Tips for Screen Printing Custom Artwork: Tip 3 – Converting Text to Curves

One of the questions we recommended in Tip 2 that you ask your customers when they provide artwork was to ask about the fonts and to make sure they were converted to curves/outlines. We will cover that in more detail this week since it is probably the most important aspect when sending in custom artwork for screen printing.

Text in artwork needs to be “converted to curves”.  This means that once the text is converted, it is no longer text. It becomes a shape or in other words, a piece of art. The benefit of this is that no matter which computer the file is being viewed on, it will appear the same. It is no longer dependent on having the font installed on each computer. This ensures that your artwork looks the same on our computer as it did on yours and the computer your customer created it on.

To convert to curves in CorelDraw®:

• Select your text
• Click the ‘Arrange’ menu
• Choose ‘Convert to Curves’

The 'Convert to Curves' option is located under the 'Arrange' menu in CorelDraw

Make sure you do this for all text that is in the file.

To convert to curves (create outlines) in Adobe Illustrator®:

• Select your text
• Click the ‘Type’ menu
• Choose ‘Create Outlines’

The 'Create Outlines' option is located under the 'Type' menu in Illustrator

Again, make sure you do this for all text that is in the file.

Making sure that your text is converted to curves is extremely important. Watch our video tutorials on converting text to curves and then also reducing the node count afterwards.