Stroke Studio

About the Stroke Studio

A line or curve is a stroke which can take on various properties, e.g. width, color, opacity, line style, etc. Similarly, any shape can take a stroke around its bounding box using the same properties.

The following controls are found on the Studio:

• Style—select a line style button to change how the line is drawn. Choose from None, Solid Line Style, Dash Line Style, and Brush Texture Line Style, respectively. The last option applies the currently selected brush in the Brushes Studio to the stroke.
• Width—drag to change the width (thickness) of the selected line.
• Pressure—displays your current pressure profile after applying a line or brush stroke. Tapping the profile lets you reset it.

When the Dash Line Style is selected, the following controls are also available:

• Phase—sets the starting point of the dash design (see below for details).
• Dash—sets the dash length (see below for details).
• Gap—sets the spacing length (see below for details).

Tapping on the Advanced setting reveals the following:

• Cap—select one of the cap style buttons (Round, Butt, or Square) to vary the contour of the line end.
• Join—select one of the join style buttons (Round, Bevel, or Miter) to determine the contour of the corner where two lines intersect, e.g on the corner of a shape outline.
• Align—select one of the align buttons to control where the stroke is placed in relation to the object edge, i.e. centered, or on its inside or outside.
• Miter Limit—sets the length of the extension of Miter joins to create either sharp or flat corners.
• Order—Select one of the order buttons to control where the stroke is placed in relation to the object. Draw stroke behind hides the inner half of the object's outline behind a closed shape—useful with very small objects or when shrinking outlined text. Draw stroke in front always reveals the whole line.
• Scale with Object—check to scale both line and shape together when resizing a closed shape. Uncheck to keep line width constant.
• Start/End—Select an arrowhead style for the start/end stops of the stroke from the pop-up menu. Choose where to position the start and end styles from Place arrow within the line and Place arrow at the end of the line.
• Swap arrow head with tail—Select to swap the Start and End arrowhead styles.

About Dash Line Style

For dashed line styles, Dash Pattern controls appear when a Dash Line Style is set.

• The first two Dash and Gap values set the length of the initial dash and subsequent space, respectively. This gives a uniform pattern.
• The third and fourth values, again called Dash and Gap, are displayed by scrolling the Dash pattern section. These will introduce a more complex dash pattern by setting different lengths for a secondary Dash - Gap pairing.

The Phase value allows you to 'shift' the dash line style along so the design begins at a different point in the style's sequence.