Convert text to outlines in a 200 paged book at 1 click. Is it possible?

[Ramesh_Sapkota-KVOaZp]

Hi!

InDesigners will apologize me before irritating them with my question.

I have a book of 200 pages created in InDesign. Can I convert all the text to outlines of whole books pages in 1 click although one by one per page is well known.

Thanks.

[Eugene Tyson]

Outlining fonts is bad - but you can do it

Luckily I just wrote on another forum all about this, so I'll copy and paste it here. (Some text removed as it's irrelvant)

Is it necessary - http://indesignsecrets.com/outlining-fonts-is-it-necessary.php

And how to do it properly - http://indesignsecrets.com/converting-text-to-outlines-the-right-way.php

And do read the comments because there's a lot of useful tips from  people that comment on the blog.

Including the reasons above in the blog posts and comments here are some of my own thoughts

InDesign automatically embeds the fonts in pdfs as standard, (in what I think was sort of an agreement with font makers so people don't supply fonts to printers or  other (as font sharing is illegal)). So your fonts are embedded.

Some fonts still don't allow embedding, but these are usually free fonts  or something with weirdness.

Outlining fonts shouldn't need to be done, the only reasons are

1. For artistic creativity with the letter form
2. The font won't embed in the pdf.
3. There is no third reason.


Fonts are intelligent, they have a thing called "hinting" that at  smaller type sizes, and different styles, like italic, bold etc. would  have slight embelishments in the lettering to make it more pleasing.  When you outline fonts you lose that hinitng. So in high resolution  printing you may not see any difference (lithographic or flexographic  printing) but smaller type on lower resolution output devices (like  digital or your home desktop printer) the fonts can look a bit odd  because they lost their hinting, which means a line of text may appear  bolder than it should or something like that.

If you outline your text you lose the ability to edit the PDF or a last  minute press check could find fault with your text, you don't have time  to make a new pdf, they can't make the change to the pdf because you've  converted everything to outlines.

But if you absolutely insist on  outlining your text in the InDesign File then please do it on a copy of the file, anytime  I've had to do it (for 1 of the 2 reasons above) I've called the file  "JOB_1_FINAL.indd" then a copy of the file called "JOB_1_FINAL_OL" (OL  standing for outline). That way you know which file to edit and you  don't lose all your text.

[schroef]

I wonder why i believe all digital printers want these to be outlined. My guess, so they dont get issues about certain fonts not printing properly. With the automated process happening a lot, every site i looked at states they want their PDF with outlined fonts.

I also saw it happening in a very rare case that on opening the fonts are messed up. But most of times this happens when you open them in a edit software, in Acrobat or other PDF readers they show just fine

[BobLevine]

Care to give us a list of ALL of these printers?

[Josiedino_eprintonline]

Most printers need it outlined to avoid errors when printing a job. You have some fonts or unlicenced fonts, that have a few bugs per say - like DIN.

[Dov Isaacs]

Absolute hogwash. Very few uneducated, Luddite printers have such retrograde “requirements!”

[SJRiegel]

If your printer is asking for a whole book to be converted to outlines, you best option is to find a new printer that will accept a press pdf and not require outlines. 

If you don't have the option to change printers, then you should do the outlining in Acrobat Pro, using the preflight outlining option that is available there. 

[schroef]

You can check for your self online, all digital printers or online printers, shops you name. They all want outlined fonts, they just dont want issues.

I;ve delivered files without outlining them, never had any issue.... yet 😉 I do check them locally in Acrobat first, but cant really remember when i saw something with in a PDF in Acrobat

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

ALL?

[rob day]

I;ve delivered files without outlining them, never had any issue.... yet 😉 I do check them locally in Acrobat first, but cant really remember when i saw something with in a PDF in Acrobat

Online printers will recommend outlining because the printing is automated and there is no customer service checking incoming jobs to catch a PDF without all the fonts embedded. That doesn’t mean you have to follow the recommendation. Checking the PDF to make sure the fonts are included or avoiding fonts that prohibit embedding is the way to go. I’ve used a number of online printers and have never outlined any text.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

I generally view outdated guidelines as one of the following:

• Outdated website info (call and see if this is the case)
• Outdated knowledge by staff (dangerous)
• Outdate equipment requiring settings (dangerous)

There was a problem many years ago that caused problems with ganging PDFs that used the same fonts. This was solved fairly quickly, but information does not trickle down to the CSRs very well.

[rob day]

With automated online printing there is no CSR, that’s why they typically "recommend" PDF/X-1a files and outlining. PDF/X-1a forces the client to see the color in gamut, and outlining doesn’t need the client to check the font embedding in AcrobatPro. I haven’t run across any that will automate a rejection of a PDF/X-4 with embedded fonts.

[Dave Creamer of IDEAS]

By CSR, I meant anyone at the company one is dealing with, be by phone, email, or chat bot. 

[rob day]

Try that at with a huge printer like the publicly traded Vista Print. I called "tech support" once trying to get a grip on how they managed incoming color, and the operator didn’t know what CMYK color was. But the advantage of online shortrun printing is you can effectively run a press proof by ordering 20 copies at relatively little cost.