Width Brush Preferences

Doubleclicking the Width Brush tool in the toolbox (or pressing the Enter key when the tool is selected) will bring up its preferences dialog:

Width Brush Preferences Dialog

1. Size

The diameter of the brush, from 1 pt to 2500 pt. The value may also be changed using the keys assigned to Decrease Diameter and Increase Diameter in the native Keyboard Shortcuts dialog (the left and right square brackets keys respectively, by default, for English language keyboards).

2. Hardness

Similar to the hardness of a Photoshop brush; softer brushes will only adjust the stroke width fully at the center of the brush, thereby leaving a more gentle transition between the original stroke width and the adjusted stroke width. 

3. Adjust Widths by Fixed Amount

When enabled, stroke widths are adjusted by adding or subtracting the specified value from them.

4. Fixed Amount

The amount by which to adjust a stroke width, from –144 pt to 144 pt. Depending on the hardness of the brush, full adjustment may only occur at locations over which the center of the brush is passed.

5. Fixed Amount Input

Allows the fixed amount adjustment to be controlled by a stylus input device. For use with a mouse, the popup should be set to Fixed. Otherwise it may be set to any of the standard stylusinputs: Pressure, Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, or Rotation. If, for example, the input is set to Pressure, then only when the stylus is pushed down with maximum pressure will the adjustment amount reach the specified value.

6. Adjust Widths by Percentage

When enabled, stroke widths are adjusted by multiplying them by the specified percentage.

7. Percentage Amount

The percentage by which to adjust a stroke width, from 0% to 1000%. Depending on the hardness of the brush, full adjustment may only occur at locations over which the center of the brush is passed.

8. Percentage Input

Allows the percentage adjustment to be controlled by a stylus input device. For use with a mouse, the popup should be set to Fixed. Otherwise it may be set to any of the standard stylus inputs: Pressure, Wheel, Tilt, Bearing, or Rotation. If, for example, the input is set to Pressure, then only when the stylus is pushed down with maximum pressure will the adjustment amount reach the specified value.

9. Edit Stroke Type Selection

For paths with multiple strokes, chooses between editing all of its strokes and editing only the stroke that has focus.

Width Brush Edit Strokes Comparison

10. Optimization

Reduces the number of width markers on the resulting path(s) after the brush has been applied. The optimization value can be set from 0 (no optimization) to 10, with a default of 3. Higher optimization values will remove more width markers, making the path profile smoother and easier to edit manually, but may result in slightly less accurate results compared to the unoptimized results.

11. Help Button

Opens the help documentation in the Astute Manager. If this does not automatically appear, please ensure your Astute Manager is running first.