How to expand/create a path around a stroke in Adobe Fireworks?

Question

I have a graphic that looks like a stamp created in Fireworks,

it is mainly made of Paths that have custom stroke types on them,

the problem is that I want to expand the custom Stroke so that I have a Path around the grungy stroke,

Have a look at the screenshot to understand better, as you can see the Stroke type in my case is set to Bristle, have a look:

Answer 1

Haven't used Fireworks in a while, but you I've got two similar workarounds:

First Copy the layer with the Bristle stroke in place then Flatten it(Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Z I think).

Then you can either:

1. fake the stroke with thin and sharp Glow Filter
2. convert pixels to paths by making a wand selection convert the selection to a path (either by right clicking and choosing Modify Marquee > Convert to Path or there should some menu option (Selection > Convert to Path maybe ? ). Note that you'll loose a bit of the 'roughness' as paths will be smoother. The selection tolerance might give you a bit of control. once you've got a path, you can apply a stroke to it.

HTH

Answer 2

Another way of handling this is:

1. Create the shape, line, or path and set your appropriate stroke amount.
2. Select the path and click "Modify > Alter Path", and make sure you set the amount of expansion to the total width of pixels you'd like for the path'd stroke.
3. Make sure you have your stroke set to inside, and this should be your initial stroke converted to a path.