Thanks, Wildgoose, I'll try out your version. I can remove the stroke from my original file - I didn't notice if I left the stroke on or not.
As an aside, I know lots of people who use Flexi, but create all their graphics in Illustrator. Xara Designer Pro 9 (the latest version of the software I use) is a ton easier to use, faster, and very little memory hogging than Illustrator, plus I use it for other things than just sign work - I much prefer it to Illustrator, and I am experienced using Illustrator. When not doing signs or other normal graphics work, I am a fantasy cartographer, that is I create maps for RPG game publishers. If you're at all interested in this sideline of mine, you can visit my G+ community to see what I do...