Area Calculation
Having an area calculator would be awesome!
The latest Beta Build 29.3.0.2 now offers a way to calculate the area, using the existing Measure Tool.
- Select the Measure Tool from the Toolbar.
- Click on a closed path to calculate its area (for now it has to have a fill, so the area is actually ink coverage)
- The calculated area will be displayed in the Info panel, shown automatically.
- To calculate the total area of multiple paths, hold Shift and click.
- Configure measurement options by accessing the flyout menu of the panel. You can customize units, precision, and scale to suit your requirements.
The team is looking forward to hear the feedback on this new feature — please try it out and make comments.
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Chris, same problem as before — the tool does not support area calculation for compound paths at the moment. Even if there is no hole / cutout. Hence the Beta.
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Chris Mitchell commented
Hi Egor,
I've attached another file for you to take a look at. I'm not quite sure how to explain how it's working, but if I place a closed and filled shape on top of another, then use the pathfinder's divide tool, then drag the topmost shape off of the one on the bottom, I am able to get the area for that one, but not the one on the bottom (now with the cutout from the divide tool). Does that make sense? I'm hoping at the end of it all, we'll be able to click on any closed, filled area and get the calculation. This is off to a good start though! I'll attach the AI file I was playing with. This file was created in AI Beta 29.3 20.
Thanks again!
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Chris, the team confirms the wrong values is a known conversion error and the fix will land in the next Beta. So far only points get calculated correctly.
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Oh, I see now clearly what is happening.
First, it seems that for now it doesn’t support compound paths AT ALL, making it near useless.
The only path in the EXIT sign is the head, and it’s separated from the base (that is a compound path).Same goes for the blue EXIT — each letter is a compound path (which is normal when you Create Outlines), and even though they have no paths included to have holes, it’s still restricted.
But even if these get released to become simple paths, the calculation is all wrong.
When I measure the I letter in EXIT, it’s 14.394 × 84.667 mm, the area of it should be something like 1218 mm², minus rounded corners...
But it sees 3488.81 mm²...The green head is roughly a 15.665 mm wide circle... so it’s 46.8² × pi, and it should give 192.73 mm²... the panel shows 546.45!
Something is wrong.(Edited by admin) -
Chris Mitchell commented
Hello Egor,
I've attached an Illustrator file with a couple of notes on it that describes the results I'm having with the new Area Tool. Hopefully this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Thanks again,
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Chris Mitchell commented
Hello, I think I may be missing something... I've converted some large block text to outlines, added a fill and a 2pt stroke. I click on the closed path, but I get the same area for all the closed paths that I select. The total area for multiple paths does not seem to work at all. (I'm doing this on an M1 Studio Mac). I've attached a brief video showing what is happening.
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Anonymous commented
When will this be available to try. I installed the Beta version but this feature wasn't available.
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Chris Mitchell commented
Scenario #1-2 seems to be the most appropriate of the two options in scenario 1. It would seem that factoring in the stroke regardless of its alignment may be a bit confusing. By expanding the shape and eliminating the stroke, the user can see precisely the area being calculated.
Scenario #2 nails it. Being able to calculate the area of ANY closed shape would be ideal!Thanks again for all your hard work on this, I can't wait to see it in a future update!
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Alex Musick commented
Scenario #1. Yes, that sounds great, the area of the real expanded area of the shape / closed path.
#2. Yes, any appearance added effects, strokes, blurs etc. should not be included in the area, just the inner fill of the path. -
Konrad Prajsnar commented
I don't mind so much expanding objects, my final designs are expanded and color separated for screen printing, but for the heads up, im dealing with all kinds of complicated paths (eg. attachment). I hope that not that much harder to achieve :)
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Jean-Michel Le Goff commented
it's working for me, but in the Scenario #2 it will be a little difficult to get the right area if you have to edit the shape and expand it to get the area, in the case of you are asked to create a shape of this given area...
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Hey everyone,
Happy to announce that we have started working on this request. As a first step, we want to make sure we understand your requirements correctly and build the right feature set for this.
Hence we are requesting if you could spare some time to get on a quick 1-1 call with us so we may explore your requirements together. Please feel free to book a session with the following link, we will share an invite on the email address you specify at the time of booking. Thanks!
Block the calendar here: https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/c1b7ecea1cbd42a2a7068cfeb7861bdd@adobe.com/meetingtype/Fn8tXNebh0eyv4xTnvQ-3Q2?anonymous&ep=mlink
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Chris Mitchell commented
Figuring out the area of irregularly shaped objects is now the only thing I really need to leave Illustrator to accomplish. It would be wonderful if this seemingly simple tool could be added!
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Chris Mitchell commented
Bringing back the area calculation too would be fantastic! If possible, it would be nice to have it added to the new Dimension tools in Illustrator.
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Konrad Prajsnar commented
This one is very important to my studio, i'm calculating area of compound objects. For example, if i have illustration made with 4 colors, i have to calculate area of each color to calculate paint consumption. I'm using RIP on another computer (dedicated to the printer) to achieve this, but its time consuming because i need to export the design first. I know there are some scripts, i've tried some and they can calculate only simple objects.
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whstlblwr commented
this is a great idea, I use a script that calculates the area but its output is in square inches and unfortunately i live in one of the 194 countries that use the metric system. I use the document info palette already so it would be ideal if this would display both the area of a vector object and the sum of all sides / circumference if its a circle. Thank you!
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Chris Mitchell commented
InkScape has an area measurement tool that works quite well, it's a bit unrefined, but if Adobe adopted something similar, I'm sure they could improve upon it. (April 2023)
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Area of a circle is pi multiplied by a diameter of a circle, no big deal to calculate it. If you want to automate the process — you can use custom plugins like Dynamic Measure by AstuteGraphics.
The other thing is if you want to control the size of the circle by entering the desired area. Like 'create a circle with area x' or 'transform a circle to have the area y'. Is that you want? Plugins can’t do that so far.
Still, there are methods to automate it, like actions to create circle presets, libraries, so on. It’d be easier to understand the request if you provide some examples you want to create.
Anyway, bezier ellipses are not real circles, but a good approximation. So no ACCURACY is possible anyway :)
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Sketch commented
Please add ability to calculate area of circle (in addition to the existing height/width). This will make it easier for users to create ACCURATE data visualizations/infographics!
This calculation should be included in Photoshop, InDesign, After Effects -- basically, any tool someone may want to use to create a data viz.
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Jean-Michel Le Goff commented
could it be possible to get the area of a shape like it is possible to get the length in the "Object" tag of the information panel.