Some print vendors may require you to convert your fonts to outlines, this all depends on the graphics and printing software your vendor will use to run your files. There are more than 200,000 font styles in existence and some of those fonts do not print well, or your vendor’s printing system doesn’t support it and will default the font to another style. Many designers do this as a safety method to prevent accidental type failures. You’ll need to do this if you order cut vinyl graphics from any vendor, as they’ll use that path or outline as a cut path for their plotter.
If your vendor has this requirement here’s how to convert your fonts in a few popular graphic design programs. Make sure you ungroup any text boxes as some programs won’t see the fonts inside a grouping. With all of the text in your layout selected, follow the steps below. You’ll likely see your selection change in some way, maybe the bounding box changes size or you see the paths appear around each letter. Make sure you save your outlined file with a new name or you’ll lose your editable text, for instance add an “OL” on a file name to indicate it’s been outlined.
- Adobe Illustrator or InDesign under the Type menu click “Create Outlines”
- Photoshop flatten the layers before saving
- CorelDraw under the Arrange menu click “Convert to Curves” Click here for more help.
- QuarkXpress depending on your version, “Convert Text to Box” or “Text to Box” can be found under the Item or Style menu Click here for more help.
- Inkscape under the Path menu click “Object to Path”
- Canva will not have this option, talk with your vendor on how best to convert your Canva PDF to a flat highres file, they may prefer to do it for you before you try any online tools.