Affinity designer 2.5.5 - MacOS 14.6.1 - M1Max - Expand stroke creates sharp points on curves

[janpersiel]

As reported for Windows months ago this seems to be a major problem for macOS in the current version as well.

The demo file is attached as an affinity designer document.

How to recreate the issue

1. Set some text with round shapes.
2. convert text to curves
3. (optionally) merge letters into a single object
4. Add a thick stroke see screenshot (easier to spot when thick) on the outside
5. Menu › Layer › Expand stroke

Results:

• Erratic points get added on the lines touching the original type
• On the outside curves loose the smooth lines (smooth points with bezier handles) but get sharp points with no handles to form curves

Having finally moved away from Illustrator this is such a manual work causing issue that I am close to moving back to it as it is not feasible to use the software for many tasks I have to deal with on a daily basis. For windows this bug seems to be reported since July (that's a whopping 4 months for a core vector function).

Screenshot with text converted to curves and stroke added:

Screenshot with stroke expanded:

When the W glyph gets opened in Glyphs it shows what we start with when setting the text:

251119-bugdemo-ad255.afdesign

[sansnom]

Hi @janpersiel, enlarge your text and apply the vectorization of its outline, you will have a much better result.

Otherwise, by looking at your file, we can estimate that:
• the founder of this font has not optimized its paths, the number of points to create the curves attests it as well as several points for a simple portion of line,
• or that the font is of PC source (TTF) which once vectorized does not always offer the most optimized paths,
• or finally that the origin of this font does not come from a demanding founder.

[janpersiel]

4 minutes ago, sansnom said:

Hi @janpersiel, enlarge your text and apply the vectorization of its outline, you will have a much better result.

Otherwise, by looking at your file, we can estimate that:
• the founder of this font has not optimized its paths, the number of points to create the curves attests it as well as several points for a simple portion of line,
• or that the font is of PC source (TTF) which once vectorized does not always offer the most optimized paths,
• or finally that the origin of this font does not come from a demanding founder.

Thanks a lot @sansnom for the recommendations 🫶.

I have placed the curves in the file intentionally at that size to emphasise the issue / effect. In v1 the paths are buttery smooth for exactly the same font / design / curves. In order to circumvent the problems I have converted some things in v1 and lifted them back to v2.x.

Even with outstanding and optimised fonts this issue occurs. This one just offered many slopes and radii.

However I guess this should work as it did back in v1.

[sansnom]

To complete my point, I entered the same text as you with a very similar font (Cooper Black Standard .OTF) and here is the result in terms of the number of points constituting the outlines of the letters...

 

The architecture and number of points influence the quality of vectorization of an outline.

 

[janpersiel]

24 minutes ago, sansnom said:

To complete my point, I entered the same text as you with a very similar font (Cooper Black Standard .OTF) and here is the result in terms of the number of points constituting the outlines of the letters...

Got it! That explains the super crazy points for sure. However, when I use Cooper Black I get the same problems when expanding strokes (which was my main concern / the primary bug report aspect). In comparison the v1 of the same vectors in purple and red is smooth, v2 results in black and orange are sharp. Let's ignore the glitches on the left for now.

[MEB]

Hi @janpersiel,
Welcome to Affinity Forums
Thank you for your report and file.
We are aware of the issues with the Expand Stroke function. Changes to the code from V1 to V2 have unfortunately negatively impacted this functionality. I have updated and bumped the existing report to bring it to the developers' attention once again.

[janpersiel]

Thanks a lot @MEB. Looking forward to see this improved soon 🤞. --> Fewer grey hairs 😉

[sansnom]

Hi @MEB, thanks for the information. Not cool to apply code updates that cause new malfunctions...

Otherwise, am I wrong in saying that the Expand Stroke function is close to a vector simplification-rasterization function of an outline (as found in the competition with red tiles)? ... And if so, will we one day have this new vector simplification function? ...

[Maciek Blaźniak]

Hi, does anyone know a workaround for this bug? It's driving me crazy.

[janpersiel]

1 hour ago, Maciek Blaźniak said:

Hi, does anyone know a workaround for this bug? It's driving me crazy.

In case you have v1 it is a copy in v2, paste in v1, expand, copy, back to v2, paste. That was my way of doing it so far. absolutely inconvenient but a way to get better curves.

[xyko]

I have a workaround/fix for this issue! This has been frustrating me for a while. I finally spent some time experimenting with stroke settings. I have found if you add a single point in the pressure box. There is no need to actually make a pressure adjustment, simply add one reference point. You should have little to no artifacts.

I have included an image, Atrifacts.png, showing the difference.

Right side shows normal behaviour of a stroke expansion. Significant artifacting is present and previously smooth arcs are made of straight lines now.

Left side shows the same stroke expansion with a single extra dot in the pressure box (image attached for reference, Pressure Box.png).

[loukash]

10 hours ago, xyko said:

simply add one reference point. You should have little to no artifacts.

Brilliant!

[janpersiel]

28 minutes ago, loukash said:

Brilliant!

@xyko I can only add a plus 1 to that. Awesome find / fix / solution. Thanks a lot for sharing this 🫶

[lepr]

@xyko Very helpful, but there is something to be aware of when using the extra pressure point workaround. If the stroke has inside or outside alignment, the expansion offset will be only half as great as it should be. As often happens in Affinity, we have a workaround afflicted with yet another bug which requires a further workaround (doubling the stroke width before expansion, in this case).

[janpersiel]

31 minutes ago, lepr said:

@xyko Very helpful, but there is something to be aware of when using the extra pressure point workaround. If the stroke has inside or outside alignment, the expansion offset will be only half as great as it should be. As often happens in Affinity, we have a workaround afflicted with yet another bug which requires a further workaround (doubling the stroke width before expansion, in this case).

Let's hope the actual problem gets fixed. Until then I am very thankful for the help and your words of warning as well as I am sure I would have run into this next. 🫶 @lepr

[ronnyb]

14 hours ago, janpersiel said:

Let's hope the actual problem gets fixed. Until then I am very thankful for the help and your words of warning as well as I am sure I would have run into this next. 🫶 @lepr

Hopefully it won’t be another 7 years until they fix a fundamental bug…. Affinity have a backlog of bugs not even the great wall of China can hold back, and they’re only snowballing. 

Sorry about being cynical but being on the forums for almost a decade and seeing the bug list continue to grow is frustrating and disheartening…

[janpersiel]

@ronnyb I feel your pain. I have experienced similar things in the past. Despite the acquisition by canva I hope this software will develop further, maybe faster. However the past hast shown that companies being taken over do not necessarily get faster/better. Fingers crossed.

[Dazmondo77]

On 11/30/2024 at 11:48 PM, xyko said:

have a workaround/fix for this issue!

Brilliant stuff