Intaglio version 3.0 beta 1 is available for testing

Legacy Intaglio
21

On 3 May. 2008, 6:40 pm, amtravco wrote:

There are two minor issues that remain in 3.0. They may be a conscious design decision, but I find them awkward:

  1. In order to mask an image, the masking path must have a fill. This makes it hard to see what’s being masked! Instead, I set the fill’s opacity to less than 100% so that I can see through it, but I can’t see why a no-fill path can’t be used for masking. It seems that this was changed at some point, since I recall that I could once mask with a nonfilled path.

The masking path is used as it is drawn to allow the stroke to be used as a mask. This is probably a less common application but it’s possible to image cases where it would be nice to use, for example, a wide dashed line with arrows as a mask. This approach also makes masking more consistent. For example, if someone where to use a straight line as a mask there’s no fill so the masked object would disappear. This could easily be confusing.

  1. The corners on round rectangles do not scale uniformly when the rectangle is resized. If I draw a rounded rectangle and scale it by 200% horizontally, then the corners, instead of being circular arcs, become elliptical. I would prefer that they always remain circular. It would be especially nice if there were two kinds of rounded corners: 1) corners with a fixed radius that could be set with a slider/text box; 2) Corners whose radius scales with the size of the rectangle (while still remaining as circular arcs). This method is a bit ambiguous, since it’s not clear how to scale the radius as either the x or y length of the rectangle is changed, but there’s probably some reasonable scheme.

My basic problem is that if I create a rounded rectangle that surrounds an object, then if I need to tweak the size of the rectangle its corners are no longer circular. I usually have to just draw a new rectangle.

A solution is needed for changing round rectangles but it’s not in this version. The root problem is that Intaglio doesn’t differentiate between different kinds of paths. The round rectangle tool just creates paths consisting of four arcs. You’re free to modify that path in any way you wish. For example, you could delete one arc to create a round cornered triangle.

The specific issue here is that if you scale a path non-uniformly the entire path will scale non-uniformly. Generally that’s the right thing to do but it’s not always what you want. I’m looking into ways to allow parts of paths, such as arcs, to be adjusted differently. A workaround for now is to edit the round rectangle’s corner points instead of scaling it. For example, if you select the the two arcs on the right side of the rectangle with the path edit tool and move them horizontally you’re stretching the width of the rectangle by extending the distance between the arcs rather than scaling them. This way the arc radii remain constant.

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22

If the corner of a rounded rectangle is dragged with the Selection tool (with the Shift key held down), the radius of the corners scale in proportion to the rectangle.
Dragging a centre point distorts the corners.

Here’s a workaround. It’s a bit clunky, but it works.

  1. Draw the Rounded Rectangle (any corner radius).
  2. Select Object>Convert>Stroke to Fill.
  3. To move the top-right and bottom-right-hand points, drag the Point Selection tool across the points and drag. Pressing Shift constrains to the horizontal or vertical.
    The rectangle is a different size, but the corners are the same as drawn originally.

Rounded rectangles with any corner radius can be created with these techniques. To create a large rounded corner, drag the shape with the Selection tool. Then select the Point Selection tool to enlarge or reduce the size of the rectangle.

The Rounded Rectangle tool is strange. It can produce some amazing shapes, but for me, it would be preferable if it drew a standard Bezier path with a fixed corner radius—the same as when you use Convert>Stroke to Fill. The radius could then be changed as described above.

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