freeze when font selection

[ssystem]

I wrote it on feedback, but I also write it here because there is no response.

On PCs with some Asian  fonts like Chinese, Korean, affinity photo / designer will freeze 100% when you try to change the font.

This is very fatal bug.

This bug lasted more than three years and affinity's answer was always "wait" or "our development knows".

But problem still occurs with the latest version and the latest beta.

If it's a three year old bug, it's time to answer it.

Do you have any plans to fix it? 

Because of this problem, I can't use Affinity and continue to use Adobe products.

can't change font!!! 100% freeze!.... and 3 years old bug!!!

 

 

 

[thomaso]

Did you follow Gabe's hint to uninstall fonts on your system to detect any corrupted font file?

As a test/workaround: This website shows a custom text in all your installed fonts. Possibly you find any culprit?

https://wordmark.it

[ssystem]

I had the same problem after format drive/reinstalling Windows clean.

Many others are having the same problem.

I think this is not just a matter of corrpted fonts.

Because I use many other programs. 

Affinity is only program that has problem like this.

 

In addition, Affinity has no problem changing the font on Text Styles panel.

- Select/Change Font on Text styles panel : No problem.

- Select/Change Font on Font Selection/Character panel : 100% freeze.

So this is certainly a bug in Affinity.

 

Quote

Chris B / QA / Moderators
Posted March 8, 2018

The Character Panel uses the same Font Browser as the main toolbar. Instead, go to the Text menu item > Show Text Styles > Click 'Create Paragraph Style' (icon at the bottom left of the Text Styles panel) > In the new dialog, click Font > Font family.

Affinity know what is problem. 

 

I really can't understand. It's unbelievable that a three-year-old bug is known and not fixed.

Simply searching in this forum has resulted in many of the same bug reports.

 Instead of fixing the problem, why would afffinity give a shortcut to using the program that is much harder?

Think about it. It's a bug three years old. There were numerous bug reports and a reproducing step was provided.

(search on forum. "font freeze", "font crash")

Even recently, bug reports don't even get answer. Does this mean affinity ignore it?

If this program is open source or free software, I can understand. 

But this program is paid software.

If there's a serious bug like this, Asian users should have a purchase warning.

Affinity should address if they will fix it or not!

People buy software. found bug,  filed a bug and showed how to reproduce it.

Affinity said they knew the cause of the problem and told the development department.

And really a lot of time has passed, but nothing has improved,

and there are no more answers.

Can I get angry now?

Edited December 1, 2019 by ssystem

[ekwkosox]

I have same problem. I try installing designer on clean pc(window 10 pro korean language) and opening font selection dialog causes freezing. It does not freeze if i scroll slowly using arrow key. if i scroll faster using mouse wheel, It freezs. I'm not sure if this problem is korean font related or not. Maybe there is problem with korean font preinstalled with clean window 10 korean language?

hope affinity devs fix this problem soon.

Edited December 2, 2019 by ekwkosox

[pic]

In my opinion, Affinity will not fix this bug forever. 

Affinity must stop selling this software to Asian(Korean/Chinese) user. Asian user can't use this software normally.

 

This is the only graphic software in the world that user can't select the asian font.

Edited December 6, 2019 by pic

[Leigh]

I know a similar issue was originally logged back in 2017 but that was fixed. Just to confirm, do you have the latest version of our apps installed? I will check with our QA team to see if they've been able to replicate the issue in 1.7.

@ssystem @ekwkosox & @pic are you able to zip up all of your fonts and upload to our dropbox account using this the below link? Please rename the zip file to your forum username so I know who uploaded to the file  

https://www.dropbox.com/request/nWysgFrcmGDWpiI0bwZ1

I will then get our QA team to look into this further for you all.

[pic]

On 12/6/2019 at 6:04 PM, Leigh said:

I know a similar issue was originally logged back in 2017 but that was fixed. Just to confirm, do you have the latest version of our apps installed? I will check with our QA team to see if they've been able to replicate the issue in 1.7.

@ssystem @ekwkosox & @pic are you able to zip up all of your fonts and upload to our dropbox account using this the below link? Please rename the zip file to your forum username so I know who uploaded to the file  

https://www.dropbox.com/request/nWysgFrcmGDWpiI0bwZ1

I will then get our QA team to look into this further for you all.

