Shape Builder and Boolean Operations don't work with some fonts

[ℓurié]

Hello,

I've noticed these bugs. When I try to use the Shape Builder with some fonts it doesn't work correctly. The same fonts (or font families) are also affected by another bug with the Boolean Operations. Both bugs don't affect all fonts and they only happen when I place the letters at a specific positions. Look the video:

If it helps the developers, these are the same fonts that are affected by the bug with the Knife tool:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/172021-knife-tool-doesnt-work-with-fonts/

Thanks for your attention.

Shape Builder & Boolean Operations Bugs (Font - Arial).afdesign

[David Gill]

Yeah I'm having the same issue. I've tried joining these two letters (first converted to curves) with Shape Builder. It always removes the white space, whether it's shape builder or a Boolean command. I've even made a rectangle shape to fit in there perfectly and it refuses to added it in. Super annoying when you're trying to finish a job for a client and the program doesn't work correctly.

[SrPx]

Edit: It also happens with Knife tool, but the 'copy as SVG' (preference) trick also works as a workaround.

I got the shapebuilder and booleans problems just with basic Arial.

I think it's all related, causing problems in both shape builder and booleans (EDIT: and Knife), some issue in the code converting text to curves, or something to fix by them in the text item itself.

The other day I found a workaround consisting in, after converting to curves, and also maybe 'geometry->merge curves' depending on the case, setting then in Preferences/general-> clipboard  "copy as SVG" (no need to restart the app). Then copying these curves (ctrl + c   or right click "copy", I mean) that come from text, then click "paste special" in Edit menu (for the sake of speed, can assign a shortcut to Paste Special, I did so) , and then a dialog box that appears, choose "paste as Scalable Vector Graphics" (SVG). It generates a group, while you need to operate directly over curves, so, in the layers panel move the curves out of the group and delete the empty group.  Or select the group, right click, ungroup (or just ctrl shift G with the group selected) , if you prefer so.

I would warn not to delete the original curves too fast after doing the paste, as if the paste doesn't do it in-place, you can use snapping (on) to make it match perfectly with the original in position (if snapping settings are correctly configured) in a fraction of a second.

This fixes it for me. Takes a few seconds (it takes way more time to explain it ). To at least doing what I want in the project, until this gets fixed. Is not long to do, and can even deactivate the preference setting on the fly after the fact, as it takes the change without restarting.

 

Just checked now again (tho I had discovered it the other day), and yep it happens with any Arial text (I don't think it's happening only with some fonts...) converted to curves, and the trick seems to work for shapebuilder and booleans.  

One cool thing is that if you prefer to have all time "Clipboard: copy as SVG" preference off (ie, as the copy&paste "SVG style" thing might flatten some other features when copying, but not sure about it, it's just intuition), as needs no restart, can activate only for a moment (or a 4 hours session) when you need shapebuidler or booleans, then go to preferences again and change it back.

Of course, it's a bug. It very much needs fixing.  But I think the above is a "fast" and ok workaround, meanwhile.

 

[NathanC]

This is an issue currently logged with the developers, i've bumped the issue with your reports. 

[Paulie68000]

As another workaround, I found that if you have Affinity Photo/Designer 1.x still installed - if you convert your font to curves in 1.x you can then copy and paste those curves into Photo/Designer 2.x and the boolean operations will work on them (including knife and shape builder).

[ℓurié]

On 1/19/2023 at 4:17 PM, Paulie68000 said:

As another workaround, I found that if you have Affinity Photo/Designer 1.x still installed - if you convert your font to curves in 1.x you can then copy and paste those curves into Photo/Designer 2.x and the boolean operations will work on them (including knife and shape builder).

Thank you for your suggestion @Paulie68000 but unfortunately I tried this workaround and it doesn't work in my case.

[ℓurié]

On 1/5/2023 at 6:37 PM, SrPx said:

Edit: It also happens with Knife tool, but the 'copy as SVG' (preference) trick also works as a workaround.

I got the shapebuilder and booleans problems just with basic Arial.

I think it's all related, causing problems in both shape builder and booleans (EDIT: and Knife), some issue in the code converting text to curves, or something to fix by them in the text item itself.

The other day I found a workaround consisting in, after converting to curves, and also maybe 'geometry->merge curves' depending on the case, setting then in Preferences/general-> clipboard  "copy as SVG" (no need to restart the app). Then copying these curves (ctrl + c   or right click "copy", I mean) that come from text, then click "paste special" in Edit menu (for the sake of speed, can assign a shortcut to Paste Special, I did so) , and then a dialog box that appears, choose "paste as Scalable Vector Graphics" (SVG). It generates a group, while you need to operate directly over curves, so, in the layers panel move the curves out of the group and delete the empty group.  Or select the group, right click, ungroup (or just ctrl shift G with the group selected) , if you prefer so.

I would warn not to delete the original curves too fast after doing the paste, as if the paste doesn't do it in-place, you can use snapping (on) to make it match perfectly with the original in position (if snapping settings are correctly configured) in a fraction of a second.

This fixes it for me. Takes a few seconds (it takes way more time to explain it ). To at least doing what I want in the project, until this gets fixed. Is not long to do, and can even deactivate the preference setting on the fly after the fact, as it takes the change without restarting.

 

Just checked now again (tho I had discovered it the other day), and yep it happens with any Arial text (I don't think it's happening only with some fonts...) converted to curves, and the trick seems to work for shapebuilder and booleans.  

One cool thing is that if you prefer to have all time "Clipboard: copy as SVG" preference off (ie, as the copy&paste "SVG style" thing might flatten some other features when copying, but not sure about it, it's just intuition), as needs no restart, can activate only for a moment (or a 4 hours session) when you need shapebuidler or booleans, then go to preferences again and change it back.

Of course, it's a bug. It very much needs fixing.  But I think the above is a "fast" and ok workaround, meanwhile.

 

Thank you too for your suggestion @SrPx. I tried this workaround and it works. But I noticed that this bug doesn't happen with any Arial text and it also happens with some non-Arial text. But now I'm testing the new Beta 2.1 and the bug seems to be fixed.

[ℓurié]

On 1/17/2023 at 3:32 PM, NathanC said:

This is an issue currently logged with the developers, i've bumped the issue with your reports. 

Thanks @NathanC. I didn't notice any issue for now with the new Beta 2.1. Great job Serif 👌.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Boolean Operation fails on text converted to curves" (REF: AFD-6172) has been fixed/improved by the developers in internal build 2.1.0.1709
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.