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Crash when editing text styles


loukash

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Publisher 1.7.3, Mac OS X El Capitan, fonts managed via FontExplorer v4.2.4

Simple 1-page layout document A4, with a few text blocks and a few vector objects.

The text in the document had styles assigned already, using a currently unavailable font.
I'm attempting to change the style to a different font.
Clicking on a style in the palette crashes Publisher at the first attempt.
After relaunching, the style editing may usually work eventually. Until the next time it crashes again.
An earlier version of the document that had the initial font available also already showed the same crashing behavior.

Sometimes Publisher also crashes on selecting/editing a text object on the page. I cannot figure out any pattern in that.
Since this is the first time I was attempting to do some, er, real work with Publisher, I can't compare to other documents yet.

Attaching all recent crash logs and a redacted copy of the affected file.

loukash_publisher_crash_logs.zip

loukash_crashing_document.afpub.zip

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Similar bug:

  1. Created a new document, unsaved
  2. Adjusted the Base text style to match my needs
  3. Closed the new document without saving
  4. Crash

 

Affinity Publisher_2019-12-12-133714_Kuk.crash.zip

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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After recreating a document from the scratch, I give up.
This software is not ready for even the simplest tasks yet.

InDesign CS5.5, here I come again. I need the job to get done today. :/

 

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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9 minutes ago, Pauls said:

creating and using a new user profile

You mean creating a new Mac OS user?

Well, if a user has enough time on their hands, then that's certainly part of the process of finding the offending conflict that's causing the crash. But it's not an actual solution.

Edited by loukash
typo

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Is there anything in the crash reports that would at least hint at the culprit?

Frankly, I do use a slightly modified El Capitan installation; hence the disabled SIP as you can see from the reports. It's a compromise to run a mix of current software alongside some "ancient" apps (hint: CS5.5 et al) as well as a few unsupported "vintage" audio hardware drivers.

That said, Publisher is by far the most crashing app so far. (And Logic Pro 9, but that's not unexpected, given that it's been last updated in 2012… ;)

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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5 minutes ago, Pauls said:

it looks like you are having some font issues

Fair enough, a font issue was my thought from the beginning.

I'm required to use Arial for the layout. While working in Publisher on the first layout draft a few weeks back, I have simply activated the preinstalled Arial.ttf from /Library/Fonts; usually I keep it disabled because I never use it otherwise. Oddly, while all other apps could instantly see the freshly activated Arial just fine, Publisher only displayed Arial Hebrew from /System/Library/Fonts, ignoring the regular Arial.ttf. Deactivating it and then activating a copy of Arial.ttf placed outside the standard Fonts folders manually via FontExplorer worked around this issue.

I remember cleaning all caches incl. fonts just recently with Onyx, after having had some UI display issues and crashes with the aforementioned Logic Pro 9.

Speaking of Arial.ttf, I also keep a copy in /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Fonts because otherwise several Photoshop (CS5.5) plugins will crash if Arial is not activated. D'oh. But that was already the case on Mountain Lion.

If I have some time next week, there are a few scenarios I can test:

  • Editing the document on my "antique" backup MacBook Pro (15", late 2008) which has a similar El Capitan setup and is more or less in sync with my regular MacBook Pro 15", mid-2012.
  • Checking it on my other partitions – from Sierra up to Catalina – if the issue is replicable. Those partitions are, uh… more or less without any custom modifications.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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  • Staff

Thanks for that info - I've replicated a similar crash activating/deactivating fonts with the text style editor open (Arial as it happens). Maybe we're not detecting the font changes from Font Explorer - I'll get back when I get an update from the developers.

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For the record:
After spending the best part of the day "beta testing" Publisher, literally at the end of the day I have rebuilt and finished the intended layout with InDesign CS5.5 within 90 minutes and without crashes. You can't beat 18 years of the InDesign muscle memory routine yet. Same system settings, same fonts, not even a log-out to refresh the plethora of running background processes.

Sigh…

Hope you guys get the bugs fixed soon. Publisher needs to be at least as reliable and robust as ID CS5.5 was (don't know about CC, I've never used it).
Thanks for your support!

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 12/13/2019 at 2:12 AM, loukash said:

For the record:
After spending the best part of the day "beta testing" Publisher, literally at the end of the day I have rebuilt and finished the intended layout with InDesign CS5.5 within 90 minutes and without crashes. You can't beat 18 years of the InDesign muscle memory routine yet. Same system settings, same fonts, not even a log-out to refresh the plethora of running background processes.

Sigh…

Hope you guys get the bugs fixed soon. Publisher needs to be at least as reliable and robust as ID CS5.5 was (don't know about CC, I've never used it).
Thanks for your support!

I have previously logged this error and logs and am of the same opinion. I can't change or apply text styles (along with other basic functionality) without insta-crashing. I have also gone back to InDesign as I don't have the time or inclination to beta test commercial software.

I wish Affinity the best, but I have stopped using the software.

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  • 1 year later...

OK, the Technical support FAQ page said to post questions here in the forum. So I do.

I am not entirely sure all reported here problems are the same, but I'll risk it (to avoid watering down the subject throughout the forum).

- - -

Short description:

The app crashes when a style (paragraph OR character) that has a hotkey assigned is visible in Test Styles view.

Details about reproduction:

- If the Text Styles view is closed and you create new style that has a hotkey from the Paragraph view, Character view or the Text menu - no problem. When you open Text Styles view, such that the style in question is visible - melt down.

- If you have a style with a hotkey and your Text Styles view is open, but too short to display the whole styles list and the style in question is not displayed - no problem. As soon as you scroll your style into view - melt down.

The app does not crash - it just becomes unresponsive and starts gulpind down more and more memory and I have to kill the process at some point.

- - -

I can go around the issue for now. I was ready to buy the Publisher (and still am), but I need to know that the resolution of this issue is in sight. I can work around it, but it is very hard and frustrating - styles hotkeys are not a feature to easily work without.

This topic has last been updated in January 2020, the last QA response is another month before that. This is a bit disconcerting as overall the application seems to be worth the cost.

Edited by Angel Slavchev
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@Angel Slavchev, I haven't had the aforementioned issue neither with version 1.8.x nor with v1.9.x. But in the meantime, I've also "given in" and keep the Arial font active at all times, and I have changed my default Affinity font to Menlo while deleting all the factory text styles and adding my own. But I'll try to reproduce your steps to see if I can still make it crash.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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8 hours ago, Angel Slavchev said:

If the Text Styles view is closed and you create new style that has a hotkey from the Paragraph view, Character view or the Text menu - no problem. When you open Text Styles view, such that the style in question is visible - melt down.

Can't reproduce.

8 hours ago, Angel Slavchev said:

- If you have a style with a hotkey and your Text Styles view is open, but too short to display the whole styles list and the style in question is not displayed - no problem. As soon as you scroll your style into view - melt down.

Can't reproduce.

You may want to record a screencast.

 

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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Thanks for the reply.

Here are two recordings - in the order mentioned above.

First - adding a style without a hotkey and then with a hotkey, then viewing them in the TextStyles view.

Second - adding a style with a hotkey, then scrolling to the style in the Text Styles view.

You can see the flickering that starts to happen sometimes in the Text Styles view. I've included the Task Manager to show the gradual memory increase.

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So it's on Windows. I can't help here.
This is the MacOS forum. You must post in forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/forum/82-publisher-bugs-found-on-windows

You can reuse your already uploaded screencasts by clicking the "Other Media" button > Insert existing attachment

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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