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austincomp
Participant
December 27, 2024
Answered

Convert only missing font to outlines for printing

  • December 27, 2024
  • 2 replies
  • 850 views

Hello. I typically recieve PDF files from clients for offset printing.  Usually, I used to embed the file into Illustrator and then flatten it so that only the missing fonts would become outlined and could keep the way its supposed to look. But lately, now it only imports with the pink highlight that shows fonts missing withut any way to keep the look of the original font. Is there a way to outline missing fonts so I can continue to edit copy for the active fonts?

 

Ive seen in other discussions some people say that printers should not be outlining fonts at all, but was not sure why.

 

If anyone knows a way around missing fonts that are not adobe, it would be much appreciated. 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Bobby Henderson

In order to do what you're asking you would need to import the PDF into two different documents. One copy of the document would have the outlined text (using the flatten transparency trick). The other copy would have the live text. Delete the text that is showing up in pink as missing fonts in that copy of the document. Copy the outlined text from the other document to the clipboard and then paste in place into the document that has live text. It's a couple extra steps, but that's how I would handle it.

I just remembered another thing, depending on how the PDF was created, the blocks of text may be fractured into a lot of separate strings. There may even be single letters as their own text objects. A plugin from Astute Graphics called Vector First Aid can fix a lot of that trash. It isn't perfect, but it does same time. Otherwise, I'd copy the text from the original PDF and paste it into new point text or area text objects.

2 replies

B
Community Expert
Bobby HendersonCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
Community Expert
December 28, 2024

In order to do what you're asking you would need to import the PDF into two different documents. One copy of the document would have the outlined text (using the flatten transparency trick). The other copy would have the live text. Delete the text that is showing up in pink as missing fonts in that copy of the document. Copy the outlined text from the other document to the clipboard and then paste in place into the document that has live text. It's a couple extra steps, but that's how I would handle it.

I just remembered another thing, depending on how the PDF was created, the blocks of text may be fractured into a lot of separate strings. There may even be single letters as their own text objects. A plugin from Astute Graphics called Vector First Aid can fix a lot of that trash. It isn't perfect, but it does same time. Otherwise, I'd copy the text from the original PDF and paste it into new point text or area text objects.

Kurt Gold
Community Expert
Kurt GoldCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 27, 2024

Linked placing the file and then Object menu > Flatten Transparency (turning on the option to convert text to outlines) may help.

A
austincompAuthor
Participant
December 27, 2024

it does turn all text to outlines, thanks. I wanted to see if there was a way to just do the missing text

Monika Gause
Community Expert
Monika GauseCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 27, 2024

The long answer is no.

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