Converting Text to Outlines The Right Way
Why 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:
http://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:
http://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).
Doesn’t the PDF/X 2001 do the same thing? It ’says’ it’s flattening as it prints to the file. Would this include the fonts as well?
I’ve had good experience with PDF/X2001. Most problems were my fault {the curse of an art director also being retoucher, color separator, etc.}.
With CS3 I’ve noticed there’s a PDF/X 2007. Is this accepted by printers?
Steve, PDF/X1-a is based on Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3), so: Yes, it does force flattening.
PDF/X-4 (2007) is based on Acrobat 5, which understands transparency, so it doesn’t flatten the document.
David, If it doesn’t flatten, does the printer’s RIP deal correctly with transparency with PDF/x 2007? Is 2007 a safe alternative to 2001?
Steve, most RIPs cannot handle transparency (you can find more information on this issue here). You should only send PDF/X-4(2007) to a printer if they have a PDF Print Engine RIP; you’ll need to confirm that with the printer.
There used to an issue at least in CS2 where you gat a font conflict when placing different PDF’s (with subsetted fonts) in an InDesign doc, and then turning that doc to a PDF (a typical workflow when you’re making a page with different ads).
Sometimes fonts would get mixed up when a similar font (e.g. a Garamond from different vendors) was used in different PDF’s and/or in the body of the InDesign document. InDesign is supposed to create a single instance in the PDF structure for each individual font, but when combining PDF’s within a PDF that went wrong, and instead of creating two fontsubsets within the PDF (one for each version of the ’same’ font, only one was created).
Has anyone experienced this behaviour in CS3, or can anyone confirm that this is no longer an issue? (I haven’t been hands-on with similar workflows lately…)
If that issue still stands, it would be a reason to want to go down outline-lane!
James, that’s interesting. I have not seen that problem. However, it seems like not subsetting the fonts (and instead including the whole font) would be a better solution.
As already stated above there are good reasons converting text to outlines during PDF export, e.g. TrueType fonts. But there are also good reasons not to (in case you don’t use TrueType fonts that cannot embedded with the PDF):
1. Flattening means that you have to use a specific color space, in most cases for us print guys this would be CMYK. But imagine what would will happen to RGB vector information inside placed EPS files: it will be transformed during the flattening process to CMYK. And you will never catch those problematic colors when practising a PDF preflight OR performing a preflight with InDesign.
2. InDesign CS2 4.0.5 cannot convert font information inside placed EPS or PDF files during flattening unless you put an extra transparent object (be it a transparent pixel from PhotoShop or another transparent object from InDesign) directly above those graphics. Preview for outlined text objects does NOT catch this! At least in InDesign CS2 4.0.5 on my Mac under OS X 10.4.11.
For safety reasons issue 1 weights more for me and I would always prefer converting text to outlines in Acrobat.
Uwe: Just to be clear, regular TrueType fonts are okay in PDF files; they do not need to be converted.
I agree with you that flattening should be avoided as long as possible.
I googled my problem and your article was the first hit. THANK YOU!!! You saved me a few hours and a lot of headaches!
Thanks for posting, helping me go in the right direction. Still having a couple issues – text that was already transparent to begin with now has an actual weird white outline, so that isn’t working… and a few other glitches here and there. But my issue is that my font has restrictions in it and I can’t seem to find how to get rid of them (and it was a free font online, no pirating – GF Halda Smashed). It wouldn’t allow IDesign to export to PDF so this got around the permissions problem… but not perfect. Thanks though.
Seriously, actually, the main problem I have here is that my already transparent text now gets a thin white outline when I flatten it as per instructions above. On text that is not transparent you cannot see the line, so it’s doesn’t matter. Any advice?
@Isabelle, whenever things get flattened, there’s a chance that you’ll see things like thin white lines when you view on screen. In general, they don’t print. See this post for more information. The rule is: If you zoom in and the white lines don’t get thicker, then they’re almost certainly just screen artifacts.
Is anyone else having trouble with this in CS3? I believe I’ve followed the instructions exactly yet when I pdf the my document (using the transparency preset with a transparent item on each page) I’m still winding up with unconverted fonts in my PDF files. Has Adobe ‘fixed’ this to prevent such conversions or am I over-looking something?
Never mind, I discovered the problem. It appears the transparent object MUST overlap the PDF image at some point & can’t just being off in some corner of the page not touching anything else. If there is no overlap there is no conversion to font outlines.
