Vector drawing¶

Paths, strokes, and the drawing vocabulary the Vexy products share.

Use the entry for the relevant application. Draft terms require confirmation before publication.

Appearance panel¶

Applies to: vexy-linestra, vexy-vextra. Translatable: yes.

The Appearance panel is Illustrator's list of what is applied to the selected object: its fills, its strokes, and its live effects, in the order they stack. You send a reader there to confirm that a Vexy effect is present, to reorder it against a stroke, or to remove it. It belongs to Illustrator rather than to our products, so its name keeps Illustrator's capitalization and never takes a short form of our making.

Write: You check the Appearance panel to confirm the effect is applied.

Not: The appearance panel shows what got applied to the object.

See also: Live Effect, Adobe Illustrator, stroke, Fills

autotrace¶

Applies to: vexy-lines, vexy-vextra, vexy-playlines. Translatable: yes.

Autotrace converts a bitmap into vector paths by finding the edges in the image and fitting curves to them. The result depends on what you feed it: a clean, high contrast source traces well, and a soft or noisy one produces nodes nobody wants to edit. You prepare the image first, trace, then simplify. Tracing to outlines gives closed shapes with two edges, and tracing to centerlines gives single paths with a stroke.

Write: You raise the contrast of the source, then autotrace it.

Not: Autotrace will clean up your image and vectorize it.

See also: centerline, tonal map, contour, Remove Overlap

centerline¶

Applies to: vexy-lines, vexy-linestra, vexy-vextra. Translatable: yes.

A centerline runs down the middle of a stroke rather than around its edge, so the result is a single path with a stroke weight instead of a closed outline. Tracing to centerlines suits line art, engravings, and anything that was drawn as strokes in the first place. You choose it over outline tracing when the artwork will be scaled or restroked later, since a centerline keeps one editable path where an outline gives you two edges to maintain.

Write: You trace to a centerline so the artwork keeps one editable path.

Not: Centerlines are traced so that editing will be easier.

See also: contour, stroke, autotrace, tonal map

Fill Grid¶

Applies to: vexy-linestra. Translatable: yes.

The Fill Grid is the area of the Linestra panel where you choose a fill mode from a grid of previews. Below it sit the parameter rows, which hold Thickness, Spacing, Angle, Organic, Brightness, Contrast, and Source Levels. You pick in the grid first, because the parameter rows change with the mode you choose. Both words are capitalized: it is a named part of the interface rather than a description of a grid.

Write: You choose the mode in the Fill Grid, then set the parameter rows.

Not: Choose a fill in the grid and parameters can then be set.

See also: fill mode, Vexy Linestra, panel, Fills

fill mode¶

Applies to: vexy-lines, vexy-linestra, vexy-playlines. Translatable: yes.

A fill mode is one of the named techniques that turn a source image into line work: Linear, Wave, Circular, Spiral, Halftone, Stipple, Hex, Contour, Low-Poly, Dither, Wireframe, Fractal, String Art, and ASCII among them. Each reads the brightness of the source and lays down geometry accordingly. You pick a mode, then tune its parameters. Write the mode name with its own capitalization and the words fill mode in lowercase after it.

Write: You pick the Halftone fill mode and set its spacing.

Not: Pick a fill and then the parameters can be tuned.

See also: Fills, Fill Grid, tonal map, centerline

G2 continuity¶

Applies to: vexy-vextra. Translatable: yes.

G2 continuity means two segments meet with matching curvature, not merely with matching direction. G1 keeps the tangent continuous and can still show a break in the reflection where the curvature jumps. G2 removes that break. Vextra marks G2 nodes and can enforce the condition as you edit. You reach for it on long, shallow curves and on shapes that will be seen large, where the eye finds a curvature break that it would miss at text size.

Write: You set the node to G2 and the curvature match holds through the join.

Not: G2 continuity will be maintained for you by the tool.

See also: node, handle, Tunni line, segment

Live Effect¶

Applies to: vexy-linestra, vexy-vextra. Translatable: yes.

A Live Effect is an Illustrator effect that stays editable on the object it is applied to, listed in the Appearance panel and recalculated whenever the artwork beneath it changes. Vexy Linestra runs as one, so its fills follow the source artwork rather than freezing into it. You apply it from the Effect menu, under Vexy, and you expand it only when you need the result as plain paths. Expanding ends the link.

Write: You apply Vexy Linestra as a Live Effect, and the fill follows the artwork.

Not: Live Effects are applied so artwork can be changed later.

stroke¶

Applies to: vexy-lines, vexy-linestra, vexy-vextra. Translatable: yes.

A stroke is the line drawn along a path, with a weight, a colour, and an alignment that puts it inside, outside, or centred on the path. It is not the fill, which covers the area the path encloses. You set stroke weight and alignment in Illustrator and the Vexy plug-ins generate stroked paths as their output. In type design the same word means a main part of a letter, so name the context when both senses could apply.

Write: You set the stroke weight, and the fill stays as it was.

Not: Strokes and fills get set by the user in the panel.

See also: centerline, Fills, contour, Live Effect

tonal map¶

Also written: tonal value. Applies to: vexy-lines, vexy-linestra, vexy-playlines. Translatable: yes.

A tonal map is the reading of brightness across a source image that a fill uses to decide where to put geometry. Dark areas widen a strip or crowd a pattern; light areas narrow or thin it. You control the mapping with the Brightness, Contrast, and Source Levels rows, which change what counts as dark before any geometry is drawn. Adjust the map rather than the fill when the result is uniformly too heavy or too sparse.

Write: Dark areas widen the strip and light areas narrow it.

Not: The tonal map is used by the fill for the placing of geometry.

See also: fill mode, centerline, autotrace, Fills

Tunni line¶

Also written: Tunni control, pill. Applies to: vexy-vextra. Translatable: no.

A Tunni line joins the two handles of a curve segment, with a control on it that Vextra draws as a pill. Drag the control and both handles move in proportion, so the depth of the curve changes without its balance changing. You use it when a curve is the right shape but the wrong fullness, which is the correction that is slowest to make one handle at a time. Named after Eduardo Tunni, so keep the capital T.

Write: You drag the Tunni control and both handles move together.

Not: The tunni line can be dragged for the adjusting of curves.

See also: handle, node, G2 continuity, segment