Convert transparent text into fillable outlines on ipad

[WavesInPhaze]

Hey guys,

I’m creating a sign for work and i picked this awesome font to use. However, the font’s fill is transparent. I can only change the color of the outlines.

I tried converting it into curves, expanding it, masking it ( i think I’m not really sure how to  mask on AFD as Illustrator had it very easy). As you can see the letters are transparent. I need to be able to color them in white (or any other color really) so that i can then place them on the yellow background. 

Thank you all!

 

[Alfred]

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @WavesInPhaze.

Select the text object, go to the Edit (‘...’) menu and choose ‘Convert to Curves’ to yield a group of ‘Curves’ objects. Ungroup the group (‘Edit > Ungroup’) and then divide (‘Edit > Divide’) to split the objects into their component parts so that you can recolour them to your requirements.

[DM1]

5 hours ago, WavesInPhaze said:

masking it ( i think I’m not really sure how to  mask on AFD

Draw a coloured rectangle over the text box. Go to layers and select your rectangle. Drag that layer over the text layer until you see blue line, then let go.

 

[Alfred]

39 minutes ago, DM1 said:

Go to layers and select your rectangle. Drag that layer over the text layer until you see blue line, then let go.

That’s nesting or clipping. To mask or crop, drag the text layer over the thumbnail of the rectangle.

[WavesInPhaze]

On 4/10/2019 at 5:09 PM, Alfred said:

Welcome to the Serif Affinity Forums, @WavesInPhaze.

Select the text object, go to the Edit (‘...’) menu and choose ‘Convert to Curves’ to yield a group of ‘Curves’ objects. Ungroup the group (‘Edit > Ungroup’) and then divide (‘Edit > Divide’) to split the objects into their component parts so that you can recolour them to your requirements.

Hmm.. yeah that didn’t work. I can select the individual letters but again it only changes the stroke color, the inside of the letter is still transparent. 

[WavesInPhaze]

4 minutes ago, WavesInPhaze said:

Hmm.. yeah that didn’t work. I can select the individual letters but again it only changes the stroke color, the inside of the letter is still transparent. 

As far as masking goes ... Does the text have to be converted to curves before dragging the box over it? Because when i try what you suggest i just get the box over the text ... what am i doing wrong here

[Alfred]

38 minutes ago, WavesInPhaze said:

Hmm.. yeah that didn’t work. I can select the individual letters but again it only changes the stroke color, the inside of the letter is still transparent. 

Before choosing a colour in the Colour Studio, tap on the Fill circle so that it’s on top of the Stroke ring.

31 minutes ago, WavesInPhaze said:

As far as masking goes ... Does the text have to be converted to curves before dragging the box over it? Because when i try what you suggest i just get the box over the text ... what am i doing wrong here

Are you masking or nesting? You say you’re dragging the box over the text, but for masking you need to drag the text over the box.

[DM1]

Nesting is not working because your text Fill is set to transparent. Doesn't matter what you nest. Check your text colour settings. It may be as simple as changing the transparency to a colour making nesting unnecessary. If you want to nest an image add a colour fill to the text transparency first. The nested image will overwrite the colour fill.

[WavesInPhaze]

Yeah it’s the way the font was created, nothing i do to the color changes the fill from transparent. I tried masking the way you describe , that didn’t work either.

I have another random question. What is the deal with iPad converting AI files to .PS when downloading it from google drive? It seems to be a google drive thing since i just tried downloading the same file from Dropbox and it shows as AI on the iPad. HOWEVER, now i have an issue - when i open the ai file everything but my text has been rasterized ( i have a blur and noise effect on two of the elements) and of course i cannot edit them...WHY IS THAT? Shouldn’t AD just support everything since its an .AI format? 

Is there a certain way i need to export files from .AI so that all the functions remain and i can edit all pieces as vectors when plugging into AD?

[Dan C]

Apologies for the delayed response

On 4/18/2019 at 6:47 PM, WavesInPhaze said:

What is the deal with iPad converting AI files to .PS when downloading it from google drive? It seems to be a google drive thing since i just tried downloading the same file from Dropbox and it shows as AI on the iPad.

We've seen this happen before when using Google Drive & iOS, it appears to be a 'handshake' issue that affects filenames, unfortunately I've no other suggestion for you than to use another cloud service.

On 4/18/2019 at 6:47 PM, WavesInPhaze said:

Shouldn’t AD just support everything since its an .AI format?

Unfortunately we can't read the .AI format, as it is a proprietary format locked down by Adobe. When importing na .AI file into Affinity (on the desktop or iPad) we open an embedded PDF file, meaning we only support features compatible with our PDF importer. Without seeing your original .AI file, it's hard to be certain, but it sounds as though your objects or effects applied are not vector compatible with our PDF importer, if you could provide a copy of your file I can double check this for you.

On 4/18/2019 at 6:47 PM, WavesInPhaze said:

Is there a certain way i need to export files from .AI so that all the functions remain and i can edit all pieces as vectors when plugging into AD?

When saving to .AI you are shown compatibility options, one of which is to 'Embed a PDF stream', this option is ticked by default and needs to remain selected if you wish to open your .AI files in Affinity. You may find that you are given further control and compatibility options if you export directly to PDF from Illustrator and then import this into Affinity.

[WavesInPhaze]

Great thank you, yes i did see that when i open up a pdf file with saved vector editing capability, affinity opens it up just fine. Ok well now i know to just have my .AI files properly saved as PDF as well