Help with Illustrator Text

[kolyana]

I've got an Illustrator file that I've been asked to modify and it's quite text heavy.

I know that it's going to press, as it were, but why would all of the text that's currently in it be converted to individual paths or - as Illustrator is referring to them - compounds?

When I type some text, it appears as one object in one layer, but all of the previous text appears as individual letters, each letter is an object and each one occupies it's own layer.

I've seen a designer doing this before, he turned the text into paths or something, but why would this be necessary, how is it done and can it be UNDONE???

 

[jmgalvin]

He outlined the text - turning it into graphical characters. If you have to do a lot of work on this, it will take until the end of time. There is no way for you to undo it. Once it's saved, that's it.

There are any # of reasons to do this. First and foremost, you don't have to worry about the recipient having that particular font. It also allows you to manipulate text objects like grpahical objects, apply various effects, etc

Hopefully, the person who sent you the file retained a copy without the text converted to outlines. Have him send you that. Hopefully, you have the font that was used.