Finally, my college minor in Math pays off! ;-)
Actually, this is more like junior high stuff.

58 degrees?! Is that correct? Well, you take the tangent of 58 = 1.6003-whatever, which is about a 16/10 = 8/5 slope. But that translates back to ~57.9946 degrees, so sticking with 58 is really just as good in this case.

But if you want a simpler/more_elegant slope you could use 3/2 which is 1.5, and the arc-tangent of that is about 56.3099 degrees, so use 56.31 and you'll get a nice two pixel move vertically for every three pixels you move horizontally, which means your line will have alternating two and one pixel steps.

hhp

Hhp, I admire and thank you for that. I just can't do math. Perhaps it's very simple, but I just can't.
I think I'll go for the 56,31 angle if you think that's better. I like elegance, therefor I think it's the better solution.

Thanks a bunch.

Ren�

oeps, I made a mistake. I rotated the line from a horizontal position in stead of a vertical position.
Now I have an angle from 31.5 degrees. Could you please recalc?

Sorry for the bother.

Ren�

No need to recalc, just subtract from 90 degrees: 90 - 56.31 = 33.69

Hey, that's what you had in the other thread!
http://www.typophile.com/forums/messages/29/15230.html

Make friends with Tangent, he's a lifesaver!

hhp

Ren�, it's very easy to calculate the angle, in degrees, if you know the slope (and vice-versa). Softwares like Excel, and scientific calculators have the necessary (arc-tangent and tangent) functions. No need to know formulas! ;-)

And, I think all type design softwares have that "measurement" tool. You can measure any angle, in degrees, with that tool. It's very simple too, if you don't want to go to the calculator.

For example, let's say you want to calculate the angle, in degrees, for a 2:3 slope. Just draw a rectangle, 20units x 30units (40x60, 80x120, or anything proportional), and measure one of its diagonals. The software will tell you the angle. That's it.

Of course, the "measurement" tool is only useful when you want to determine the angle in degrees for a previously known slope.
If you have the degrees and want to find the slope, the only way is using the tangent.

> If you have the degrees and want to find the slope, the only way is using the tangent.

Or -since we're really interested in integer-ratio slopes- you could set up a background with rectangle of various [integer] proportions, and when you draw (or paste) the line at the angle you want, you can see which rectangle's corner it comes closest too (and couple that with the notion that smaller recangles are simpler/more_elegant).

hhp

Hrant,

Do you also sell the drugs that would help me to understand your last post?

Matha

Do you think it's a coincidence that it was computer
science guys who spread the term "user" to the mainstream?

(I can't take credit for that joke - it's from my Discrete Math teacher at CSUN.)

hhp

> Make friends with Tangent, he's a lifesaver!

He's also a true party topic. ;p

hildebrant.

Do you also sell the drugs that would help me to understand your last post?

I didn't have a problem understanding it. He just means something like this:



I set this up in Illustrator in a couple of minutes. You just use the measurement tool or line tool to get the desired angle (circled in red) and then count the squares to get the desired slope (4:6 in this example).

Oh, wow, man! The colors!

Hi Mark,

that's something I can understand too. I kind of can understand hhp, but it stays to abstract for me.
This way you showed me is something practical I can use. Thanks for that.

You to hhp.

Regards,
Ren