Getting lines right with the Stroke panel in Layout by Zaweba
The Stroke panel in Layout by Zaweba sets weight, caps, joins, alignment, dashed and striped line types, gap colour and arrowheads for any path or frame.
Lines do more work on a page than people expect. Rules divide columns, borders frame pictures, dashed lines mark a coupon, arrows point out details on a diagram. The Stroke panel in Layout by Zaweba controls every one of them, and knowing its settings turns a plain line into the right line.
Weight, caps and joins
Weight is the thickness of the line. Hairlines suit fine rules in a book, heavier weights suit poster borders and diagrams that have to read from a distance.
Caps set what happens at the open ends of a line, and joins set what happens where two segments meet at a corner. They matter most on thick lines, where a square end or a sharp corner is easy to see. The miter limit decides when a very sharp corner is cut off rather than drawn as a long spike, which keeps acute angles on charts and arrows from looking odd.
Where the stroke sits: centre, inside or outside
Align sets whether the stroke is centred on the path, inside it or outside it. This choice has real effects on a layout.
A centred stroke on a picture frame covers half its width of the picture and adds half outside the frame, so the visible size of the box grows with the weight. An inside stroke keeps the outer edge exactly where you drew it, which is what you want when frames must line up with the grid or the margins. An outside stroke leaves the picture untouched and builds the border outwards, useful when every pixel of a photo matters.
Choose inside for borders on pictures and boxes that need to line up, and centre for free standing lines and paths.
Line types, from dashes to waves
Solid is the everyday line. Beyond it there are dashed, with your own dash and gap lengths, and dotted. There are striped types (thick thin, thin thick and triple) for borders and certificates, and wavy, hash and straight hash for decorative edges and for marking out areas on plans.
Dashes are the usual choice for cut lines on vouchers and forms. Set dash and gap lengths that suit the weight; long dashes on a thin line read as broken, short dashes on a thick one look like a row of blocks.
The gaps in a dashed, dotted or striped line can have a colour and tint of their own instead of being empty. A dashed line with a pale gap colour reads as a two colour line; a stripe with a gap colour can echo a brand's colours on a border. Leave the gap empty when the line should sit cleanly on a picture or a coloured panel.
Arrowheads for diagrams and callouts
Start and end arrowheads turn a line into an arrow, with a scale so the head suits the weight. They are for labelled diagrams, maps, instructions and callouts on product shots. Keep arrowheads the same size across a document, or a set of diagrams looks as if they were drawn by different people.
Mistakes people make with strokes
Centred strokes on frames that are meant to align with a grid are the classic one: the box looks a fraction too big and the edges don't line up. Switch to inside.
Very thin lines in a pale tint may barely print. Check weight and tint together, especially on uncoated paper.
Using a different line type on every element looks fussy. Pick a small set and stick to them, ideally saved as object styles so every box and rule matches.
Where the Stroke panel fits in Layout
Strokes work with the other drawing tools. Corner options shape the corners the stroke follows, gradients can be applied to strokes as well as fills, and effects can add shadows. When a document needs a custom dash pattern that repeats, Layout's named stroke styles let you define it once and apply it from this panel, so every line using it updates together.
