Awesome tip! Tried this in Acrobat 9 and it works perfectly, without even doing the whole watermark thing. Just open the PDF in Acrobat 9 and go straight to Flattener Preview, check ‘Convert All Text to Outlines’ and save. Open it in Illustrator and every piece of text is outlined.
Casey / Apr 22 2014
Great! Thanks for letting me know. I was thinking about updating this since the info is kind of old now.
View > Tools > Print Production > Flattener Preview
And as mentioned previously check “Convert All Text to Outlines”, apply and save as
Flattening did some funny things to my pdf so I opened the original and the flattened document in AI and pasted just the flattened text in place in the original document
Mary / May 6 2014
I work in Acrobat 9 and I used that technique after much trial and error.
But then it stopped working and I started making hi res tiff to print the copy
I just spent a couple of hours tonight and nothing, until I added the watermark.
Text instantly converted to outlines. Who knows, I may be able to skip the watermark step now. I am working on a PC so this might be a software problem. Its good to be back in control. Thank you
Damien / May 28 2014
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! This is the handiest thing I have found in ten years of working in the graphics industry. Could not justify Pitstop Pro (around $1K Australian) Life saver! Thanks!
Casey / May 28 2014
You’re very welcome Damien. That will be a thousand dollars please.
Great post. I used to be checking constantly this blog and I’m
impressed! Extremely helpful information specifically the final phase :
) I handle such info a lot. I used to be seeking this certain info for
a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Don Alister / Sep 9 2014
Good afternoon my boss you are too great.
Many Thanks
Debra / Sep 12 2014
You are so awesome!!!!
Nick / Sep 17 2014
very helpful, has plagued me for years.
Thanks you
Colleen / Sep 22 2014
Whoo hoo! I layout a technical journal, and I get Word files with equations from authors who work on a PC using Microsoft math and symbol fonts that do not come with the Mac version of Word. Microsoft wants me to purchase these fonts for $35 each. Fuck that! I usually open a pdf of the Word file in Illustrator and save each equation as a vector eps and import it into InDesign as a graphic file, and it works UNTIL I run into one of those pesky Word for Windows math fonts, and they render as little boxes in Illustrator. I end up grabbing the equations from the pdf and saving them in Photoshop and they don’t print as nicely as a vector file. This is a GREAT workaround. Thank you!
Hector / Oct 2 2014
Three years since you post this and still going strong!!! Can’t tell you how many times clients sent me their logo applications in PDF with embedded fonts and this procedure has become into my standard. Thank you very much. Muchas gracias from Mexico!! If you ever come to Ciudad de Mexico, there will be a bottle of tequila and a couple of lindas señoritas waiting for you.
Adriana / Oct 24 2014
Worked wonderfully! Thank You!
Bryan / Nov 10 2014
Are you freakin’ kidding me?, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and didn’t know this. I can’t think of how many jams this would have got me out of in prepress. You always can learn something new I guess!
This technique worked perfectly without any issue. Thanks so much!
Josh / Dec 8 2014
Hey this is a great trick that still works on Acrobat XI. View>Tools>Pages has the watermark menu and you can get to the Flattener Preview through View>Tools>Print Production.
Wish I had known of this much earlier. GREAT tool. Thanks.
Brian / Jan 6 2015
That was absolutely magical!!! Been dealing with this problem for years and now I’ve finally found my magic wand. Thanks!!!
Andrei / Jan 27 2015
Thank you Casey, just what I needed!
Trevor / Feb 6 2015
Worked, thank you very mucho.
Also tried Pablo’s post directly in Illustrator. Also Worked!
This helped me so much….
f. laredo / Feb 18 2015
There is a simpler way. Open a new file in Illustrator. Place the pdf in the artboard. Make sure when you place that you check link artwork. Then, go to documents, flatten transparency, check convert to outlines and hit enter. That’s it. You have a fully vectorized file. You can then save back to PDF if you need to use it elswhere…..
Brilliant! I wish I’d have found your fix years ago!
