panel.

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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And additionally I'd like to know if there is a way to measure the effective stroke weight of that pattern brush when it is applied with different stroke weights. Found no direct way, so I think I have to plan ahead by building the pattern elements, the three rectangles.

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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Hi Uwe,

 

You can make inside/outside strokes on non-closed paths using custom width profiles. Use thhe width tool (Shift+W) to make a stroke like this (hold alt to edit only one side of the stroke at a time):

 

Screen Shot 2021-05-08 at 17.37.35.jpg

 

Then save it as a profile (bottom of the stroke panel). After that I think your path should be easy to make.

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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Hi Doug,

thank you very much for that suggestion!

 

Yes, I am able to expand the stroke left or right from the path.

Is there something I can do for precision here?

Can I input the values for the anchors?

 

WidthTool-Stroke-Inside-or-Ouside-AI.png

 

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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Double click the width points. Enter 1 for each of them to whatever side you want. Then use the stroke width to set their final width on the artboard. To get the stroke to the other side, reflect it in the stroke panel.

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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It shouldn't matter; once you apply the profile to a path it will be the width of the stroke setting.

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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Hi Monika,

yes, that's it: a double-click of a width point gives me all the control I need:

 

WidthTool-DoubleClickWidthPoints-AI.png

 

Regards,
Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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Community Expert ,
May 08, 2021 May 08, 2021

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The final result in the Appearance panel:

WidthTool-DoubleClickWidthPoints-Appearance-AI.png

Monika and Doug,

thank you very much,

 

Uwe Laubender

( ACP )

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