Digital Tool Box Part 1: Conversion Links for Marketing Text Compatibility

Hello Hello,

It’s Terri again.  Today we’re going to focus on font conversion.  One of the obstacles commonly faced when working in promotional marketing is getting logos and fonts sent to third parties.  Not everybody uses the same programs and not everyone has the same fonts.  For the companies with specialty fonts, this can be especially tricky. 

The answer: Converting to outline and saving onto a file format that is more commonly used.

First, to address the font issue – all texts should be converted to outline.  Please remind your client to save this file as a COPY and not overwrite their master because once a font has been converted to outline, they will not be able to edit it as standard text.  Once the text is an outline, it will make it easier to manipulate for any third party.  Below are links on how to convert font to outline:

ILLUSTRATOR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PQk4xhz114

PHOTOSHOP

http://www.wikihow.com/Convert-Text-to-Outline-in-Photoshop

INDESIGN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjGpeySLq5E

PUBLISHER

http://bigredprintingspotlight.blogspot.com/2011/02/converting-text-to-outlines-must-for.html

COREL DRAW

http://www.clubcard.tv/print-tutorial/how-to-convert-fonts-text-to-curves-outlines-in-coreldraw

The easiest file formats to have a client send you a file are going to be:

A.     PDF

B.     EPS

C.     AI

PDF is actually the best format, so we will provide quick links with how to convert files below.  Please remind your clients that they will need to maintain editing capabilities when creating the PDF.  The links below will allow the files to be converted without having to purchase what can be very expensive graphic programs.  This ensures your PDF will be properly formatted.

Illustrator (AI) file to PDF

http://www.pdfconvertonline.com/ai-to-pdf-online.html

Photoshop (PSD) file to PDF

http://www.convertfiles.com/convert/document/PSD-to-PDF.html

Publisher (PUB) file to PDF

http://www.pdfconvertonline.com/pub-to-pdf-online.html

Corel Draw (CDR) file to PDF

http://www.pdfconvertonline.com/coreldraw-to-pdf-online.html

We hope you enjoy these tools because we will certainly be referring back to this blog for our own future use.  Let us know if there any additional programs you would like links for.

Thanks for reading and have a happy week!