At least, that’s what I just experienced…
David!!! You are my savor! I was having problem with the fonts since I am using Vietnamese fonts. Then my deadline came to submit to the printer (which they do not have my embedded fonts).
After googling for solutions, I got stressed out since I do not understand exactly what acrobat distiller is for and i do not wish to buy any more softwares. Then I came across your post. I have no idea what those mean, but I followed your instructions, and THEY WORKED! I was able to export my file to PDF and print out sample pages to see if they’re ok. They are OK!!
THANKS SO MUCH!
minh
Can you go back to editable text if you converted a CS3 document’s text to outlines and then forgot to save as a different version??
@Peter: Um…. no. Sorry! Once it’s an outline, InDesign has no idea what it was.
(Actually, as long as you don’t close the document, you can… use File > Save a Copy to save the current version, then press Cmd-Z to undo as many times as you need to, past the Save and past the convert to outlines. Then Save or Save As. But once you close the document, the Undo states are lost. Using dtptools.com’s History plug-in can save earlier states even after a close… but that’s a different story.)
Hey David,
I’m that “guy from a small town in Canada” who wrestles with the Corel Draw print shops. Ironically, I came to this page because my printer is now asking me to convert all the fonts in 8 PDF X-1a’s with a combined page count of over 300 pages to “curves” (Aha, see the dead giveaway? “Curves” he said, not “outlines”!)
So although I’d really like to just show him how the problem is likely with the cheapo fonts that he has loaded on his production machine, I instead came here looking for an easy way to get this print job back in his hands, rather than going page by page through each document and selecting all and Shift-Cmd-O’ing my way through. (Never mind that this same print shop printed last year’s edition of this same piece — same fonts, same PDF output settings, etc.)
Thanks for the tip and saving my evening. I shoulda come here first… oh, and if you want more stories about print shops, I’ve enough to fill a blog.
[...] encourage you to read the rest of the article to see how to go about that. It’s a very nice tip that will make you save a lot of [...]
What do you do if you are to forced to use eps files? I create many pieces that have to be run through print soft. It does not handle pdf’s well.
Thanks a million. Otherwise it would have been a big headache by converting all the text in the whole book (of 192 pages). Great Suggestion.
Thanks a lot, david. I was wondering about why some pages not outlined, but others done.
I don’t know that, transparency object is really important thing when outline.
Now I can outline, when I want.
Thank you.
We have to outline fonts because 1) some fonts are restricted and can’t be embedded. This can create output problems on press. 2) we work with Chinese fonts as well as Roman (English) and they are a big headache when converting to a PDF or outputting to press. Some don’t print at all, others have problems with drop shadows…a myriad of problems. So will now try this method of flattening. Thanks for the tip!
Wow, what a timesaver! Thank you so much.
We always outline fonts because it prevents problems at the printer. Yes files are bigger, but we never have font replacement which is a far bigger problem if a font is replaced but not caught before it’s been printed 5000 times!
David and Branislav, does this process work in CS4?
Nothing is lost by selecting such an old version of Acrobat (4)?
Hi
very good article and it did solve my problem. Just to add a couple of pointers that may make things a touch clearer for new designers.
My issue was that I had to send a 24 page catalogue to a small printer in Germany (I am in the UK although the catalogue was set in German text). My normal workflow was to send the Indesign editable file, images in a links folder and postscript fonts on a Mac/PC compatible CD – this is how I was taught 9 years ago on Quark 2 because it gives the printer greater control and allows the client to make some last minute changes – they most often do even after sign-off.
Problem was the printer had no reprographics facility and was on Windows – they could not even load my fonts onto their system so for the guys/girls asking why text to paths – this is why – it removes the need for a font installation at the printers end.
The answer was a flat PDF and the excellent routine on this page meant that I did not have to go through each text box in the document and convert to outlines – this actually has issues anyway in Indesign CS as sometime the font remains on grouped items even if the text appears to be converted and you have to go back in and remove the outer box – a real pain on a big document.
Note: this routine cures type set in Indesign but you may still have a font showing up in your flat PDF. There are two causes I identified as follows;
1) Ensure that if you have included any text in a vector icon from Illustrator or Freehand (showing my age again) you convert these to paths in your drawing programme BEFORE importing to Indesign. I had over 20 of these for weights and measures and missed just one conversion – Indesign did NOT catch it in Find Font at all (not even fonts in graphic) and yet it was there in the final PDF. I went back to Freehand – converted the offending text box to paths, re-imported to Indesign and problem was solved.
