Can fonts in a PDF be converted to outlines with Acrobat Pro 9?

[kellyjaye1]

Acrobat Pro 9.....Sometimes I get a PDF that I will have to do some edits to.  Because I dont have some of the fonts used, I cant edit the file without losing the fonts used.  Is there a way to have Acrobat maybe resave itself with all the fonts converted to outlines so this wont be a problem along with any othe font errors I may get?

[JR Boulay]

how do you propose to add a transparent element?

Take a screengrab of a small white area on the screen, then, using the Watermark or the Background tool (in Acrobat), apply this white picture on all pages with a 1% (ou 2, or ") opacity.

So this this dumb picture will remains invisible after the Transparency flatening, and fonts will be outlined (outlining font requires Transparency flatening : no transparency on a page = no flatening/outlining on this page).

[TigerKR]

This is fantastic! I wish I had known about this years ago. Sometimes PDF files just wouldn't convert text to outlines and I'd have to use rasterize them in photoshop. This seems to solve that problem. Thanks JR Boulay!

[Bill12]

I could not find a preflight script in AA9 either. Another choice might be to try to print to a new PDF and setup the printer properties to replace with outline fonts. That would be under the Layout>Advanced>PS options. There is a font option there that might do the job. If you need other info (bookmarks and such, you would need to create the new PDF and then use replace pages to place the new PDF into the old one (or copy of) to have all the annotations and such.

[JR Boulay]

Hi,

See why you must not refry (print to a new) a PDF .

Refrying PDFs: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly: http://www.gwg.org/wp-content/uploads/attachments/f121c163fa679f86977235da32290812.pdf

[Bill12]

There are pros and cons on this issue. Sometimes folks need a quick result and do not have the time to look for better alternatives. Other times is appears there is no alternative. The latter includes the case of making cropping permanent (see below, I found it). It used to be that using Reduce File Size would remove the area outside the crop, but that is no longer the case. There are also preflight scripts or JavaScripts for many needs, but they are often hard to find. The article on refrying is interesting and it points out some of the drawbacks and I thank you for posting (a good read), but it primarily points to the pitfalls if a refry is done so one is aware of the expectations.

I have found that there is a way to delete cropped info permanently, though I have not tried it yet. Under Tools>Protection>Remove Hidden Information you get a whole analysis of all of the hidden info. You can then select the parts to accept. For the issue of converting a booklet to single pages, you could crop the left, remove the hidden info, and save to left.pdf. Then reload the original file and crop the right side, remove, and save. Then combine them and reorder the pages. It took a google search to find this option that I had missed all this time! So there is probably a way to do most of the things for fixing parts of a PDF, but for many the time to hunt for a solution is just not acceptable in their workflow and the trade-off of a refry is worth the time savings.

[JR Boulay]

Did you notice who is the author of this document?

[Bill12]

As to the refry paper, yep. It was written by one of the designers of Acrobat. He provided a lot of the drawbacks to refrying, typically compromising some of the content quality, particularly some graphics. For may folks the compromise is acceptable for a quick solution to a problem and that was sort of suggest in the paper also. It was a good review and I learned a bit, but it did not necessarily say to never refry, but to be aware of the factors that may change.

[David.G.P]

It seems that the Flattener Preview, when applied, kills all bookmark actions/targets (i.e. bookmarks are still there, but not working anymore).

Anything that can be done to prevent breaking of the bookmarks when applying the Flattener Preview?

[JR Boulay]

My pleasure.

[sawa_mac]

in InDesign i always use the transparency flattener,

Do not use 1% white - this will surely change the color values

- use a white rectangle with multiply on a top level layer

- go to edit -> transparency flattener presets -> create a new one with "convert all text to outlines" checked

- use your new preset in the transparency flattener window to preview

- in PDF export dialog go to Advanced and in flattener options choose your new preset

- export your pdf with outlined text

[alfredoremigio]

There's no need to work with the transparency flattener.

In the preflight panel of acrobat there's (a well hidden option) text to outlines.

You can download it here:

Dropbox - Text to curves.kfp   

In acrobat - preflight choose " new profile" and import this.

Works perfect!

[Bernd Alheit]

It is not hidden. In the preflight tool search for outlines.

[alfredoremigio]

You're right Bernd! I didn't notice that before