Resize a path changes outline

Forum for the PDF-XChange Editor - Free and Licensed Versions

Moderators: TrackerSupp-Daniel, Tracker Support, Paul - Tracker Supp, Vasyl-Tracker Dev Team, Chris - Tracker Supp, Sean - Tracker, Ivan - Tracker Software, Tracker Supp-Stefan

Post Reply
Puffolino
User
Posts: 317
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:06 pm

Resize a path changes outline

Post by Puffolino »

When changing the size of a rectangle (ellipse,...) the surrounding line width will be changed as well. Is there a possibility to keep the outline width unchanged?
User avatar
Paul - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 6835
Joined: Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:37 pm
Location: Chemainus, Canada
Contact:

Re: Resize a path changes outline

Post by Paul - Tracker Supp »

Hi Puffolino,

how are you changing the size of the annotations? They are defined as having a specific border width in pixels so they shouldn't change when scaling them by dragging the annotations controls:
SizingAnnotations.gif
I must be misunderstanding what you are doing...
Best regards

Paul O'Rorke
Tracker Support North America
http://www.tracker-software.com
Puffolino
User
Posts: 317
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:06 pm

Re: Resize a path changes outline

Post by Puffolino »

Hi Paul,

hope that explains it a little bit better - here are three simple steps to see what I've meant:
grafik.png
I have thought that all objects are vector elements (not pixel images) which keep their border properties also when resizing.
User avatar
TrackerSupp-Daniel
Site Admin
Posts: 8436
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2018 6:52 pm

Re: Resize a path changes outline

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello Puffolino,

Items that are comments will maintain properties, however during the copy/paste operation you have converted the "text box" from a comment, into base content without most of those properties even existing. This causes scaling to affect every aspect of it, thus if you make it taller without making it any wider, as your third step there appears, the line width, along with the overall content, will also be scaled in the same respect.
This is expected, due to the change in content type.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
Puffolino
User
Posts: 317
Joined: Wed Feb 09, 2011 1:06 pm

Re: Resize a path changes outline

Post by Puffolino »

Thanks Daniel,

last question - will any path work as described or is this behaviour seen for converted elements only because outline information got lost?

So as I understand, stretching a path does not recalculate the object corners and use the given outline setting to get a perfect result but just stretch the image view of the unstretched object.
User avatar
Lzcat - Tracker Supp
Site Admin
Posts: 677
Joined: Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:42 am

Re: Resize a path changes outline

Post by Lzcat - Tracker Supp »

Hello Puffolino.

Looks like you need a bit more detailed explanation.
In PDF all elements may be transformed using affine matrix (simply saying it is combination of scaling, skewing and rotation). If you are using non-proportional scaling (as in your example) everything will be distorted - in case of stroked path (rectangle in your case) you will see that visual line width will change regarding to direction, and this is by PDF specification. Technically this does not mean that application rasterize normal figure and than distort it, but results look similar.
Returning to your question - there is two completely different situations:
1. Editing base content items. In this case when you select and transform some of content items all we can do is apply some affine matrix to them - because as Stefan said before we have no original information about figure. You may see rectangle 100 x 100 pt with border width 2 pt, but in content it may be rectangle 100 x 100 with line width 2, or 500 x 500 with line with 10, but with matrix which scale it to 5 times lower size, or even 1 x 1 rectangle with line width 0.02 and with scaling 100 times. All this items will have identical look, and PDF file itself has no information which was original design and width, and which transform was applied later - most creators use transforms to save file size and/or simplify content creation.
2. Editing annotations. In this case we even may not have content items that represent annotation appearance, but we have its type and parameters (like rectangle, border width, colors, font and its size, text inside, etc..) and when you change annotation rectangle application simply recreate annotation from scratch, so line width and text does not get distorted. One exception in annotations are stamps - they acts like ordinary content items because there is to information how to recreate them.
Hope this explain what is doing when you transform content items and annotations.
To edit path content items you will need special editing tool, but unfortunately for now we does not nave it implemented. As temporary workaround you may create needed figures as annotations and flatten them after all editing is done.
HTH.
Victor
Tracker Software
Project manager

Please archive any files posted to a ZIP, 7z or RAR file or they will be removed and not posted.
Post Reply