52 Stroke Tapering. 52 of 95.
52/INPUT/52 of 95
Stroke Tapering
A stroke can remember where it started and where it is ending.
Best experienced with a pointer.
The problem
A constant-width mark looks stamped on, not drawn — tips never thin as a pen would land or lift.
The solution
Width is derived from distance from start and distance to end, thinning inside the taper regions.
Experiment
Play with the values
48px
64px
Taper easing
Cap behavior
How it works
- Total stroke length is measured so taper can be a fraction of the stroke, not a fixed pixel count only.
- Distance from the start decides how much the beginning has already thickened.
- Distance to the end decides how much the finish should thin.
- Start and end taper factors scale the width inside those regions.
- The path is drawn with that variable width so the stroke has a beginning and an end.
Seen in
Drawing apps
Ink tips thin at land and lift so marks feel hand-drawn without pressure hardware.
Note apps
Handwriting strokes taper naturally at the ends of each glyph.
Whiteboards
Annotation strokes look intentional instead of uniformly thick tubes.
Signature pads
Signatures keep character while tips resolve cleanly into points or soft caps.