Convert Text to Outlines

Outline the text in your artwork for printing or sending, and keep an editable copy of every text object on its own hidden layer. Need to change a word later? Revert puts the live text back.

In the Printer package · Version 1.1.7 · Needs PowerScripts 3.8.32 or later

Open the PowerScripts panel (Window > Extensions > PowerScripts) and choose Convert Text to Outlines from the Tools scripts.

1. Select the artwork with text in it. Select nothing to do everything on the current artboard.
2. Press Outline Text.

Every text object is now outlines. A copy of the live text sits on a new layer called “Original Text” plus a number. The layer is locked, hidden and set not to print, so it never ends up in your PDF or print.

• Hide text layer: hide the layer with the text copies. Untick to see them (they stay locked and won't print).
• Fill unfilled text copies: some text has no fill (for example text used only as a guide), so its copy would be invisible. This gives those copies a black fill, so you can find and read them. Revert takes the fill off again.
• Outline Text: outlines the selected text (or all the text on the artboard) and keeps the copies.
• Revert: puts the live text back in place of its outlines. Select some outlines to revert just those, or select nothing to revert every outlined text in the document. The text layer is removed once it's empty.

1. Press Outline Text before saving the file or PDF for your printer or client.
2. The file looks the same everywhere, even on a computer without your fonts.

1. Select the outlined text you want to change.
2. Press Revert. The live text is back, in the same place.
3. Edit it, then press Outline Text again.

• Keep your outlined file as your working file: you can always revert, so there's no need for a separate “live text” copy.
• Run it from a key on your keyboard with Hotkeys and Quick Keys.

• The text layer is made inside the layer you're working on (as a sublayer).
• Revert needs the text copies: if the “Original Text” layer was deleted, those outlines stay as outlines and the message tells you how many.
• If there's no text in the selection, nothing changes and the panel says “No text found”.

• 1.1.7
  • New: Revert puts the text back in place of its outlines and removes the text layer.
  • Fixed: no longer stops with an error when the selection has no text, and Fill unfilled text copies works.
  • Improved: general bug fixes, reliability and speed.
• 1.1.6: Buy in PowerScripts now opens the packages that include this script.
• 1.1.5: Updated for PowerScripts 3.8.32.
• Older changes: PowerScripts Release Notes