Curvature Combs and Tunni lines
Two ideas, both aimed at creating smoother curves:
curvature combs:
an additional visual aid that could be enabled/disabled via hotkey or option on a panel that assists the artist/user in evaluating whether a curve is continuously smooth, or whether it needs adjustment. See this blog for a quick coded breakdown:
https://observablehq.com/@jrus/curvature-comb
see this webpage for more traditional curvature combs with lines perpendicular to the curved path, in proportion to the path's curvature at that point:
http://www.bluesmith.co.uk/evaluateComb.htmTunni lines:
an additional assist/handle for helping a user more precisely adjust a curve (or multiple curves), both symmetrically and asymmetrically.
See this example as implemented in FontLab:
https://help.fontlab.com/fontlab-vi/Tunni-Lines/
See this webpage for another examples, of each of these ideas:
http://www.corvelsoftware.co.uk/software/supertool/
Note that I'm not suggesting that the illustrator team rip-off anybody else's software, but I think these sorts of tools/assists would be handy for quite a few users who require more than the typical "eyeball-it" precision illustrator offers currently.
Lance
shared this idea
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Konstantin Homatyano commented
To those who might also be looking for that feature as I did, it is implemented as a part of the "Stylism" plugin from Astute Graphics.
It is implemented as a live effect:
> AG CURVATURE VISUALIZER
> Live effect for advanced users wanting to perfect the curves of paths and shapes
> Instantly visualize the rate of curve change with live updates upon tweaking
> Control over feedback color scheme, scale, opacity and more -
Konstantin Malaev
commented
Please! Please! Please! I'm begging you! IS there a plugin for this???
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Very much yes.
There is a chance there might be a external plugin for that, but so far FontLab stays unchallenged here.
I wish for more demand in this field.