I have used many software, but Affinity Photo is the only software that has problems with fonts.

I guess that  is very old bug(freezing with asian font), but nothing fixed.

I don't want to be stressed anymore while using software, so I requested the refund.

 

[Leigh]

7 hours ago, pic said:

I don't want to be stressed anymore while using software, so I requested the refund. 

Sorry to hear that Pic. We will continue to investigate.

[ssystem]

My hobby is computer graphics.

So When new open source software comes out, I download it.

For paid programs, I purchased  licenses during the sale period like black friday within budget.

 

This is just a list of computer graphics programs currently installed on my PC.

* 3D Coat, Blender, Clip Studio Pro, Corel PaintShop Pro, Painter, Davinch Resolve, Gimp, HitFilm, Krita, OpenToonz, Pinnacle Studio, Substance Designer, Natron and more...

But none of these programs cause problems with fonts like AP&AD.

AP&AD is the only software that causes font problems. lol!

 

It's been a while since I bought a license for Affinity, and I wonder if you will accept it now to request a refund.

 

To be honest, I hope this software works well.

If affinity don't have asian font problem, I want to use it as my main graphic editing program.

 

Please take this seriously.

There were a lot of requests and it's been a long time.

This is a very serious bug what can't use the program at all in font-related tasks.

This is a bug that must be fixed as a top priority. Otherwise it should not be sold to Asia.

 

 

 

[Leigh]

@ssystem Just to confirm, are you still getting this issue using 1.7? Is it possible to record another video of this happening in 1.7?

[ssystem]

 

@Leigh  I tested below versions.

Affinity Photo 1.7.3.481
Affinity Designer 1.7.3.481
Affinity Photo 1.8.0.514 (Customer Beta)

I uploaded video to your dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/request/nWysgFrcmGDWpiI0bwZ1). file name is affinity_font_freeze.zip. 

(Zip file contains 3 videos. photo 1.7.3, designer 1.7.3, photo 1.8.0.514)

 

[Leigh]

@ssystem Thanks for the videos, very helpful. Is it possible to send me all of your fonts so that we can try and replicate it here.

[ssystem]

@Leigh I uploaded another zip file.

The archive contains one video file and two folders.

1. After removing all the fonts I can remove from Windows, the default fonts left are in the default_fonts folder.

I recorded what I found while testing and recorded it in bug_video.mp4 with comments.

(This video's scenario only works when there are few fonts. If have a lot of fonts, it will freeze even if you scroll slowly as yesterday's video.)

 

2. current_fonts folder contains all the fonts I had at the time of the recording yesterday.

 

3. I also tried resetting the Windows font cache. However, the symptoms could not be improved.

 

4. (Check text_styles.mp4 on dropbox)

If it is really difficult to fix this bug, please add an option.

In Text Styles> Create Paragraph Sytle, there is no problem when changing fonts. No matter how fast you scroll, moving the mouse wheel quickly is no problem.

I wish I had an option to use the new font-changing UI by default with the code used in Text Styles.

==

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/32267-fixed-fonts-it-is-very-slow-or-does-not-work/
In this bug report, Patrick Connor said he fixed the problem on October 12, 2017.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/33917-affinity-designer-freezingcrashing-in-font-dialog/&page=2
However, if you look at page 2 of this bug report, you can see that it has not been fixed.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/56363-freezing-when-picking-fonts/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/58174-affinity-designer-freezing-on-font-chooser/
And the symptoms are found on the Mac.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/58811-freeze-font-menu-ad-ap/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/63588-changing-font-makes-affinity-photo-freeze-forever/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/65667-affinity-designer-font-selection-menu-leads-to-freezes-crashes/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/68535-in-the-character-font-choice-when-stopping-bugs/

It's still happening in late 2018.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/60246-serious-font-problem/
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/76663-freezing-issuescroll-in-font-dialog-box/&tab=comments#comment-400361

It is also occurring in 2019.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/80420-affinity-photo-freezes/
chris B is not reproduced at 1.7 beta, but as I wrote here, the problem still exists.

 

 

[Leigh]

Thanks for uploading your fonts @ssystem 

Unfortunately, I've been unable to replicate the issue on my system using your fonts. However, I will pass them to our QA team to see if they can replicate the issue at their end.

