How to convert fonts to outline with Adobe Illustrator

Today's quick tip in Adobe Illustrator CS5
is how to convert fonts to outline for Adobe Illustrator CS5,
but it applies to CS4 or CS3,
actually, pretty much any version of Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator files can use text and fonts,
just like any other Adobe Creative Suite product.
You make a text box and you can type
as much fonts as you like.
That's not a problem.
The problem arises when you want to use this file for another use,
namely print,
or even online.
This font will be needed every time the file is opened on another machine.
If you use a standard type of font available on most systems, that's fine, but what goes from
Mac to Windows or
what if you need to print the file and you don't have the printer font.
Adobe has a nice feature in there,
although there are tools out there that package fonts like Markzware FlightCheck,
which might be needed in some cases to pass this artwork on for another party
to work further.
In a lot of cases, actually, in most cases, you'll need to convert these fonts
to outlines, as they term it in the Adobe world. There are several ways to do that.
You can go up to the Type menu,
Select...
You can go up into the Type menu
and select Create Outlines, or as you see there,
Shift-Command-O.
What I like to use is the right click right here on my Mac mouse.
And you can then get many options to deal with your fonts, even change the font type, etc.,
change the size. In this case, I want to choose Create Outlines, so this text is locked
into place. It's no longer requiring the font to put a little font app on your machine.
Those are actually just small, little applications.
You require both the screen font and the printer font
if you want to print this file properly. So, by creating outlines, you forgo that
need of needing this font
file you need to collect or package
with your artwork, and it's quite simple. You just hit Create Outlines and
wham-o!
It's done in real time.
Now, we're in here and you see that there's all little
points, all the fonts,
and if we go up to Object and click Ungroup,
we now are able to go in individually
on a font level and we can adjust these fonts. Now, we can, for example,
and we don't need this font anymore. We dont need to package any more of the font anymore.
You might need to package some of the artwork used,
but now these fonts are no longer required.
They're now converted to outline.
It's that easy.
These are now vector-based
objects, just like the rest of the artwork should be
not placed, otherwise.
So, now we can position everything
with equilibrium
and
that was your quick tip of the day: How to Convert Fonts to Outlines with
Adobe Illustrator,
CS5, in this case. David Dilling for Markzware, signing off.