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PDF fonts/vectors question
Posted by nina in
28 Dec 2010 — 5:18am
28 Dec 2010 — 5:18am
Quick technical question, and sorry if it's silly:
I have a PDF with a wordmark that I need to use. The wordmark is set using a font that I don't have (and don't plan on getting for this one job). The PDF is displaying fine (as the font is embedded) but if I open the PDF in Illustrator it replaces the font.
Now: Do I *need* to ask for a new PDF with outlined fonts, or is there any way to somehow outline/vectorize the fonts inside the PDF? I do need the logo in vector form, if at all possible.
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28 Dec 2010 — 6:16am
Blow up area with wordmark as big as possible on screen - take screen shot - then use to make paths in PhotoShop or trace it in Illustrator.
28 Dec 2010 — 7:15am
Could you rip out all the other stuff in the PDF (in Acrobat), crop it, and simply place that PDF as a link when you need to use the logo?
28 Dec 2010 — 7:29am
I've used both suggestions successfully (and only when in dire need; but still -- too often).
In addition to Bob's suggestion: if you have a rather large screen, and you put your PDF viewer in full screen mode (and the logo is not too large), you might even be able to make a screen shot that after reduction is still 600 DPI.
28 Dec 2010 — 7:36am
If you have Acrobat, I second the trim and crop option.
To whom suggested taking a screenshot, theres no need: just open it in PS at the desired resolution.
28 Dec 2010 — 7:47am
... Hmm. Does that work with embedded fonts? I'd think not, if the same fails with Illustrator.
(I've never understood the internals of Illustrator deciding on a whim to outline some text and others not; sometimes one style of a font is left as-is, or replaced by a local font, while another style gets converted.)
28 Dec 2010 — 8:33am
If pdf has not been password protected to prevent it you can place pdfs into Illustrator and InDesign files and crop etc. Remember Place is different than Open.
28 Dec 2010 — 8:37am
Thanks, all!
Good call on the cropping etc and just placing the PDF. That's what I've done for now. Ideally they wanted me to change the background color, but I'll tell them I'll need an outlined PDF for that… This is basically a favor I'm doing a friend, so I'm not going to spend hours doing funny stuff :-), just wondering if there's an easy way.
28 Dec 2010 — 8:39am
Final suggestion, involving a bit of dark magic:
28 Dec 2010 — 11:42am
@ pica pusher
This actually works.
Thank you.
No more useless logo tracing for me.
29 Dec 2010 — 12:36am
I offer free font extraction services, for future reference.
:D
29 Dec 2010 — 4:36am
.
29 Dec 2010 — 8:08am
Pica Pusher – awesome.
Thanks so much! This is incredibly handy. :-)
29 Dec 2010 — 9:06am
I aim to please, or at least to give away trade secrets! Who’d have thought Adobe’s effed-up stitching would come in handy?
30 Dec 2010 — 1:08am
This is a workaround for CorelDraw but it may work for Illustrator too...? I would have cropped around the logo, printed it much bigger (eg 1000%) as a pdf and saved the resulting pdf as an eps in Acrobat (do later versions of Acrobat allow ?)Then open the eps file (in Corel, at least) with text converted to curves on opening. Does Illustrator not allow you to open with text as curves at the outset?
30 Dec 2010 — 1:39pm
I followed Dan's (Pica Pusher's) method and find it very handy. Thanks Dan.
A note to InDesign CS4 users: In order to select the transparency flattener preset in the Advanced panel of the Export Adobe PDF dialog, you have to change your compatibility from the default "Acrobat 5 (PDF 1.4)" to an older standard. Acrobat 4 (PDF 1.3) works.