Software Help Converting outlines back to text

[Elle@Signa]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to convert outlines back to text in Adobe Illustrator. I previously outsourced our design work and was sent menus for our customer as EPS cut files. The customer now wants to make amendments to the menus. How do I do this?

 

[Adam Vreeke]

If you have the latest version of AI (v 28.6) they have a retype beta. Just right click the outlined text and hit 'retype (beta)' and as long as you have the font in your library it will find it and convert it back to text.

If you have an older version you will need to find a plug-in for it, my suggestion is Astute Graphics. You will need to pay for it, but there are a lot of very helpful plug-ins that come with it that it makes it worth it to us here.

 

[Fernando M.]

Or use google search (text) with your phone. Fast and reliable.

 

[Bobby H]

If the Retype beta feature in Adobe Illustrator doesn't work (or if you try Astute Graphics' Vector First Aid plugin and that doesn't work either) you can re-build editable text objects in Illustrator pretty easily. But you have to know what font(s) were used.

Not too long ago Adobe Illustrator added font height options for sizing point text objects. New options include cap letter height and lowercase letter height (as well as Em Box and ICF Box). You can turn on the setting in the Character palette fly-out menu. That will let you accurately size a new piece of editable point text to the same size as the outlined lettering. For positioning the text objects accurately you'll need to turn on the "Align to Glyph Bounds" option in the Align palette. There are also new glyph snapping options for smart guides.

I've made multiple requests to Adobe asking for them to include functions to align and distribute text objects according to their baselines. CorelDRAW has had that capability for many years. If Illustrator would add that capability the font height options thing would be even more valuable.

 

[ProSignTN]

What the Font

 

[Ron at Forest Litho]

If you converted the type to curves, then it should be very clean. Save the text as a 240 - 300 dpi JPG and any OCR (like www.onlineocr.net) should be able to read it.
Once it is back, if you want to get it to match what you had before, you can create a new text box over the old one, put the live text into it and reformat it to get it just like the old text beneath it.

 

[caribmike]

If you have the latest version of AI (v 28.6) they have a retype beta. Just right click the outlined text and hit 'retype (beta)' and as long as you have the font in your library it will find it and convert it back to text.

If you have an older version you will need to find a plug-in for it, my suggestion is Astute Graphics. You will need to pay for it, but there are a lot of very helpful plug-ins that come with it that it makes it worth it to us here.

Great info...I did not know this.

 

[Bobby H]

What the Font

The What the Font tool at the MyFonts web site does not work nearly as well as it did in the past. The problem: What the Font appears to only display fonts that are available to buy at the MyFonts web site. There is a growing number of type designers and smaller type companies who no longer allow MyFonts to re-sell their fonts.

Monotype (and its private equity owner, HGGC) has gone on quite a run buying up one major type company after another. Monotype also bought up the most popular online fonts stores (MyFonts, Fonts.com, FontShop and maybe some others). Private equity firms are well known for turning a previously good company into a bad one or just hollowing it out. I don't know any inside details about MyFonts' operations or the terms it (and Monotype) dictate to type designers. But it seems pretty obvious terms have changed so they're far more in the favor of the private equity guys. A lot of type designers are bolting from that, often choosing to sell direct from their own namesake web sites.

 

[dweavers]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible to convert outlines back to text in Adobe Illustrator. I previously outsourced our design work and was sent menus for our customer as EPS cut files. The customer now wants to make amendments to the menus. How do I do this?

I allways name the layer with the font name so easy to regenerate in the font