[Leigh]

Me again @ssystem

Unfortunately, QA have not been unable to replicate the issue too. However, they did mention that the next beta build of Affinity Publisher has some changes to Font Loading. Do you have Affinity Publisher? If not, is it possible to try and create a dump file when the app is freezing. If so, can you please;

1. Download ProcDump from the following link - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/downloads/procdump 
2. Extract the files from the zip folder, then create a new folder on the root of your C:\ drive called ProcDump then move procdump64.exe into this folder.
3. Open Command Prompt (cmd from the Run dialog) then type  cd\procdump  and press enter.
4. now paste the below string into CMD and press enter, then make sure you leave CMD running:
   • procdump64.exe -e -mm -w photo.exe
5. Now with CMD running in the background, launch Affinity Photo and get the app to freeze when going through the fonts.
6. Open the folder C:\ProcDump - hopefully you will have a .dmp file created here that you can upload to our Dropbox folder.

[ssystem]

@Leigh I don't have affinity publisher license. So I can't test beta build. (I tested publisher 1.7.3 trial. Of course it was freeze.)

And I tried ProcDump but didn't get a dump file.

** log

[18:34:09] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:10] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:13] Exception: E06D7363.PEAVJavascriptExceptionObject@Js@@
[18:34:13] Exception: E06D7363.PEAVJavascriptExceptionObject@Js@@
[18:34:13] Exception: E06D7363.PEAVJavascriptExceptionObject@Js@@
[18:34:14] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:15] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:16] Exception: E0434352.CLR
[18:34:16] Exception: 406D1388
[18:34:16] Exception: E0434352.CLR
[18:34:18] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:20] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:20] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:21] Exception: 000006BA
[18:34:43] The process has exited.
[18:34:43] Dump count not reached.

 

 

[Leigh]

Ok, thanks for trying @ssystem - Can you try and create a dump file from Task Manager instead. When Affinity Photo hangs could you go into Task Manager, right click the Affinity Photo process and select 'Create Dump File' - you will be given a location of that Dump File. Could you then upload that to our Dropbox account. Thank you.

[ssystem]

@Leigh upload complete. check ssystem dump.zip file.

1. Photo.DMP is from Task Manager. 

2. Photo.exe_191220_230450 - procdump64 -e -c 15 -s 10 -mm -w photo.exe <= I dumped by another option of procdump. cpu 15% and 10 second.

[Leigh]

Hi @ssystem - thanks for the .DMP files. I have passed them to our QA team to be looked at. Unfortunately, we're about to close for Christmas, so there might be a delay at looking at your .DMP file. When I have more information for you, I will let you know.

[Leigh]

@ssystem Thanks for waiting, it's much appreciated. We've not forgotten about your log file. While you wait for this to be investigated further, our QA team have advised me that the latest beta builds include changes relating to Font Loading. Can you download and install it to see if it resolves your issue? It can be found here: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/104165-affinity-photo-windows-customer-beta-180526/

 

[Leigh]

@ssystem Our QA team have looked at your dmp file and as expected, they can see that it's crashing when selecting Fonts but they can't see what's causing the issue. Did you manage to try the latest beta?

[firstdefence]

Would be a good idea to list any font that freezes Photo to see if others are having a similar issue with particular fonts to see if there is a pattern. It would also help to list the version and build of windows being used for comparison, it would also be good if anyone is using listed fonts and Affinity Photo is not freezing.

Do you use a font manager?

[ssystem]

@Leigh I've already tested it with affinity-photo-customer-beta-1.8.0.526. Unfortunately, The problem was not solved. Bug still exists.

@firstdefence I have tested with only (Korean version) Windows default fonts. (Less than 90 fonts. No more fonts can be deleted.) But still the problem occurs.

 

Happy new year! I am finally happy that you are giving the right feedback.

Downloading and testing the beta is easy, but the process of capturing videos, reinitializing fonts on my PC, and dumping them for bug testing isn't all that fun. Because I'm busy working these days.

 

[Leigh]

22 hours ago, ssystem said:

I've already tested it with affinity-photo-customer-beta-1.8.0.526. Unfortunately, The problem was not solved. Bug still exists.

Thanks for trying - it's disappointing to hear that you're still having the issue with the latest beta build.

