In early 2021, this site published an article concerning the request of third parties to “convert text to outlines”. That article had four take-away points:

• To apply special effects to type;
• Avoid font issues when opening the PDF in software other than Adobe Acrobat;
• To prevent editing of the type by others along the chain of custody; and
• As a workaround to circumvent font embedding issues.

The last three points usually involve handing over the PDF to a contractor for whatever reason, such as preparing printed matter or creating foil blocks.

New factors into this equation

Since writing that article, two things have happened that have provided me with new perspectives on this matter, namely:

• A post on the InDesign forums with a feature request to add a checkbox to convert text to outlines when preparing a PDF.
• Working with the Adobe Illustrator plugin ESKO Deskpack and the many tasks associated with preparing artwork for labels generally; and

The post went off-piste… fast!

Some context for readers who aren’t familiar with Colecandoo – I’m a prepress operator that – while usually preparing PDF art and impositions to offset and digital presses – has in recent years also prepared artwork for label embellishments that needed to be milled into foil or emboss blocks – something not done in-house and requiring skills outside of my wheelhouse. This required me to prepare PDFs to specifications that would be unusual in the world of digital/offset print, and a common request from subcontractors is to convert all type to outlines when preparing PDF art.

When I saw the post on the InDesign forums, my initial thought was “that’s a good idea for when I’m preparing files for foil blocks or vinyl cutting”, given the circumstances that I’ve just outlined. It isn’t something I’d use all of the time, but knowing it is there upon export would make life with my suppliers far less stressful.

However, upon reading the remaining comments in the thread, it looked like myself and the opening poster were on our own. The thread pivoted away from the initial question to discussing the validity of the task. Some of the comments – from community experts like myself  – were:

• We’re no longer in the 19th century!
• For Gods sake: why???
• Text outlining is only required for cutting or very old RIPs
• If you have a printer asking for fonts to be outlined, they probably can’t handle an unflattened PDF either.

While I agree with many of my digital and offset printing peers that converting type to outlines is something that I wouldn’t usually do, that does NOT mean that I would NEVER recommend it. Accordingly I decided to play devil’s advocate and provided my reasons why I agreed with the opening poster about their idea.

Enter ESKO Deskpack

If you’re unfamiliar with this software, it is an Adobe Illustrator plug-in that adds functionality for label and packaging printers, such as:

• Easily prepare embellishments such as white masks; spot varnishes, foils, embosses, formeshapes, etc.
• Manipulate barcodes to adjust barcode width reduction to compensate for on-press ink gain and maintain GS1 compliance.
• Prepare template-based proof forms using a one-click solution that takes the artwork and prepares appropriate separations for viewing by a client, as well as all necessary customer information such as lead direction.

However, the way this plug-in is used is at odds with the advice of former Principal Scientist at Adobe, Mr Dov Isaacs, that – and I quote –  “Adobe Illustrator is not, repeat is not, repeat once again is not a general purpose PDF file editor”. Dov has said many times and in many forums (such as this one)

However, ESKO Deskpack didn’t get that memo, and in fact insists that all files going through the ESKO workflow be submitted using ESKO Deskpack, and this means opening the PDF art in Illustrator, even if the artwork wasn’t created in Adobe Illustrator / nor had the “Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities” checked on if it was created in Adobe Illustrator.

Keeping in mind that when customers were asking us what file formats to supply for the labels, the answer was the same as our digital/offset workflow – PDF. But because of the way ESKO Deskpack worked, what did this mean? Basically that if the PDF did not have its type converted to outlines, then the PDF – when opened in Adobe Illustrator to access the ESKO Deskpack plugin – would ask for fonts if they were not already present.

If fonts are converted to curves and need to be converted to type again, admittedly this is an enormous pain, but since 2023 there are several plug-ins or innovations that can assist:

• Using the Astute Graphics Vector first aid plug-in;
• Using the Retype feature available in Adobe Illustrator 2025; or
• Using the ESKO Deskpack text recognition plug-in;

The usual solution was to make an Acrobat droplet that would convert all type in a PDF to outlines.

Another solution would be to ask clients to convert their type to outlines when preparing the PDF; but would only be necessary for clients providing artwork for labels, not digital/offset reproduction… however having two separate PDF requirements would serve to confuse and annoy clients.

For a label, converting type to outlines isn’t usually a big deal, but if an offset client was to do this on something like a novel or a yearbook, the file sizes generated by a heavy type-laden file would be enormous… never mind if a client needed a last minute change to artwork.

Throw subcontractors into the mix

Many of the posts on the forum mentioned earlier hinted that the only reason to convert type to outlines was so that contractors using older technology could output the file. However, the opening poster made no such claim – they simply requested a ‘convert fonts to outlines’ function in the PDF export dialog box.

Again, as someone who recently worked in label printing, applying ink on paper is only a small part of the finished product – anyone involved in printing labels for beer, wine or spirits will tell you that there are plenty of additional embellishments that aren’t applied either digitally via an HP Indigo or flexographic press such as:

• Foils or holograms;
• Spot varnishes, whether matt, gloss, high-build UV or textured;
• Embosses or debosses
• Special features such as glow-in-the-dark ink, or inks only visible with a unique light source (such as UV)
• Glue (to be applied to areas that require flashing to be removed from within a design, such as a hole in a label)

For some of these embellishments, the contractors require files in order to output either silk screens for screen printing; flexographic plates, or milled blocks using CNC routers. In the latter instance, it is safe to say that a contractor using a CNC router is not going to use a PDF file for the final output, but will ask for a PDF as it is a common format that any print software can export to; and then convert the PDF to a DXF file themselves. One way of converting from PDF to DXF is to open the PDF in software other than Adobe Acrobat, such as Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw.

It’s not all about printing

Similarly, I might need to output a file for my Cricut vinyl cutting machine for a t-shirt design or storefront display; or I may need to submit artwork to create embroidered clothing. Again, these devices will require file formats other than PDF, but because PDFs are a format most applications can produce, that is what suppliers commonly ask for.

I’d also mentioned in my post that logistics are another issue. I’d love to have every supplier work in lock-step to the way my business works, but that isn’t reality. To quote Donald Rumsfeld, “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”… or in my case, you work with the suppliers that you have, not the suppliers you might want or wish to have at a later time.

The poster wasn’t alone!

Ultimately, there are several active feature requests to convert type to outlines upon exporting to PDF, such as this post, this post or this post.

On that note, if anyone from the uservoice is reading this, it would be worthwhile to consolidate these posts into the same post.