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InDesign - Convert type to outlines - Underlines/Strike-Though Disappears?

chevalier

chevalier

Well-known member
I have a client who refuses to design folding cartons in anything but InDesign. This is a royal pain and I have prepare / export / import these files into Illustrator to make them realistically workable.

I've found that preserving live typography is a bad idea. I just found out the hard way that the "covert to outlines" in InDesign dumps all of the underline/strike-though with text.

Does anybody know of or have a work around?
 
Have you tried exporting as a high res pdf and placing that in Illustrator? Once you have placed (as a link) the pdf in Illustrator you can go Object > Flatten Transparency. The window that comes up has a few settings you can play with but it also has a little check box to convert all text to outlines. I use this method a lot to place customers' pdfs when they don't supply the fonts.
 
I need to preserve maximum edibility of the file. I usually convert type to outlines and export a PDF/X4 PDF then open that PDF with Illustrator.
 
Unfortunately there is still a way to go for there to be total consistency between the applications in the Suite. There are some typographic issues that still need to be solved in Illustrator for it to catch up (in CS6 illustrator has been redone at a deep level making it possible to persue a better coherence in future versions).

Illustrator is still missing soft hyphens, and the advanced typography that InDesign has (GREP styles, paragraph rules, etc ). Even some preflight tools InDesign has is missing from Illustrator, …and the problem is that the "Illustrator" client is hard to define.
 
These are rants - but I'm guessing there is no work around for this problem and I will have to really use an eagle eye to fix these problems.

Lukas Engqvist said:
Unfortunately there is still a way to go for there to be total consistency between the applications in the Suite.
Click to expand...
Nearly all of the apps export to EPS format why can't they be made export to an interoperable PDF or AI like format?

Lukas Engqvist said:
…the problem is that the "Illustrator" client is hard to define.
Click to expand...
I find that hard to believe as Adobe has the only "serious" vector illustration and layout program out there. Adobe has no competition to Photoshop and Illustrator and no motivation to innovate anymore. Designing folding cartons in InDesign is a complete joke. It's really nice that they finally decided to move Illustrator into the modern world (years after Photoshop and InDesign) but couldn't they be bothered to at least bridge a few features over from InDesign?
 
I find that hard to believe as Adobe has the only "serious" vector illustration and layout program out there. Adobe has no competition to Photoshop and Illustrator and no motivation to innovate anymore. Designing folding cartons in InDesign is a complete joke. It's really nice that they finally decided to move Illustrator into the modern world (years after Photoshop and InDesign) but couldn't they be bothered to at least bridge a few features over from InDesign?[/QUOTE]

I love Illustrator. If I could create an ai file out of InDesign like I can a pdf, that could make my year. Right now, my work flow requires me to pull everything into Illustrator and double check all the dropshadows and transparencies.
 
@yourdesigns

Have you looked into PDF-import for Illustrator by Esko? It's new and I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I'm not sure it can help with anything created outside of ArtPro and PackEdge but it's worth a shake maybe.
 
@chevalier

I like all the Esko software I've seen. Usually though it's fairly expensive. I have a hard time even getting them to upgrade my Adobe Suite upgraded every year. PDF/Illustrator is a large part of my workflow though. Let me check it out. I may be able to justify it to the powers that be.
 
"I have a client who refuses to design folding cartons in anything but InDesign."

Your best bet might be to either do a screen share session where you demonstrate what you need to do to make these designs become production ready, or by a professional tool set that can consume the InDesign PDF files and create a prepress ready file. That tool is NOT stand alone Adobe Illustrator. You can either ask your customer to help you, or buy Esko or PaSharp tools.

Adobe has always claimed that Adobe Illustrator is NOT a PDF editor. If you are in the business of creating separations for package design, then you need the tools for that - not telling you anything you do not already know, just suggesting that while you can drive screws into drywall with shoe, it is really not very productive.

Best of luck with your management team !
 
Thus is life in the prepress trenches. Wish I had a recording of the teleconference we had with them when they asked for some color corrected and modified files back and they received outlined Illustrator and PSD files from their original embedded image InDesign files. It was the worst inquisition of my prepress career.

The entire audience on the call was so befudled and situation got so intense that I had to explain it like this:
Me: Can you design a picture of a car?
Customer: Yes.
Me: Are you a mechanic?
Customer: No.
Me: Would you tell your mechanic how to do his job and what tools to use?
Customer: No.
Me: Exactly.

This grumblingly ended the argument.
 
I have a trick that will work. Use a transparency flattening preset that converts all the text to outlines. First create a new flattening preset that converts all text to outlines and save it as text to outlines. Then add a small blank text or picture box someplace on the document page. If its more than one page use a master page to do it. Then select the box you just made and in the effects pallet make it transparent. Now export to PDF version 1.3 and select under the advanced tab the transparency preset you just made and saved. All your underlines and strike throughs will still be there when you open the PDF. Only problem with this is obviously it flattens any transparency used on the page by the designer as well. Work around that by putting the text on it own layer and exporting the text by itself and them merge the two PDF's later in Illy.
 
Last edited:
yourdesigns said:
I love Illustrator. If I could create an ai file out of InDesign like I can a pdf, that could make my year. Right now, my work flow requires me to pull everything into Illustrator and double check all the dropshadows and transparencies.
Click to expand...

What am I missing... You CAN create an Illustrator file from InDesign - it's called EPS.

EPS was the preferable format for Illustrator files for ages. Working with .ai files exclusively is a relatively new trend which started when InDesign and Quark let users import the native .ai files.

EPS is as native to Illustrator as .ai (unlike PDF). So if you need to go from InDesign to Illustrator, then EPS is there as it has always been.

But if I'm missing something please let me know.

Thanks,

Leo Revzin
--
Zevrix Solutions
Solutions for Graphics, Print & File Delivery
http://www.zevrix.com
 
@almaink
This idea works but is a bit burdensome. I'm currently visually inspecting identifying the underlines and outputting a PDF with live type and one with type converted to outlines. I open the one with the live type and grab the underlines (now independent stroked lines) and copy / paste-in-place onto my outlined file. This will work well as long as I don't overlook anything <sigh>.

@zevrix
Exporting to EPS flattens all of the transparencies, shadows, effects, etc. This is counterproductive as my main goal is to maintain editable files. I constantly have to color correct linked/embedded images in Photoshop. A live transparency file maintains the shadows/etc as an independent image giving me the ability to grab the image and manipulate it.
 
Hi chevalier,

I assume you don't have any PDF editing tools which would allow you to take the incoming PDF from InDesign and convert text to outlines while maintaining transparency, blends, etc.

Regards,
Greg
 
Unfortunately I do not have Pitstop or similar products. I experimented with using our workflow but normalization was causing very wonky things.
 
RE: Indesign to AI Issues

RE: Indesign to AI Issues

I may have missed it reading the post but what version of Indesign is your customer working with?

Another option to fix the issue from a prepress side is to charge for having to convert it. That might give them the extra umphff to do it the right way, money has a strange way of making things like that work.

As a sales point, I would explain the need for extra cost due to the time spent and if needed offer to teach them some tips in the new program (in this case AI) provided they pay for them as well as buy a legal version of the program.

In the end this may be your best option rather than pull your hair out trying to work around issues that Adobe seems to care less about.

Best of luck in whichever option you choose, and sorry this doesn't really answer your problem. D
 
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