contour tool and text disappears on artboards

[MichaelDaens]

I think I've encountered a bug using the contour tool on text. I added a contour to some text t give it a bold look and everything worked fine until I added an artboard. When the text with the added contour was moved into the artboard it vanished. The text box is still there but the text itself is invisible no matter what I do. Try this yourself and let me know if you get the same result.

[walt.farrell]

I can see that happening, too. Or, sometimes, the contour is present but very distorted. Here's one of each:

contour-missing-v2.afdesigncontour-distorted-v2.afdesign

There are a number of topics, and one logged bug, related to Artboards and the Contour Tool. This may be another aspect of that known problem:

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&tags=afd-5255

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&q=contour artboard&quick=1

[stokerg]

On 3/7/2023 at 9:45 PM, MichaelDaens said:

I think I've encountered a bug using the contour tool on text. I added a contour to some text t give it a bold look and everything worked fine until I added an artboard.

I've been looking into this and this was reported a few years back here and caused some confusion, to the point a bug was logged but this is actually working by design.  When you added the Artboard, I'm guessing you drew out an artboard and didn't click on the Add Artboard button on the toolbar along top?  When you draw out an artboard which is smaller than the page, the artboard is placed over the top of the text.  So if you look at the Layers Panel, open up the artboard layer and you'll see your text layer.  If you drag that above the artboard layer, you'll then see the text.  If however, you clicked on the Add Artboard button along the top, the page is converted to an artboard, with its content.

16 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

Or, sometimes, the contour is present but very distorted

Just trying to replicate this from scratch and haven't been able to as of yet but can clearly see the issue with the file you attached.  I'll get that logged if it isn't already  

 

[walt.farrell]

3 hours ago, stokerg said:

When you added the Artboard, I'm guessing you drew out an artboard and didn't click on the Add Artboard button on the toolbar along top?  When you draw out an artboard which is smaller than the page, the artboard is placed over the top of the text. 

In my first sample file (contour-missing), the sequence was:

1. File > New
2. Create the Text Frame, and the Text, and apply the Contour.
3. Select Artboard Tool.
4. Zoom out so more pasteboard is visible.
5. Draw an Artboard separate from the canvas. 
6. This gives us an Artboard, and a free-standing, invisible Text Frame in the pasteboard area.
7. Select the Text Frame in the Layers panel, and drag it onto the Artboard in the document area (which makes it part of the Artboard).
8. The Text and Contour are both then invisible, unless one selects the Contour Tool and sets the Contour radius to 0 in the Context Toolbar.

 

[Old Bruce]

This is happening here on Mac OS 11.7 as well. I notice that if I Convert to Curves the Contour appears.

Additionally it doesn't matter if I start with an artboard and make a new one by dragging it out. Moving the text with contour onto the new artboard makes it disappear. 

[Old Bruce]

Further to this is the realization that if I draw a new artboard to the left or higher than the original size (meaning the x y co-ordinates are negative relative to the canvas's original location) the text will disappear. If I then delete that artboard the text with its contour will reappear.

[lepr]

The funky contour problem doesn't only happen with text in an Artboard. It happens with text that is nested (clip-nested or mask-nested) in any object (for example, a Curve or an Ellipse or an Artboard) that has a non-identity transformation.

The attached video shows the contour going awry as the text object's container is transformed. (Ignore the context menu moment near the end - nothing was clicked in there.) At the end, Convert To Curves is applied to the text to get a Curve object with contour that is rendered correctly.

 

 

 

 

 

[TrentL]

I'm still noticing this problem in Affinity Designer 2.1.1 on Windows. As far as I can tell, using the contour tool on text within an artboard makes the text disappear. Dragging the text outside the artboard makes it show up. I've attached the file if anyone is curious. 

Text with contour applied not showing in Artboard:

 

Simply dragging the text outside the artboard:

 

 

 

ContourTool_Artboard.afdesign

[Obscured]

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[lepr]

At this moment, exactly 5 months since the thread was created, it still doesn't have a tag with log number. I wouldn't be surprised if no developer has even seen this thread.

[walt.farrell]

49 minutes ago, lepr said:

At this moment, exactly 5 months since the thread was created, it still doesn't have a tag with log number. I wouldn't be surprised if no developer has even seen this thread.

Perhaps @stokerg will comment on the added posts, and the status of the issue. But as there's no bug tag it's likely it hasn't been reported yet.

[Hangman]

17 hours ago, TrentL said:

Using the contour tool on text within an artboard makes the text disappear. Dragging the text outside the artboard makes it show up.

Dragging the text outside the artboard automatically moves the text layer outside the artboard. Physically doing so while the text is still on the artboard achieves the same thing making the text visible and the contour then appears correctly so it seems as though there is a relationship issue with the contour tool and artboards...

[Obscured]

.

[TrentL]

2 hours ago, Return said:

With the file @TrentL provided I couldn't get it visible on the artboard with the contour applied, it just disappears again.
But on a newly created document in designer I don't get the issue.
I think his artboard is somehow a conversion of rectangles or converted to curves and back or perhaps from Illustrator?
Because if you create a new artboard in his file and drag the text to it and apply the contour it simply works.
 

 

I created everything within Affinity Designer, but I probably created a normal document and then created the Artboard with the Artboard Tool.

I've been playing with it some more this morning and I am finding it hard to figure out a pattern of when it works and doesn't.

It seems like when I create a document with "Create Artboard" selected, the Contour Tool usually plays nicely with text. And it seems like when I create a canvas-based document and then manually create artboards, that is when the Contour Tool fails with text in the artboard. But I'm pretty sure I've experienced exceptions to this rule. 

 

 

 

[Obscured]

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[Hangman]

For me, the text only goes weird (after a canvas is converted to an artboard) once the contour tool is applied to the text. Basically, it looks as though applying the contour tool to text at that point shrinks the point size and applies horizontal scaling and tracking to the text...

Converting the text to curves reinstates the text correctly, albeit outlined...

[MEB]

Thanks everyone. I've reproduced this here and I'm logging the issue.

[lepr]

Still no tag, so looks like bug falling through the cracks again.

[MEB]

@lepr,
No, it's not falling through the cracks.

[lepr]

There is a tag today. Rejoice.