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companyf43217689
Participant
August 30, 2018
Answered

Automatic outlines?

  • August 30, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 6208 views

Hi, I was wondering if there was an easier way to make sure all text in my project is outlined?

Whenever we send projects out for print, I always try to convert all text into outlines so that theres no problem with the printing company when opening the ai file to print. Lately, Ive had a couple of problems including forgetting to outline ' or a non-outlined font that is below the outlined font or something, and things become hectic around it.

I was wondering if there was an easy way to make sure all text is outlined, or at least be able to check if all text is outlined.

Highlighting everything and looking for the text line is what I do now, but it's easy to miss something small, or something that blends in with complex vectors or actual lines.

I try my best to separate and organize my layers, but sometimes my boss wants to see a text below the picture instead of above, and having him behind me waiting I sometimes lose my organization...

Just wondering if there was an easy way to do this or not.

Thank you!

Correct answer Omar.Fathy

You can outline all text in your Illustrator document by following these easy steps:
- Ctrl+A to select all ( make sure that no layers locked ).
- Shift+Ctrl+O or Type> Create Outline

All text will be outlined

2 replies

JETalmage
JETalmage
Inspiring
August 30, 2018

I was wondering if there was an easier way to make sure all text in my project is outlined?


Select Menu: Objects>Text Objects
Only actual text objects will be selected. That way, you can look over what is selected and judge whether there are any text objects that need to be converted to paths.

Whenever we send projects out for print, I always try to convert all text into outlines.


This is neither necessary nor best practice. Converting text to paths is appropriate for text that is an integral part of the "artwork" (e.g., the text in a product or company logo) or that serves primarily as a design element (e.g., large headlines, etc.)


But illustration programs are quite often used for whole document designs (brochures, fliers, placement ads, etc.) which include paragraphs of body text, captions, contact information, copyright indicia, and so on. Just because it's not a thousand-page book doesn't mean you shouldn't care about quality typography. For example, outlining small text often makes it render slightly "heavier" than designed.


Nowadays, the preferred delivery format for commercial printing is PDF with the fonts used in the document embedded. So the whole matter of outlining all text in a document, ostensibly for the benefit of the printer, is practically moot.

In the three decades I've been electronically designing for commercial print, I've never found it necessary (even before PDF) to convert all text to paths for whole-document projects.

JET

    C
    companyf43217689Author
    Participant
    September 4, 2018

    Thank you for your answer!

    The only reason I outline all of my text for each design before I send it to print is only because the printing place we use requests an illustrator file rather than pdf. I don't really understand why, but it's not my place to ask questions.

    It could be a Japanese thing (I work in Japan), but they request the Japanese-style trim marks and extra information outside the actual artboard including size, fold marks (if any), etc. I didn't realize that Illustrator had the option of "use/don't use Japanese trim marks" until I got here, which I'm suprised they're different.

    I just kind of stumbled on working in the printing-graphic-field so there's still a lot I don't know about (including what I didnt know about with the text outline thing) but Im thankful for all the experienced people on this site, and am glad I can expand my knowledge!

    Again, thank you so much for your detailed answer!!

    Omar.Fathy
    Community Expert
    Omar.FathyCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    August 30, 2018

    You can outline all text in your Illustrator document by following these easy steps:
    - Ctrl+A to select all ( make sure that no layers locked ).
    - Shift+Ctrl+O or Type> Create Outline

    All text will be outlined

      C
      companyf43217689Author
      Participant
      August 30, 2018

      Wow. I feel like such an idiot. Whenever I had text selected, but also a line or a vector selected, create outlines would always disappear, so I thought that it wasnt possible. I dont know why I didnt think of that.

      Thank you so much. Youve saved me SO much time on such a small thing. Really, thank you.

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