Converting Text To Outlines

If you look at the example below, you will see that there are two lines of text which say "promotional pens". The only obvious difference is the colour at first glance but only one of them is actually text.

The magenta words are the text - if you look closely you will see that they are sitting on a text string (thin light blue line). The words "promotional pens" have been constructed using the type tool and are therefore using a font from the library contained on the resident PC/Mac.

The light green words, however, have been converted to outlines (thin light blue lines surrounding each letter) and are therefore just vector shapes. There is no font information required to display these correctly and is therefore the best method of sending text to suppliers and other design houses.

To convert the text string to outlines, simply click on it with the Selection Tool and then choose "Create Outlines" from the Type Menu as shown below.

This is the result you will see.

The magenta words are now just vector shapes requiring no font information. Vector shapes can be manipulated and modified by dragging the anchor points as shown below.

PLEASE REMEMBER All fonts need to be converted to outlines before they are sent to printers or design houses to avoid any errors. Illustrator and similar design software re-interprets the font if it is not stored in its system which results in the font being displayed incorrectly.

You can Download this tutorial as a Word Document (Tutorial Converting Text To Outlines.doc) or in PDF format (Tutorial Converting Text To Outlines.pdf)