Merging tessellated shapes from P3D vector output

ukmikeb

Hi,

When Processing outputs as a PDF from P3D, it obviously tessellates shapes into a bunch of tiny triangles.

Does anyone have a method (in Illustrator, Sketch, Inkscape, Script), for recombining/merging those shapes back together.

The reason being, when you render (say a PNG) from that tessellated artwork you get nasty little antialiasing artefacts along the edge of every triangle if the shapes have any transparency.

Any suggestions of plugins that may help do this, or discussions around your print workflow with tessellated artwork welcome.

Thanks

Mike

P.S.... not sure this is the correct category for this question, but it's more about external software than Processing itself.

jeremydouglass

Just to make sure I understand your question:

Are you also getting artifacts when you use saveFrame() to save the work directly from Processing to PNG?

Why go through the PDF renderer first, then try to convert to PNG after?

ukmikeb

Hi,

No problems with the PNG renderer.

PNG was more of a "for example"... The problem is really when you want to output vector artwork for use in hi resolution printing, for example. (Where a screen resolution PNG would not be good enough).

The millions of tessellated triangles also make the artwork really unmanageable in illustrator.

I have discovered, that saving the PDF as an EPS can help lose some of the issue, but I'd certainly like a way/script of simplifying (or untessellating) the shapes.

Hope that makes sense.... I feel that I might have to write an illustrator plugin :)

jeremydouglass

Okay, so the reason that you are going through PDF first is because you want to create images that are higher than screen resolution?

I'm just trying to understand.

1. PDF output tessellates
2. PNG output doesn't
3. I need to post-fix PDF tessellation
4. ...because only PDF gives me high-res output.

Is that right?

I'm not sure about manipulating the PDF output, but I do know there are many methods for getting higher-than-screen-resolution output from Processing without PDF export. But maybe that isn't the problem you are interested in solving.

ukmikeb

It's a good point.. yes, I could create an offscreen hi-res canvas, and create a hi-res output as PNG that way.

But, its not really just about that. Obviously vector artwork is useful beyond hi-res artwork. Parts can be used & scaled for illustration work or converted to SVG for the web etc. So I'd like to solve the vector issue of "un-tessellating".

But thanks for your thoughts, it's good to check I'm not seeing the wood for the trees :)

M

jeremydouglass

OK -- is the SVG library giving you the same problem as the PDF library?

• https://forum.processing.org/two/discussion/16227/how-to-export-to-svg-using-library-processing-svg