Converting Text to Outlines The Right Way
May 2nd, 2008Why do so many people want their all the text in their documents converted to outlines? Don’t answer that; I’ve heard the reasons, and they all make me sad. Nevertheless, some people do want all the text converted, and they find themselves up a creek because Type > Create Outlines doesn’t always give them what they want. Specifically, paragraph rules (rule above/below) disappear. Bullets and numbering disappear. Underlines and strikethroughs disappear. All kinds of stuff disappears, and that’s not good.
Fortunately, there is a better way to convert text to outlines. We’ve mentioned it before, but it’s time to put it in a post. I first learned this from Branislav Milic, who demoed it to a jaw-dropped audience at an InDesign conference a couple of years ago.
Flatten, Don’t Convert
Here’s the whole tip in a nutshell: Don’t use Convert to Outlines at all. Instead, use InDesign’s transparency flattener to convert the text automatically for you when you export a PDF. To do this, you’ll need a custom flattener setting, which you can create by choosing Edit > Transparency Flattener Presets.
Choose High Resolution from the Transparency Flattener Presets dialog box and click New (which creates a duplicate of the currently-selected preset). I’m not going to get into the details of this dialog box here (hey, there are good books that cover that kind of thing!), but instead just tell you to turn on the Convert All Text to Outlines checkbox. Then give this a suitable name (such as “High Res Convert Outlines” and click OK, then click OK again.
Now you need to make sure your pages are going to get flattened. For each spread that contains text that you want converted to outlines, put a transparency object on it. If you want to convert every page, you can put this object on your master pages. For example, it could be an object with a Tint of .1% and an Opacity of .01% off on the margin that will never be seen. Or you could make a one-pixel large Photoshop file with a transparent background and place it on your pages.
When you export your PDF file, make sure you have Compatibility set to Acrobat 4, which lets you implement the flattener. You could also export each page as an EPS file if you were so inclined, which also requires flattening. Select your custom flattener setting in the Advanced pane of the Export PDF dialog box or the Export EPS dialog box. Click OK.
That’s it! All the text in the document (well, at least on each spread that has a transparent object) gets converted to outlines… and you don’t lose your rules, underlines, bullets, and so on.
Working in Telephone Directory advertising, when this tip was first mentioned I jumped for joy because at last I convinced those at my company to switch from using Quark to InDesign for part of the overall workflow and to stop having to manually export EPS files, outline everything in Illustrator then make the PDF!
It also convinced a lot of hardcore Quark users of the true potential of the beloved InDesign.
I managed to build a whole new workflow system based on this alone which has been a true godsend of the highest order.
Top, top tip
You can get the result in Acrobat as well.
Just add a space-text-watermark on every page and set the Opacity at any value other than 100%.
Then, “Flattener Preview” the PDF files under the menu “Advanced > Print Production”. Set the “Raster/Vector Balance” up to 100 and apply the settings to every page.
Hi
Have the Compatibility set to Acrobat 4? Or to 4 and/or greater? In other words: do the hole thing work with newer Acrobat versions too?
Martin
If you’re making a PDF with the fonts embedded, why would you need to convert to outlines anyway?
Phil, I totally agree with you. I would avoid converting to outlines if at all possible. Follow the link at the beginning of the article to see the arguments for and against converting.
Did not outline the fonts for me. You HAVE to output using compatibility as Acrobat 4 or the Flattener settings in advanced are grayed out.
I opened the PDF in illustrator and I can select the text.
Jimbozi, yes you are correct. In paragraph 6 of the post, I mention that flattening only kicks in with acrobat 4 or eps. One other instance that I should have mentioned: You can use the Print dialog box to print to a PDF printer (as long as you have acrobat installed), which flattens, writes postscript to disk, and then uses Distiller to convert to PDF. The Print dialog box also offers a Flattener Preset pop-up menu.
If you have to ask… why would anyone ever… ???, you shouldn’t be here. If you just file this away in your in-the-head toolbox, there might be a day in the future when you actually need this. Otherwise… if you have to ask how much? you can’t afford it….
Martin, the reason behind setting acrobat 4 compatiblity is that Acrobat 5 and higher compatibility retains the transparencies in the PDF format.
Thanks, David — interesting post! Here is an animated screengrab of outlined vs. non-outlined text as displayed at exactly the same size in Acrobat:
www.klausnordby.com/repository/outlined-vs-hinted-text.gif
We can here clearly see how the font hinting technology helps the graphics engine buried in Acrobat/InDesign/Illu/Etc. *enormously* in displaying the type optimally onscreen — and how crude it looks, when all the font hints are killed via the flattening-outline conversion David describes.
And here it’s at a pixel-identical 2x magnification, which better shows the hinting & anti-aliasing tricks:
www.klausnordby.com/repository/outlined-vs-hinted-text-x2.gif
Wow, Klaus, that is some difference. Even the counter on the d suffers, very good animation, well displayed.
Interesting, Klaus. Seems like another good reason not to convert to outlines.
Yup. And I’ve known this since forever, but in my infinite goodness I decided to update . . . even you.
But some RIPs make flattened text stronger then right text
Outlining font is necessary when
- the font is corrupted (but InDesign still can handle it but not the RIP)
- and when the font is a protected TrueType.
Also, be careful that if you print on a digital press, the text will appear stronger because the resolution of these machines is somewhere around 600 ppi.
So, if you need to print correctly but can’t change the font :
- send the font along with the PDF to the printer
- ask the printer, even if it is an offset printer with plates, that he increases the resolution of the plates to at least 2400 ppi. and it will output OK.
I know you said “don’t answer that”, but I feel I must since there is a hostile vibe about those who ‘dare convert fonts to outlines’.
My specific problem is:
1) a print vendor who in the past has modified my art (I prefer if they let me make any needed changes), and
2) no power to change the vendor choice.
3) I also have experienced some PC to Mac font issues with PDF’s
I do really appreciate the great tip on flattening and will use that in the future. So no more converting to outlines - only trans flattening.
Adam, you can always add security to your PDF so the vendor can only output the PDF but they can’t make any changes to the PDF at all.
Eugene - good suggestion. thx.
Thanks for the explanation, Adam. I certainly don’t mean to sound hostile to the practice. It’s more that I’m peeved with the printers who insist on this, without good reason.
But there are plenty of things to be angry at (some) output providers for. For example, last week, I met a very knowledgeable guy from a small town in Canada who told me that his local printer takes all output from InDesign, turns it to EPS, places it in Corel (draw, I assume?), and prints from there. It’s no good switching to the other printer in his town, because they do the same thing!
I was in such shock at the news, I couldn’t even think of a good retort other than muttering under my breath, “may those printers be struck down by lightning and be put out of our misery.”
thanx for the tip ….
i tried this on David Blatner’s training fille “javaco Magazine” but the problem i face is some of the text is online and remaining don’t. same thing happen to my other files. Why is that ? and once exported the file how can i make sure that my all text is outlined?
aawargi: Only text on spreads that have some transparency will get converted. Look at the Pages panel and make sure each page you want converted has a checkerboard icon (in it in CS2, and next to it in CS3).