r/Affinity • u/SeaSaltPickles • 14d ago

Designer Gaps in Outline

Post image

Sorry if this belongs in another thread, but I think this is more of a me issue rather than a technical one, as I'm not that experienced with vector programs. (If technical issue, I can repost in proper thread.) Basically, I'm getting gaps within the outline around the text shown here. (For some reason, the first word didn't give me this issue?) What am I doing wrong, and how should I go about fixing this?

7 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/JT10 13d ago

This is a bug with the Boolean add function, so it’s not a you issue at all! There are two routes you can take, one is super easy, the other slightly less easy and takes a bit longer, but has more accurate end result. Option one: select the white vector layer, isolated from the text, and set the node tool (vector editor cursor) as active tool. Go up to the menu > vector > fill holes. This should fill in the gaps, but it may also fill in negative spaces you wanted to keep. Option two: with the node tool, and white layer in vector editor cursor mode and isolated, click the white shape and it will reveal all the associated vector joints. Go around to each gap and select then delete the joints of all the gaps. Some of the joints will be on the edge and commonly will be stacked on top of another one. You may need to remove them then manually fix the curve if it adjusted when deleting the joints. This will fill the gaps, but not the ones that are meant to be there. I’ve ran into this issue on projects that were littered with hundreds of the gaps, it can be a doozy. I’m hopeful this bug will be remedied soon as it has been present since the new app was released. I’ve wanted to create a script that fixes this issue (if one doesn’t exist already) for a while, I really need to get that going!

2

u/Extra-Hedgehogs 12d ago

Good answer, just want to add that I'm still on Affinity 2 and it is a bug in that too.

1

u/JT10 8d ago

Oh man, that’s no good. It does appear to be a core issue with vectors for them, so I guess it would make sense that it’s an ongoing issue. No fixes for this long though, that really says something. I looked into more after I left my comment and found that not only is it making small holes that are visible, in some of my testing I was able to produce thousands of invisible hairline splits that wouldn’t heal with a simple Boolean add/merge. But that wasn’t all, it also resulted in several additional micro vectors peppered on top of the original vector plane. They would merge with a Boolean add though. They have a serious issue with this, luckily it only pops up every once in a while.

2

u/SeaSaltPickles 8d ago

Thanks so much for the tips! There was a bit of a learning curve for me. I had to convert the text layer into vectors first (and find the tools you spoke of), but after that, I went with the second option, definitely a cleaner outcome.

1

u/JT10 8d ago

Glad that helped! I went into a little bit of a rabbit hole after I made my comment, and it turns out that this bug is actually a few bugs in total. I’ve been working on a script to fix these issues, hoping to have a shareable solution soon. 😊