Try turning on Legacy support under Preferences > Advanced Type. The new Harfbuzz text engine in CC2024 and up is probably having a problem with the font. Since it looks like Mukta is an open-source font, it may have a flaw they haven't fixed yet, epsecially if other fonts work correctly   ... View more

Check which version you have. If you have 2025.001.20432, check for Help > Updates. It was quickly replaced with current version 20438 and should solve the issue. ... View more

"What really surprised me was that guides are even connected to anchor points at all. "   They are actual paths in the code for the file, so they require anchor points as they still have to be "drawn" between them. As you have the option in Illustrator to make and release guidelines at will, also with the ability to make any drawn object into a guideline, and vice versa, they need to be defines as paths.   What can help is to marquee-select all your artwork and temporarily lock it, then Select All, and then Delete to get rid of these outliers. Then Unlock your artwork again. (You can do this in reverse too, by Selecting All, then DE-selecting your artwork objects, then Delete.)   What would be nice if they had a routine that would warn you that you are deleting a guideline and "Do you want to delete the entire guideline" kinda thing.       ... View more

To further expand on @Monika Gause's answer... This is a limitation of the SVG format. It's a very crude format. When you save an SVG you have the option to set a precsiion level (Decimal Places). As SVG code draws paths relatively, the chance that the last point of your path falls exactly where the first point started (like in your "e") depends very much on the precision selected when you save. If you save with a precision level of 1, it will round the "move" numbers to the nearest 1 decimal space. e.g: "start drawing a path at this location x=24.2 y=56.6; then move 2.1 points up and 3.6 points left and connect these two locations with a curve; then move 12.4 points down and 9.8 points left and connect with a curve, and so on, and after the final move, close the path." Consequently, this results in a cumulative "error" in positioning  which will cause your end position to be not exactly where it started, and will close the path by joining the starting point to the end point with a short straight line. This is what you are seeing with your letter "e". ... plus, the smaller the objects, the more you will see this cumulative error. However, a higher precision number, like 4, will draw the paths with a precision of 4 decimal places, which will start at a more accurate location, then move to the next position more accurately, and so on, so the chance the end position ends up at the same spot as the starting position is pretty good. It won't be perfect either, but the short straight line that will connect the starting and end points will be infinitesimally small and you won't see it. e.g: "start drawing a path at this location x=24.2478 y 56.6876; then move 2.1345 points up and 3.668 points left and connect these two locations with a curve; then move 12.4637 points down and 9.7458 points left and connect with a curve, and so on, and after the final move, close the path." Why is there the option to set Decimal Places at all?? ... mostly because SVG is text-based code, and a 1=decimal precision takes less code space than a 4-decimal precision. making the final file smaller.   Contrarily, Postscript drawing code is not relative, it's absolute, and with even higher accuracy (perhaps 6 decimal places or more) but even with that, it draws a path like this: "start drawing a path at this exact location x=24.2478 y 56.6876; move to a second exact location with xy coordinates and connect with a curve between them; move a new exact location and connect with a curve, and so on" until the final one is "move to the exact same starting position x=24.2478 y 56.6876 and close the path". Since the starting point and end point are identical, there's no need to add tiny straight line connecting them.   Also: never use SVG as working format. I don't think you are, but just mentioning it.      ... View more

This is most common when you are trying to create a gradient between two CMYK colors, two spot colors, or between a  spot color and a CMYK color; you will always get a "dip" in the centre, because remember, at the halfway point it's a mix of half of what your end colors are. Say your Purple is 60C 100M 0Y 0K  and your Black is 0C 0M 0Y 100K. A gradient between these two would have 30C 50M 0Y 50K at the halfway mark, which looks greyish. As suggested by Ton, you could use a rich black if you are working in CMYK. In my example, you can see how adding the purple mix to the Black  end retains a rich center as there's no longer a "dip" in the purple. THis can be problematic in a CMYK workflow as you don't want to get too much more than 300% or so ink coverage at the Black end, Fortunately 60+100+0+100 comes to 260% so you'd be fine.   However, in RGB, the "dip" doesn't happen, because you are working with light and not ink.         ... View more