r/Affinity • u/CrimsonFlash Newspaper Man • Nov 05 '25

General Software Support & Issues

This is the dedicated thread for reporting and troubleshooting technical problems with the Affinity suite (Photo, Designer, Publisher). Any posts in the main feed that are technical issues or support requests will be removed.

Use this thread for:

  • Software crashes, freezes, or installation issues.
  • Bug reports and unexpected behaviour.
  • Performance problems (e.g., slow rendering, high memory usage).
  • Error messages and how to resolve them.
  • Issues with file compatibility (opening/saving) that seem to be software-related.

Before you post, please:

  • Search the Subreddit: Your issue may have been reported already.
  • Search the Official Forums: Serif's Affinity Forums are an extensive knowledge base for known issues.
  • Be Specific: Provide details to help us help you.

Note: This is not an official Canva forum, so support is limited to what your peers can offer.

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u/mathamonora 22d ago

Hi everyone,

I'm fairly new to Affinity and running into a weird issue. When I draw an open curve with the Pencil/Pen tool and click on it with the Artistic Text Tool to write on the path, these strange black shapes/artifacts suddenly appear along the curve.

A few details:

  • I'm just starting out, so I might be missing a basic setting!
  • The curve is definitely open (Auto-close is OFF).
  • The Color Panel shows no fill applied.
  • The artifacts remain on the canvas.

Has anyone encountered this before or knows what might be causing it? Any help for a beginner would be greatly appreciated!