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Combining shapes using the Add button


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The most frequent problem I have using Designer is when I create a stroke on text or other shapes and then I want to make that a single shape...With bad results...

In this instance, I have a 1 pt stroke on text. I convert the text to curves, then use the Expand Stroke function under the Layer menu. I then select all of the shapes in that layer and click the Add button. Some of the "letters" combine into a single curve while others do something else. The J, E and A combine correctly, while the two Ns do something entirely different.

Can anyone have a technique that works around or fixes this highly annoying behaviour?

Video attached.

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There is a more direct route and that is to simply click the add button while the text layer is selected, it may lose fill but that's easy enough to add back.

Out of curiosity what font is that you are using?

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With the text layer selected just click on the geometry add button, that will convert to curves and keep the text as one curve.

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14 minutes ago, gskidmark said:

I tried just converting to curves and the clicking the Add button but that didn't work out...

See the steps above in my shown screencast. In your last screencast you didn't converted the JENNA text layer to just curves first before perfoming a geometrical add.

And for what firstdefense meant, look here (apply stroke & fill afterwards) ...

 

 

 

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Interesting, hmm either it's due to the font file (I use these from here) as there are older and newer ones. Or ADe v2 has some odd convert to curves & geom add behavior in contrast to v1 (which I used), since with v1 things work Ok here for me as you can see.

☛ Affinity Designer 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Photo 1.10.8 ◆ Affinity Publisher 1.10.8 ◆ OSX El Capitan
☛ Affinity V2.3 apps ◆ MacOS Sonoma 14.2 ◆ iPad OS 17.2

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Looking at the font in a font editor the font design has errors...
image.png.0ec16217f5bd1e3f0ec98d29ce150cf9.png

This translates to...
image.png.89f2de37b61676296a77b271fa8a8d89.png

when a stroke with a mitre join and a mitre of 4 or more is introduced.

The bold version of this font is a lot worse to the point of it not being the same font.

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This is from the bold version on the capital 'n'
image.png.6fd95eb2273749eb79150233aedf1619.png

It's certainly not comparable with the regular capital 'n' 

iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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If you are having issues making the font bolder using a stroke, try doing as I have mentioned above and select the text layer and use Geometry Add then use the contour tool to expand the font and then bake that expansion, you will need to edit some of the nodes but that's par for course on poorly designed fonts. 

iMac 27" 2019 Sequoia 15.0 (24A335), iMac 27" Affinity Designer, Photo & Publisher V1 & V2, Adobe, Inkscape, Vectorstyler, Blender, C4D, Sketchup + more... XP-Pen Artist-22E, - iPad Pro 12.9  
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