Contour Tool Maxes Out CPU

[StargateCOlorado]

I have recently started using the Contour tool to have a black outline behind white text characters.  As soon as I set the radius to a non-zero value, Designer maxes out all 4 cores on my laptop.  It stays maxed out for 15-20 seconds and then gradually goes back to normal.  At first, I thought it was just processing the command but then when I do anything else, the cores go to 100%, no matter what I'm doing. 

I also take the text with contour background and copy them into Photo to add them to a graphic I'm constructing.  The same behavior occurred in Photo as well.  Even if I exit Photo & Designer and restart them, the minute I start the program again and load the file, I get the same behavior: no matter what function I try to use, the cores go to 100%.  I then rasterized the text and the issue goes away.

Obviously, there is something associated with Contour that is causing the CPUs to max out, but I have no clue what it is.

Is anybody else seeing this behavior?

--Ernie 

[GarryP]

Would you be able to share the document you are having the problem with so we can see if we encounter the same problem?

If you can do so, please also tell us which layer you are adding the contour to.

If you can’t share the whole document, can you make a copy of the document which contains only the ‘problem layer’ and share that (if that cut-down document also exhibits the same problem)?

[walt.farrell]

Also, can you give us some information about your OS and machine? And what release of the Affinity applications are you using?

[Pšenda]

On 6/1/2024 at 1:16 AM, StargateCOlorado said:

I have recently started using the Contour tool to have a black outline behind white text characters.

If it's only about font contours, you can try using the Stroke or Outline settings in Fx.

[StargateCOlorado]

Attached is a test file.  It contains some text and a rectangle.  If you play with the rectangle or the "Test" text, you should see the display refresh get sluggish.  I discovered the font type affects how sluggish the machine becomes.  The font I have attached is not the one I'm using (Alice in Wonderland) for my production graphic.  I figured I should use one that everybody probably has.  I also have copies the text and text-with-contour layers into Affinity Photo and get the same result.  Also, if I delete the text-with-contour layer, everything runs smoothly.  The mere existence of the text with a contour applied causes everything else to run slowly.

Particulars: I'm running Windows 11 Pro 23H2 with the latest updates and Affinity Designer & Photo 2.5.0.  My laptop is an HP with an Intel i7-8550U, 4 cores and 12GB of RAM.

I hope that helps.

--Ernie

Countour Test.afdesign

[GarryP]

Thanks for the document.

I think the problem may come about because the text on the right has got a Contour added to the black duplicate behind the white text.

Adding a Contour to text, with all of the curves needing to be re-calculated, may be causing a slow-down. (It probably shouldn’t if you aren’t modifying that text at the time but it seems to be.)

If you want to add an outline to Artistic Text then you can either set that via the Colour/Swatches/Stroke Panels, or Context Toolbar) or via the Character Panel.

Note: I don’t have the Amazone BT font, and I’m using 2.4.2, so my testing isn’t one-for-one with your testing.

[DWright]

I have logged this issue with our developers as I have been able to replicated this on my PC using different fonts.

[Alfred]

4 hours ago, StargateCOlorado said:

The font I have attached is not the one I'm using (Alice in Wonderland) for my production graphic.  I figured I should use one that everybody probably has.

 

48 minutes ago, GarryP said:

I don’t have the Amazone BT font

I can’t check right now, but I suspect that Amazone BT is available as a cloud font within Microsoft Office. Not everyone uses MS Office.

I see that while I was typing the above, @DWright posted to say that he was able to replicate the issue with other fonts.

[StargateCOlorado]

All,

I'm sorry I used a font you guys don't have; I don't remembering installing that font -- I thought it came standard with the OS.  But I'm glad some were able to reproduce the problem.

As for my using Contour, I got there by doing a Google search for how to outline text; I found an article that said use Contour.  It may have been an outdated article -- always a possibility when using doing searches.

Psenda, Thanks for pointing me to the FX panel!  That works great and has no slowdown effects.  I learned another feature that exists in this fantastic software!

--Ernie

[Ron P.]

22 hours ago, Alfred said:

I can’t check right now, but I suspect that Amazone BT is available as a cloud font within Microsoft Office. Not everyone uses MS Office.

After reading that, I checked and I do have that font. However I do not use a cloud service, and do not have Microsoft Office installed. I don't know where it came from, as I've never installed it. I use Libre Office, not sure if it came with it.

 

Edited:

Done some digging, that font comes with Coreldraw.

[GarryP]

6 hours ago, StargateCOlorado said:

Thanks for pointing me to the FX panel!

It’s worth noting that creating the outline with an Effect will cause the text to be rasterised upon export.

You can give the text an outline via the Stroke functionality, as mentioned above, to keep the text as vectors, see attached video.

[StargateCOlorado]

Garry,

Apparently, Stroke is not available in Photo, which is where I do most of my work.  So I guess I'll be using FX Outline, which is OK because the only exporting I do is when I create a PNG of the final graphic.

Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions.

--Ernie

[lepr]

32 minutes ago, StargateCOlorado said:

Apparently, Stroke is not available in Photo

Stroke controls become available in the context toolbar when a vector tool is active, such as Node Tool, Pen Tool or a vector shape tool. The stroke controls are applicable to a text object.