Up until recently I used Illustrator to create my SVGs for lasercutter printing (I use a Glowforge, app.glowforge.com), and was easily able to combine each individual letter in a cursive phrase using the merge shape tool. Attempting to use this tool in Affinity Designer on my Mac isn't working the same, and is causing major issues with my fonts, cutting parts of them off etc. All my text is as curves. I've tried the following:
Using the "Add" or "Combine" tool - this causes parts of the letters to be chopped off, eyes to be removed, or whole letters to disappear
Rasterizing then adding or combining, same issues as above, no difference except my letters are all now super pixelated
Expanding the stroke, then combining or adding - same issues with cursive fonts, but was successful with combining two shapes - except now the combined shape is filled in in Affinity Designer, but EMPTY and just outlines in the exported SVG? Messing w/ stroke/fill on this combined shape doesn't help so now I have this additional issue.
Screenshots attached, plus the afdesigns. Something to do with font ligatures? Any tricks for fixing? I need to do this for three files to complete an order to be shipped on Aug 7th (Friday), so hoping to get on this ASAP. Sadly no answer from Affinity Help since July 30th Would be extremely grateful for any help!
styxx.afdesign
zenith.afdesign
