Font stroke with gaps in it, when aligned to outside and exporting as PDF

[Keith Dudhnath]

Hi,

I'm using:

Windows 10

Affinity Designer v2.5.2 (and also tried in the latest beta version).

I have some text, using the GoodGirl font. Within the .afdesign file (simplified version attached), the stroke displays correctly.

When I export as a PDF, with 'text as curves', and also separately embedding the font, there are gaps in the stroke - most noticeable on U, E, F, T and W in the attached documents.

I have also tried Layer > Expand Stroke before exporting, but not had any luck.

This doesn't happen if the stroke is aligned to the centre or to the inside, but that isn't the effect I'm after.

Has anyone got any suggestions for what I might be doing wrong, or is this a bug for fixing? Thanks very much.

Font test - embedded fonts.pdf Font test after 'expand stroke'.pdf Font test.afdesign Font test.pdf

[kenmcd]

We have seen artifacts like this before when strokes are applied to fonts with outlines which have very close nodes, or are just messy.

So I cleaned-up the font character outlines with a simplify command, and deleted some short segments, etc., etc.
And this is the result below - which looks pretty good except for the small vertical line artifact in the E.

Turns out that artifact in the E is a short segment I missed.
So I fixed that short segment in the E and re-exported the font.
And now I have this:

Dunno WTF happened there.
But I gotta go at the moment.

I probably will be able to come back to this later today.
So this is an issue in the font that Affinity cannot handle.
But it is probably fixable in the font.

[kenmcd]

OK, seems to be working now.
This font is an antique - looks like it was converted 1999.
And is kind of a mess inside.
Thoroughly cleaned the outlines.
Deleted short segments, collinear lines, zero-lenght handles, etc.
Optimized the curves (but tried not to have big visible changes).
Converted it to OpenType-PS to avoid potential PS-to-TT issues.

So give this a try: GoodGirlAFOTF-Regular.zip
Renamed - so you can install it at the same time as the original font.

This seems to have gotten rid of all the artifacts.

 

[Keith Dudhnath]

Oh wow. That's amazing. Thanks so much, Ken. Above and beyond with helpfulness. You're a star!