move stroke below fill

[jfraze]

Seems it should be simple. I want to create a character style with a stroke and fill... but the stroke needs to be "beneath" the fill, so the actual form of the character sits atop the surrounding stroke. I've done this in AI easily with the Appearance menu. So far I can't find the trick in VS. No matter what I've tried, the stroke is always on top of the fill, completely covering up the letter form. I can click-select the attribute in the palette and pull it up or down in the hierarchy, and it looks as if it's going to land where I want it, but it never actually moves. I release the mouse and the hierarchy hasn't changed at all... fill is still on bottom and stroke on top. Why is this not working?

[Subpath]

@jfraze

Hi

Dont know how to put the Stroke beneath the Fill.
But could "Stroke Outside of a closed Path" be helpful ?

to get the Stroke Panel:
got to Panels > Stroke

see Pic

[Subpath]

Effects > Outline > Outline Paths
or Effects > Outline > Offset Paths may also be helpful
in your case

[jfraze]

@Subpath I hadn't thought that would work with text, but it seems to do the trick. Thanks.

[Subpath]

@jfraze

nice that it was helpful

[jfraze]

@Subpath Oops... it apparently only works with large type with very wide tracking. In smaller type with tracking setting of 0 the letters are getting overlapped and disappear into the outline.

[jfraze]

The workaround could be to duplicate my entire text layer when I'm done and give the bottom layer the stroke while leaving the top layer untouched. But it's surprising that this isn't working as in AI. The attributes in the Appearance Panel seem to be selectable but I can't get them to actually move or change hierarchy. Is this a glitch on my end?

[VectorStyler]

@jfraze I tested with the Appearance panel (on Mohave) and the stroke can be dragged under the fill for a text.
Here, the two text objects are exactly the same, except the top has the stroke below the fill as shown in the appearance panel.

Aligning the stroke is probably not the best solution for this case.

[Subpath]

@VectorStyler

i knew there was such a option, but did not remember
how this could be done

[Subpath]

@jfraze

i test it, it works as @VectorStyler descriped.

Here a Video

[jfraze]

@Subpath That's exactly how I would expect it to work. But it doesn't do that for me. Dragging just leaves things in exactly the position they started in. I've tried restarting a few times, but no joy.

[VectorStyler]

@jfraze Can you send me an example file where Appearance dragging is not working. I'd like to elliminate a couple of possibilities.

[jfraze]

0_1659805932329_test.vstyler @VectorStyler I don't think it's in the document, but something to do with my installation. My suspicion is it's going to work as expected on your end.

[VectorStyler]

@jfraze It is a bug! when editing the stroke / fill on a text selection.