All selection boxes disappear after applying gradient (entire suite)

[AstroBoi]

Big problem, surely a bug?: Any gradient on any object will render all selection boxes invisible in the entire Affinity suite. It happens 100% of the time, on all files. I can select objects, but there are no visual cues in the Document View window.

I've had the problem since I bought Affinity in December last year. It took me a long time to figure out what was happening. I haven't found any solution on Google or in existing forum posts, so I decided to write my first post here. I hope someone can help. Please read my explanation and watch my screen recording.

* Recipe: Just add a color gradient to any object, e.g. text or a picture frame. After that, no selection boxes will appear when selecting one or more objects.

I can still select objects with my mouse or using the Layers panel (Right Studio). I can see in the Layers panel that one or more objects are selected. And if I use, e.g., the move tool, I can easily move them. But there are no selection/bounding boxes around the selected object(s). This obviously makes it difficult, confusing and frustrating to edit files with many objects and layers.

Please note that removing the gradient will make the selection boxes reappear!

In short: Any gradient on any object will render all selection boxes invisible in Publisher, Photo and Designer (in both 2.4.2 – the newest version – and 2.3, which I installed back in December).

* Screen recording (50 sec) using a new demo file:
The demo file has two text frames and one picture frame, all having solid fill color. When I click on and select one or several of them, a selection box appears. So far, so good. As you can see, if I then change the color of one of the objects (the blue text) to a gradient, the selection boxes disappear. As you can see, I can select any of the three objects, but there is no box or outline around any of them.

In the last step in the video, I remove the gradient on the blue text and select a solid color instead. Since there are no gradients in the document anymore, the selection boxes are again visible.

1. What Application are you using?
Affinity Publisher, Photo and Designer

2. Are you using the latest release version?
Yes, 2.4.2 (also happened in 2.3).

3. Can you reproduce it?
Yes, 100% of the time on all files using any of the three Affinity programs.

4. Does it happen for a new document?
Yes (see demo file and screen recording).

Machine, operating system and extras:

• macOS Monterey (12.7.3) on a 5K iMac (Intel) with 16GB of RAM and plenty of internal storage.
• No additional hardware, just standard keyboard and mouse.
• No font managers or display managers.

Hardware acceleration?
I tried both ON and OFF. The problem persisted.

Note: My iMac is working well and I don't have any issues with other programs. I did a fresh install of macOS Monterey in December, just before I bought Affinity. I have very few third-party programs installed: just Affinity plus Firefox, FileZilla and Stellarium (planetarium).

Irrelevant background info:
I've been following Affinity and cheering for them since 2018. I finally bought the V2 Universal License in December 2023, and I have spent the last few months testing the software and watching a lot of YouTube videos. I've previously used Adobe's software for editing photos, making illustrations, and designing books, but I decided to switch to Affinity. I like many things about Affinity! Sadly, I can't use Publisher for designing books (the text justification is absurdly poor, even with the Norwegian hyphenation dictionary correctly installed and activated). But I really want to make it work for my upcoming wall calendar as well as posters and other "simple" projects.

If Affinity is able to show which objects and layers are selected also when using gradients, Photo and Designer will become very useful to me as well. I like both the features and the performance of Affinity.

test.afpub

[lepr]

16 hours ago, AstroBoi said:

If Affinity is able to show which objects and layers are selected also when using gradients [...]

Welcome to the Affinity forums

I see the bug you have pointed out.

Until it is fixed, a workaround is scroll or zoom the view slightly to restore the display of bounding boxes, etc.

[AstroBoi]

Thank you, lepr, for confirming that this is a bug.

And a big thank you for mentioning the workaround! It's incredible that I haven't discovered this myself during all my testing. The workaround means I can start using the entire suite for most of my editing and design needs.

Is there any way we can make Affinity aware of this bug?

[MEB]

Hi @AstroBoi,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I'm logging this to be looked at. Thanks for reporting it.

[AstroBoi]

On 4/29/2024 at 11:19 AM, MEB said:

Hi @AstroBoi,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
I'm logging this to be looked at. Thanks for reporting it.

Any updates regarding this bug?

[walt.farrell]

2 hours ago, AstroBoi said:

Any updates regarding this bug?

When it is fixed you'll see an update from the Affinity Info Bot here saying it was fixed, and in what release.

Until then, the Affinity Developers generally do not provide any progress reports or timeframes for a fix, and the QA or Support members of the staff can't provide any, either.

[MEB]

Hello @AstroBoi,
No, there wasn't progress here, sorry. The issue is still present in v2.5.3. I've bumped/updated the bug report to reflect this and nring the issue up to devs attention again.
Thanks for your feedback.