DOCS/Modifiers

Offset Path

Path

Grow or shrink an outline without scaling it.

Offset Path pushes every point of the outline outward along its own normal. The shape gets fatter, but it does not get bigger the way scaling would — a rounded rectangle keeps its corner radius relationship, and a stroke stays the same distance from every edge.

Negative values pull inward. Push far enough inward and thin parts of the shape vanish entirely, which is sometimes exactly the tool you want.

Try itOffset Path

Amount8 px

This stage calls the same `applyPathOperator` the editor calls on every frame.

When to reach for it#

Outlines and halos that hug the shape at a constant distance.
Fattening thin artwork so it survives at small sizes.
Animating a shape growing out of nothing.
Cleaning up a self-intersecting path — a tiny offset often resolves it.

How it works#

Each vertex moves along the bisector of its two adjacent edges. On convex corners that pushes the corner out and away; on concave ones it pulls in. That is why offsetting a star by a large amount rounds the inner points off — they collapse into each other.

Parameters#

Amountamount#

Pixels outward. Negative goes inward. Keyframe it from a large negative to 0 and the shape appears to inflate into existence.

Recipes#

A sticker outline

Duplicate the artwork layer.
On the copy underneath, add Offset Path with an Amount around 12.
Set that copy's fill to white and remove its stroke.

Because it is an offset and not a scale, the white border stays exactly 12 px thick everywhere — including inside concave curves, where a scaled copy would go thin.

Things that catch people out#

Large negative amounts erase thin features

Pull in by more than half the width of a stroke and that stroke disappears. It is not a bug, it is what an inward offset means.

Sharp corners can spike

A very acute corner offset outward produces a long spike, because the bisector runs a long way before the edges meet. Round the corner first, or use Round Corners after the offset.