polygon-offset

Offsetting a polygon so that every point of the result is actually at the distance you asked for — and the function that proves it.

TypeScript, zero dependencies, ESM + CJS. 2.3 kB gzipped.

▶ Interactive demo — drag the vertices, watch the error readout.

Published as polygon-offset-exact; the unscoped polygon-offset was already taken. The -exact is the point of the library, so it earns its place.

npm install polygon-offset-exact

import { offsetPolygon, maxDeviation } from 'polygon-offset-exact';

const piece = [{x:0,y:0}, {x:100,y:0}, {x:100,y:60}, {x:40,y:60}, {x:40,y:140}, {x:0,y:140}];

const cutLine = offsetPolygon(piece, 10);        // seam allowance, 10 units out
maxDeviation(cutLine, piece, 10);                // 1.4e-14 — machine precision

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Why this exists

The intuitive way to offset a polygon is to push every vertex outward along its angle bisector. It is the first thing you would write. It is wrong, and it is wrong in a way that is easy to miss.

Bisector displacement puts a vertex at d / sin(θ/2) from the corner, not at d. As a corner sharpens, θ → 0 and the error runs away. On a five-pointed star offset by 40, the worst point of the naive result lands 121.8 units from the source polygon instead of 40 — off by 205%.

The usual complaint about naive offsetting is that it self-intersects. On most real shapes it doesn't. It just lands in the wrong place, silently, and looks fine. In CAD, cutting or CNC that distance is the point: it's the seam allowance, the tool radius, the kerf. A part cut from a curve that is three times too far out is scrap.

This library ships the naive version too — as naiveOffsetPolygon, so you can measure the gap yourself:

import { offsetPolygon, naiveOffsetPolygon, maxDeviation } from 'polygon-offset-exact';

maxDeviation(naiveOffsetPolygon(star, 40), star, 40);  // 81.8
maxDeviation(offsetPolygon(star, 40), star, 40);       // 2.8e-14

How it works

1. Offset every edge along its own normal. Each edge now lies at exactly d from the source — true by construction, not by hope. No bisectors anywhere.
2. Rejoin the corners. A convex corner leaves a wedge, filled with an arc of radius d centred on the original vertex. A reflex corner makes the two offset edges overrun each other, so they are trimmed to their intersection — with a miter limit, so a near-degenerate corner cannot throw a spike toward infinity.
3. Sample, then filter by true distance. Each edge is sampled, and any sample whose real distance to the source polygon isn't d is dropped. This is what handles the topology change when the offset eats a narrow feature: a waist pinched shut simply stops producing points there.

Step 3 is why the default tolerance is an epsilon rather than a percentage. Every constructed point is on the band by construction except the mitre points, and those are exactly the ones that need checking.

API

offsetPolygon(polygon, distance, options?): Point[]

Positive distance grows the polygon, negative shrinks it. Orientation is read from the input's signed area, so screen coordinates (y down) and maths coordinates (y up) both behave the way you expect — no winding convention to remember.

Returns a dense point list, not a vertex list: straight runs are sampled and corners are arcs, because the guarantee is about distance, not about vertex count.

option	default
arcSegments	16	segments per convex corner
miterLimit	8	max trim at a reflex corner, as a multiple of `
sampleStep	`	distance
tolerance	`	distance

offsetPolygonToLoops(polygon, distance, options?): Point[][]

The same offset, split into separate closed loops. When an inward offset pinches a waist shut, the outline becomes two loops and a flat list can't say where one ends. Splits on spacing (a heuristic, documented as one — not a topological reconstruction), which covers the ordinary cases: necks, slots, thin tabs.

maxDeviation(result, polygon, distance): number

The largest distance error in a result. Shipped as part of the API on purpose — a picture can't tell you an offset is correct, because a result that's wrong by a few units still looks like an offset. Check the output, don't trust it.

Also exported

Small, dependency-free primitives the offsetting is built on, useful on their own:

signedArea · area · perimeter · toPositiveOrientation · isNegativelyOriented · pointInPolygon · distanceToPolygon · distanceToSegment · isSelfIntersecting · naiveOffsetPolygon

and the vector helpers add sub scale dot cross length normalize normal lineIntersection.

What it does not do

Being honest about the edges, since the whole point of the library is not lying about distances:

• Simple polygons only. One closed ring, no holes, no self-intersections in the input.
• No curve fitting. The output is a polyline. Arcs come out as arc segments; nothing is reconstructed into arcs or béziers.
• Loop splitting is a spacing heuristic. Loops that end up closer together than splitGap will not be separated.
• No winding correction on output. If you need a specific orientation, run toPositiveOrientation on the result.

Tests

57 tests. The core of the suite is one property, asserted across a square, an L-bend, a star, a narrow neck and a near-circle, at positive and negative distances: every returned point is at |distance| from the source, to within 1e-6. Plus the degenerate cases — a sliver triangle, a two-point input, an offset larger than the shape.

npm test
npm run typecheck

MIT licensed. Built by Marcela Sampaio.