Converting Text to Curves When Sending Your Own Artwork

When you create a design using text, the text is live. In other words, the appearance of your text can change depending on the computer it is being viewed on. This is because you have certain fonts installed on your computer while others may not have those particular fonts. For example, if you use the font Arial in your design and you send it to someone without Arial, it will default to another font and may look completely different than your original design.

The text in the design to the right defaulted to another font without the original font installed.

To prevent this from happening, when you are finished with your artwork, convert your text to curves. The text then becomes vector art. It is no longer text so you will not be able to edit it like you would text. Therefore, you may want to save your converted text as a new file such as “name_curves.cdr” so you can go back, if needed, to your original text and edit it.

Converting your text is very simple. Here is how:

• In CorelDraw, select your text, and in the “Arrange” menu, choose “Convert to Curves”.
• In Adobe Illustrator, select your text, and in the “Type” menu, choose “Create Outlines”.
• In Adobe Photoshop, select your text layer, and in the “Layer” menu, choose “Rasterize” and then “Type”.

 Your text will no longer be editable as text. However, since it is no longer text, you don’t have to worry about the appearance changing from computer to computer. It is like any other piece of art.

In this example, the text is live and can be edited with the Type Tool.

In this example, the text is now converted to curves and is outlined by nodes (or points).

By doing this one easy step, you can save yourself time and know that your artwork will appear the same on our computers as it did on yours when it comes to text.