22 hours ago, ssystem said:

 I have tested with only (Korean version) Windows default fonts. (Less than 90 fonts. No more fonts can be deleted.) But still the problem occurs.

Our QA team have also tried to recreate your issue using a Korean version of Windows. They tried using the default Windows fonts and your fonts but was unable to replicate the crash.

22 hours ago, ssystem said:

Happy new year! I am finally happy that you are giving the right feedback.

Downloading and testing the beta is easy, but the process of capturing videos, reinitializing fonts on my PC, and dumping them for bug testing isn't all that fun. Because I'm busy working these days.

Happy New Year to you too. I completely understand how frustrating it can be when you've purchased an app to get work done but it's not working as expected. We've had other users with similar issues but removing a particular font would normally resolve the issue.

You could perhaps try creating a new user account on your machine and see if you get the same issue when logged into the new account. I will see if our QA team have an other ideas and I'm sorry that it's taking a long time to get your issue resolved.

[ssystem]

@Leigh  

I've already tested it by creating a new account. But the problem is not solved.

 

When I upgraded from Windows 10 build 1809 to build 1903, I did an entirely new clean install rather than an upgrade install.

I then tested Affinity photo again. But the problem was the same.

I'm using a lot of programs, so after a clean install it takes a long time to configure. I can't reinstall windows now. 

(All other programs have no problem.)

 

 

Currently I'm using the Windows 1909 build. And still the problem was not fixed.

 

1. I tested it on Windows 10 build 1809, 1903, 1909. 64bit. (AMD Ryzen 2700x, 64gb)
2. I tested Affinity Photo 1.6.5, 1.7.0, 1.7.1, 1.7.2, 1.7.3 and 1.8.0 beta.
3. I tested it after installing Windows Clean. In other cases I tested it with custom fonts and after deleting them.
4. I tested in Windows Safe Mode, created and tested a new account, and tested startup programs and services after optimization.
5. I tested it after disabling my antimalware and antivirus programs.

I've read almost all the articles on the forums, posted requests for feedback, and reported bugs.

I bought a photo on March 20, 2019. And I bought another designer later. But I still can't use it because of a bug.

 

If this was a problem I had alone, I might think I am unlucky. But when I searched the forum, there were numerous related issues.

 

When I did a Google search, I found some complains on Korean blogs and the IT community.

In the affinity sale information and the review, opinions pointing out font problems must be posted. From 2017 To Now.

I'll put some links (korean language).

===================

2017/06/18 http://www.slrclub.com/bbs/vx2.php?id=nikon_d1_forum&no=3544036

2019/06/06 http://m.ppomppu.co.kr/new/bbs_view.php?id=ppomppu4&no=105796

2019/11/25 https://www.clien.net/service/board/jirum/14319153?po=0&sk=title&sv=affinity&groupCd=&pt=0

2019/11/29 https://coolwarp.net/1709

2019/12/08 https://www.clien.net/service/board/use/14371379?po=0&sk=title&sv=어피니티&groupCd=&pt=0

===================

Honestly I don't know what to do anymore.

As I said before, I like to deal with software, and I hope that open source or cheap alternatives work well.

I hate Adobe's subscription model like many other users of Affinity.

If it's open source, this could be acceptable. But affinity is paid software. I am not QA or beta tester.

I'm frustrated. I think affinity series is great alternative to Adobe if there's no freezing issue (maybe because of asian font?).

I don't understand that the problem persists for years. (You people said issue were solved. But I don't think so.)

I know It's hard to catch bugs, but I don't understand that the problem persists in only one of the two font panels in the program.(styles : ok, characters: problem).

 

I think If affinity offer "Turn off Font preview" option like adobe photoshop, It wll very helpful. 

(If the cause of this bug is the preview of certain fonts.)

 

Of course I know it's meaningless to talk to you.

I'm just tired now. I'm  a busy person.

Currently, I work in Photoshop, so I don't have to use Affinity.

 

I'm not sure why I'm so stressed that I'm going to use this.

Since 2017, 1.6  having problems... Can this be resolved in version 1.8? I don't know.

I'll wait a little longer. I really want to use affinity.

But if the problem persists with version 1.8, I'll stronglly try to request a refund. I think I deserve it.