How to export a PDF with copyable text fields?

Question

Hey all! I made a PDF file using photoshop/illustrator, and when I export, my issue is that the text fields aren't highlightable/copyable like other pdf's I've used. It is a presentation for work, and for utility purposes, I would like other colleagues to be able to copy and paste text from the .pdf, so they can easily transfer information to their scripts/projects.

I used a drop shadow in photoshop on the text, is this what is causing the problem? When I imported the /psd files into illustrator, i made sure that it kept editable text fields for this reason. I'm more a premiere/ae guy, and am not 100% savvy with illustrator. Is there anything I can do to make sure the text is copy and pasteable?

Attached is a basic screenshot of my slides.

John Mensinger · Answer

The way you're going about this is not a standard workflow. Live type in a .psd file, or for that matter, in a Photoshop PDF, is "live" only in the sense that it can be re-read as such by Photoshop. When placed in Illustrator, the live type data is still there in the file, but it's not displayed. What you see on the screen is effectively a "clip group" of outlines from the type clipping a rectangle of the fill color used in Photoshop. Saved from Illustrator as PDF, you're only getting pictures of the type, as you've already discovered yourself.

To make presentation slides like the examples you posted, with live type, you'll have to set the type in an application that supports live export to PDF. The best tool would be InDesign, but it can be done in Illustrator too. In your situation, I'd go back to the Illustrator-placed .psd's, and try these (suggested) steps:

Lock the existing layer, and add a new layer above.
Retype the text using Illustrator's Type tool, then style and position it to match the Photoshop-set type, including the font, color, shadow, etc.
Unlock the original layer where the .psd resides, select the .psd, right-click and choose Object Layer Options. In the Object Layer Options dialog, hide the type layer.

Now, having replaced the Photoshop-set type with Illustrator-set type, you can Save As PDF and have your live text.

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