Change an ad someone else made - text wont change 1

[bearheart]

Hi there..

A friend of mine made a magazine ad in Illustrator and turned it into a .pdf as well as a .tif...
the .pdf has all fonts embedded and is CMYK and was made on a Macintosh
Now I have to change the text in the ad, not knowing how to use illustrator - but I can change things in Adobe Acrobat! usually. =)
Is it just because the fonts are embedded that Acrobat won't let me change the text? I downloaded a trial version of Illustrator (the ad has to be done by Wednesday) and tried to change it in there too, but it won't let me change the text either...I remember my friend saying something about converting to outlines...?
How can I change this text?? hellllppp! My friend is out of the country until next week and will be no help whatsoever..

please?

carrie

 

[jmgalvin]

If your friend changed the text to outlines, he changed them into graphical objects - losing text editing capabilities, whcih cannot be undone. This is very common to do when sending out work as it avoids a lot of font problems when printing, especially if truetype fonts were used.

You can check this by opening in Acrobat & goint to Document Propoerties/Fonts. If nothing is listed, the text was converted to outlines.

Another way to check this, open ad in Acrobat and Save As EPS. Open the EPS in Ill. If the fonts are outlined, the letters will all be individually selected (blue marks) when you click on them.

The only way to change the text is to select all the text, delete it and retype it. Select a font that looks close to what you need - hopefully the original did not have a lot of fancy text work done on it. You change sizes, fonts, etc by goint to Window/Type/Character. Paragraph setup will be a tab on that same window. Type in what you need and IMPORTANT - Save As an Ill doc under a different name. That's so you have copy that retains editable text.

When you're happy, click on the text - the test box - you created go to Type/Create Outlines. Then save. To make a pdf go to Save As/PDF. On next window, under Presets, select Press and save the PDF/ Open it and compare to the original pdf. That's about the best you can hope for unless you're a very quick learner. Ill can be quite complicated if you're not used to it.

Don't know if the demo version of Ill can do these Saves.

 

[bearheart]

ok...it ALMOST worked! (thanks for the great tutorial)...the only problem is the text that I typed in looks a bit funny...I know it's a different font, but that's ok..but all the "l" 's look bolder and kind of hang down a bit from the rest of the text (I used arial)
Here's what I did, if you can tell me what I did wrong....=)
I made a layer over the top of the original section of text, filled it with a white rectangle...added in my new text, turned that into outlines, saved as .pdf (and a few other saves that you mentioned - thank you!) and in Illustrator it looks peachy, it Acrobat it doesn't!
did I do something wrong?

carrie

 

[jmgalvin]

First of all, print the pdf - at a high setting and see how it looks. This is going to print, so screen appearance is irrelevant. If colors are involved, don't worry about matching the screen & print - as long as your text is black. Depending on what version of Acrobat you have, not Acrobat Reader, you might go to the Advanced menu/Overprint preview to get a more reliable screen rendering.

You might be gettting a little too fancy at this point. Layers require things like merging and flattening - too much to deal with on an emergency. Remember, from the original pdf you have no way of knowing any of the things that the original author did in Ill.

I'd save a couple of copies of the Ill doc with the imported eps - just to be safe. I'd then delete any text (they'll all look like blue blobs when selected) that has to be changed and type in the new text and go through the Save & Save As routines again. When you select your text, take a look at the too boxes at the bottom of the Tools pallette. Make sure that the one to the upper left is black (that's fill or text color). Make sure that the one to lower ringt is empty with a red line through it - indicating NO stroke (border) to the letters. If that's got a color in it your letters might look fuzzy.

Now Save AS PDF - WITHOUT creating the outlines - again using the Press preset. See how that looks & do a print. Open one of your copies, outline the text, do the pdf thing, take a look and print.

Arial truetype is a high qulity tt font (arial postscript would be better if you have it). You can probably get away without outlines.

 

[bearheart]

(sorry, my computer took a nosedive when my cat went tip toeing acrossing the keyboard)

ok..the first step..(advanced menu - Adobe 6 professional edition) when I did that, the l's and the period are still amazing dark black compared to all other letters of the new stuff I put in..

when I printed it out from acrobat, it looks just peachy!

The text in Illustrator, even tho I saw the guy change it to outlines didn't turn into blue individual letters, but the entire ad was blue..don't know if that makes a difference?

but the ad specs say I have to have all text converted to outlines in illustrator and all fonts embedded in acrobat..(yes, they want both files)...so if I convert all text in illustrator to outlines, then save it as a .pdf, will the fonts be embedded then?

(sorry, I'm being such a pain, but this is really nerve wracking!)

carrie

 

[jmgalvin]

Once you change text to outlines, they're no longer text so you can't embed the fonts because there are none. Essentially, every letter turns into a little image.

If all fonts are outlined it's essentially impossible to embed them.

To see this, convert all your text to outlines, make pdf, go to File/Document Properties/Fonts. You'll see no fonts listed.

I have the feeling that the ad specs are referring to 2 different types of submissions. If you're submitting in Ill format, they want the fonts changed to outlines (and probably all images embedded). If you're submitting in PDF, they want embedded fonts.

You said that the text is blue. This is VERY important. Open your swatches pallette to get to the blue you selected for your new text. Double click that swatch. Make sure that Color type is Process color and that Color Mode is CMYK. This is vital for proper output on the magazine's presses. Color mode for professional printing is ALWAYS CMYK. Using Spot rather than Process color makes it necessary for an ink to be specially mixed or to have improper results. Depending on the color you select, it will not print the same as it appears on your screen or as it prints from your non postscript printer.

To make sure you get the same blue as the original. Open the eps you made from the original pdf. Select Eyedropper tool (3rd fro bottom left on tools pallette) and click on an area of the original blue. Your Fill color will turn that blue - make sure it's yur Fill - not stroke - that's foremost in the tools pallette. Now, using the normal select tool, click on the Fill in the Tools pallette and drag it to your Swatches window. That will give your the same blue as the original. Double click that swath and make sure it's Process - CMYK.