watch out when using create outlines in InDesign

[dabob]

Just for your infomation . . . .

when converting text to outlines in InDesign it will get rid of the rules above and below paragraphs . . don't know if it affects any other paragraph or text setting but we just found out on about 50,000 labels that the nutritional panel lost its rules . . . onto imprinting

 

[Stephen Marsh]

I think more info about your workflow may be required...

With my install (CS3 on a Mac Tiger PPC):

Paragraph rules above/below remain in a PDF generated with the outlined text (exported PDF). Opening the PDF into Illustrator, the rules remain as paths with the text outlined. In Acrobat or Illustrator, one can then convert the stroked paths to a true "outline".

Going through PostScript and Distiller as the same result - the rules are not lost.

This does not appear to affect all users or versions, thanks for the heads up anyway!


Stephen Marsh

 

[dabob]

its apparently not consistent

its apparently not consistent

just did it with a new document and the lines did not dissappear . . . scratching head . . . but they did on the customer's file . . who the freak knows . . . just checked the customer file again and it did it again . . . but better to be forewarned than go back and imprint rules to save 12000 6 color labels . . . .

btw it was cs4

 

[kyle]

I don't think there is any different between CS3 & CS4 (at least with the latest patches).

If you select a text container and convert to outlines, rules will disappear in addition to bullets/numbering, underlines, and any fill or stroke applied to the text container.

If you select all of the text with the text tool, rules, bullets/numbering, fills and strokes will be preserved, but you will still lose underlines. Bullets or paragraph numbers will not be converted to outlines, however. This will keep the text in a text container, but as in-line graphics, with each line of text as a single composite path.

In either case, automatic hyphens, tabs and tab leader characters should be preserved.

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

Why do you need to convert? I'm not quite understanding the reason for that decision?
Converting text to outlines is allways a last resort, you also loose the hinting built into the font.
The issue is that when text is curves it is no longer paragraphs, and therefore should not have paragraph rules... isn't it? Does it make a difference if it is rule above below? Strike through or underline? Not able to test it just now, but that's the things I'd test to know how the cookie crumbles.

oops yes there was a little more on that in previous post.
If I'm not mistaken there is a command to convert bullets/numbering to text.

 

[dabob]

Lukas,

I hope this explains why we did it . . . converting text to curves is a last resort

this was a complex job, it was printed on a silver foil paper on a 4 color speedmaster 72 the customer wanted white type and areas of 'true' color along with the foiled look under part of the artwork so the type was a combination of white, white/yellow, or white/red multiple text boxes. When we sent it to our Printect/Prosetter system we spread the white printer .004 to ensure trapping but the acrobat based trapping screwed it up and even heidelberg techs are still scratching their heads on this one . .. when the pdf was normalized there were boxes around the lines of type and it clipped the edges of the text so we tried several solutions and it ended up finding a workaround by doing a select all and then convert to outlines - the rules in the nutritional panel just disappeared and nobody noticed until it had been completely printed and then UV coated.

But using a hard dry plastic ink we think we saved the job . . . just beware when you do this

 

[dlransome]

Thanks

Thanks

Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you....
I had this same problem and had to go back and imprint the lines to save the job. At least now I know what caused it.

 

[WharfRat]

Not that this is a "law" problem
but
watch out when objects are "grouped" in InDesign.
You will see problems with many things ...
including outlines and transparency effects.

MSD