Stroke width tinnier than 1 px.

What features would you like to see in Pixelmator Pro?
User avatar

2019-07-03 07:47:22

I would like to have a stroke width as little as 0.1 pixels or 0.25 at the most. Currently the minimum width is 1 px.
Had to go to Sketch just for this feature.

Thank you!
User avatar

2019-07-04 14:48:26

The trouble is that, with Pixelmator Pro being a raster app, everything is displayed in pixels all the time. If a line is less than a pixel wide, it would still be rendered at 1 pixel wide, just with a lower opacity. Otherwise, it would be completely invisible or the image would change after export, which is also not ideal. With all that in mind, how would you be looking to use a feature like this?
User avatar

2019-07-04 14:52:13

One example: In my website we review a lot of music albums. The covers are usually displayed along the image of the artist or other background. Sometimes, to make the covers distinct for the cover image or for our social media posts, I'd like to border the album cover. The 1 pixel always seems too thick and less elegent than a thinner line.
User avatar

2019-07-04 20:58:01

I was intrigued by this; was wondering if I could tell the difference between a 0.5 pixel line and a 1 pixel line at 50% transparency. So I drew it. (Drawn at 10x size in Pixelmator Pro then downsampled). I recommend downloading it and viewing at 100% so that a pixels on the image align with the pixels on your screen (or zooming and having a really good look).
Image
The is one other thing I can think of that could increase definition (and this is specific to web development) and that is making sure that you are developing for retina/HiDPI displays. A measure of 1 px in html/css covers two actual pixels on a retina screen*. So if you size an image as 200px by 200px in html/css, you should be supplying an image that is 400px by 400px to ensure that it is a clear as it can be on a retina/HiDPI display. If you're not already doing this, it will allow what you to create what you could choose to regard as a 0.5px line, provided that the web page was being viewed on a retina/HiDPI display.
Hope this helps.
- Stef.
*Someday this will eventually change. When it does can someone please tell me. I no longer do any significant web development and my knowledge becomes increasingly outdated year on year.