Page 170 - Xara Designer Pro X17

170 Drawing Lines and Shapes

If you have no object selected and you change the line thickness value, this changes the
default for all new lines.

Note: A zero width line is a special case, and should not normally be used. This draws a
line one device-pixel wide. The actual size will therefore depend on the device the
drawing is displayed on. On a monitor screen one pixel is clearly visible and is never
shown anti-aliased. On devices such as printers and particularly on image setters, which
have a much higher resolution, the line is almost invisible (zero width lines in imported
files are converted to 0.25pt).

Variable width lines

From the FREEHAND & BRUSH TOOL InfoBar you can select a drop-down menu that shows
a selection of alternative variable line thickness profiles. As you move the mouse over
the selection, an enlarged preview is shown on the right.

Selecting one of the styles will change the line (or outline of a shape) from being a
constant thickness line, to a variable thickness. This is great for creating pen and ink
style artwork, and is often used in the creation of cartoons.

The line width dropdown still should be used to change the overall thickness of the line.

To restore a constant line width, select the top left corner item from the menu.

The special "PRESSURE" profile in the dropdown menu is used to indicate when a line has
a custom profile as a result of being drawn with a pressure sensitive device, with the
pressure sensitivity drawing (on page 157) option turned on.