2) During the PDF export process under Printers Marks make sure that the PAGE INFORMATION check box is left UNCHECKED. If you have this checked, text will be added outside the page area and yet this will still show up in the final PDF as a font: Helvetica, which will give your printer another excuse to spill their tea.
To check your final document in Adobe reader open it then: top menu Document / Security/ Show Security Properties / Fonts… if you have done everything correctly this window should be empty.
thanks again
Paul
Hello Paul,
Thanks for your tips on setting for creating the PDF. Strange…but I found that when I exported some of my pages that Acrobat did not flatten them. Didn’t know what the problem was. Same document…created the small object on the master that was recommended here…but some pages failed to flatten.
Seems that by unchecking that page info box has solved the problem. So far all the recent pages have flattened on export.
Again, thanks for the tip!
Jane
AWESOME tip! Thank you very much David and Branislav Milic!
I have been looking for a way to convert to outlines at time of export. It just made so much sense, since otherwise I have to add the extra labor and management of editable and non-editable text throughout a document. As soon as I found this post I tried the technique right away (I was excited). I opened up the resulting PDF’s in Acrobat 9 Pro and used the Preflight tool to inventory fonts – nothing there. Sweet!
I did notice some potential pitfalls regarding placed raster objects that were masked and had soft shadows applied and were on a non-white background. I did not test this much, but it appears that the mask is being maintained for the shadow outline, but not for the white background of the raster object? Weird. I will watch for more of this behavior to see if it was just an anomaly.
Thank you very much, you have potentially changed (and vastly improved) my workflow from this point forward.
I found a potential problem or at least something to be aware of. It appears that this technique will not export text on a path. I have only tried one example so far, but any path text just does not show up in the PDF. I would be interested to hear if anyone else has a similar result.
Grate tip! Thenx man!
hi there!
I don’t know why when i open my file created in CS in CS4, some strange boxes in text document appear… is there anyway to get rid of them?
Thanks
Mega thanks
It saved my life
Great post, thanks. My printer wants everything converted to outlines but it doesn’t play nicely with footnotes when you convert to outlines. In frustration, I googled and arrived here. As a shortcut, I tried PDF /X-1A but could still see the fonts listed in Security Properties. Then went under Advanced | Print Production | Flattener Preview. In the Dialogue Box there’s an option to convert all text to outlines. I tried it. It worked. I wouldn’t have tried it if I hadn’t been here reading the post. Thanks.
[...] If you've created the document in something snazzy like InDesign, you could convert all the text to outlines, that way the text data won't be preserved any more, just the vector/shape data. Metaphorically, the text's shadow I suppose. Or a cursory google suggests that flattening the document is more effective than this. (link) [...]
Oh wow, thank you! You saved me so much time and labor. I guess this is a setting as well, but when converting text to outline, I’m always left with both the text box and the outline and I have to manually go and delete all text boxes. This takes so much unnecessary time!
And since my document is saved as outlines, I have to keep a copy of the original document as well, which takes up space and confuses everything!
Thank you so much! You’re a lifesaver!
If you’re using InDesign CS5, this trick may not work — Adobe changed the transparency flattener yet again. Please see the insightful discussion on the Adobe forums, here. (Thank you Eugene for pointing that out, and thank you Dov for the explanation!)
Thanx a million for this. I was trying to fix a problem I had with some letters becoming squares after publishing in PDF. This fixed it. TNX again.
great painkiller after 3 years.
thanks a lot…. really you save me dear
http://forums.adobe.com/message/2966600
Dov seems to be calling this method out as “hackery” citing that there really ought to be no need to perform this “trick”. I was surprised to hear that myself as I have found success in communicating files with Asian fonts to clients and vendors alike with relative ease.
Does anyone know of any 3rd party applications that can assist with font outlining so we don’t have to rely on Adobe (who apparently doesn’t see the need to do this)?
- Damian
This can be also achieved with the under-documented NOCACHE switch in Ghostscript:
pdf2ps -dNOCACHE input.pdf intermediate.eps
ps2pdf intermediate.eps output.pdf
Works like a charm and is scriptable. Ghostscript is open-source and freely available for all major platforms.