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Illustrator has a great feature called "Offset Path". When you apply it, you first enter a number in a dialog, and then it generates a new path that is perfectly parallel to the original, either larger or smaller. Scaling a path doesn't do the same thing. Here are examples:

Offset Path Example

I know Sketch can't do this natively, but I'm hoping there's a plugin out there somewhere. Searching hasn't yielded anything.

(This was my number one request when I filled out the Sketch survey a while back, btw. So very useful.)

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Woot, Sketch 52 added this feature!

Layer ▶ Path ▶ Offset

Menu path to the offset feature

And it even allows you to keep the original (unlike Illustrator where you have to make a copy first).

Offset path dialog box

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    In Ai they can use the offset path as an effect which is sort of like keeping the original, but even better because it is a live effect.
    – Silly-V
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 3:45
  • You can keep the original in illustrator, in fact you can do it three ways: One makes a offset copy, one makes the original offset and one keeps the object live. So every scenario is covered.
    – joojaa
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 4:23
  • @Silly-V I pretty exclusively use it for chopping up things with logical operations, so the live effect isn't super useful for me, but it's great to know!
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 18:11
  • @joojaa What are the other ways? I'm only aware of Object > Path > Offset Path and, as Silly-V pointed out, Effect > Path > Offset Path.
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 18:14
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    Third is to expand a stroke.
    – joojaa
    Commented Oct 7, 2018 at 18:23
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You may be able to work round the fact it doesn't have an offset feature.

I am not a Sketch user, however here's a work around I've used in other software (Inkscape actually). Although Inkscape has a Dynamic Offset, it doesn't work quite the same way as Illustrator's Offset.

Anyway, here's the workaround:

If you make a copy of the S, add a thick stroke, convert the stroke to outlines, and delete the inner path, you should have something that is very much like the offset feature in Illustrator.

I made this in Inkscape, but the same would go for any vector image editor. I'm pretty sure you'll get the general idea.

enter image description here

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  • Unfortunately Sketch doesn't allow you to expand strokes at all. It's a good idea, though.
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Sep 11, 2018 at 5:50
  • (Oh, and thanks for the effort of making the image... that's a fair bit of work.)
    – Matthew Frederick
    Commented Sep 11, 2018 at 5:51

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