Thank you so much for sharing
Aaleize / Jul 29 2015
This was great! Informative & to the point. I also had a good laugh reading “rad ass fucking logo” & “…total bullshit.” Finally someone with some humor… Thanks!
Dhedhy / Sep 21 2015
thank’s, it’s really help my work
Cameron / Nov 27 2015
Ahh this saved my life, thank you so much!! I truly thought there was no way it could be done.
ty / Jul 25 2016
legend!
Publivision / Sep 20 2016
Great trick…
Jen Cook / Aug 30 2017
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
Max Pinton / May 10 2018
This is an interesting workaround but there’s a much simpler method that doesn’t require Acrobat:
Just Place the pdf into an Illustrator document (make sure “Link” is checked in the Place dialog) and then Object > Flatten Transparency. Done.
Thank you so much Casey, this is great!
It also works in CS6
Oh my god! Thanks a million effin’ times!
Thanks to Pablo and Casey… this is awesome and the Illustrator trick has made my year!!! Thank goodness.
You are my hero. Thank you.
Awesome tip! Tried this in Acrobat 9 and it works perfectly, without even doing the whole watermark thing. Just open the PDF in Acrobat 9 and go straight to Flattener Preview, check ‘Convert All Text to Outlines’ and save. Open it in Illustrator and every piece of text is outlined.
Great! Thanks for letting me know. I was thinking about updating this since the info is kind of old now.
Thank you x million
It worked like a charm.
not too bad using acrobat pro:
View > Tools > Print Production > Flattener Preview
And as mentioned previously check “Convert All Text to Outlines”, apply and save as
Flattening did some funny things to my pdf so I opened the original and the flattened document in AI and pasted just the flattened text in place in the original document
I work in Acrobat 9 and I used that technique after much trial and error.
But then it stopped working and I started making hi res tiff to print the copy
I just spent a couple of hours tonight and nothing, until I added the watermark.
Text instantly converted to outlines. Who knows, I may be able to skip the watermark step now. I am working on a PC so this might be a software problem. Its good to be back in control. Thank you
Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! This is the handiest thing I have found in ten years of working in the graphics industry. Could not justify Pitstop Pro (around $1K Australian) Life saver! Thanks!
You’re very welcome Damien. That will be a thousand dollars please.
Good tricky way to convert text to outline. Very helpful! Thank you!!
Thank you very much Casey. How do you feel still being thanked almost 2 years after the fact?
Where is the watermark section in Acrobat 11?
Great post. I used to be checking constantly this blog and I’m
impressed! Extremely helpful information specifically the final phase :
) I handle such info a lot. I used to be seeking this certain info for
a long time. Thank you and best of luck.
Good afternoon my boss you are too great.
Many Thanks
You are so awesome!!!!
very helpful, has plagued me for years.
Thanks you
Whoo hoo! I layout a technical journal, and I get Word files with equations from authors who work on a PC using Microsoft math and symbol fonts that do not come with the Mac version of Word. Microsoft wants me to purchase these fonts for $35 each. Fuck that! I usually open a pdf of the Word file in Illustrator and save each equation as a vector eps and import it into InDesign as a graphic file, and it works UNTIL I run into one of those pesky Word for Windows math fonts, and they render as little boxes in Illustrator. I end up grabbing the equations from the pdf and saving them in Photoshop and they don’t print as nicely as a vector file. This is a GREAT workaround. Thank you!
Three years since you post this and still going strong!!! Can’t tell you how many times clients sent me their logo applications in PDF with embedded fonts and this procedure has become into my standard. Thank you very much. Muchas gracias from Mexico!! If you ever come to Ciudad de Mexico, there will be a bottle of tequila and a couple of lindas señoritas waiting for you.
Worked wonderfully! Thank You!
Are you freakin’ kidding me?, I’ve been doing this for over 20 years and didn’t know this. I can’t think of how many jams this would have got me out of in prepress. You always can learn something new I guess!
Lifesaver! Thank you, worked fine.
Thank you so much, you save my day!!!
This technique worked perfectly without any issue. Thanks so much!
Hey this is a great trick that still works on Acrobat XI. View>Tools>Pages has the watermark menu and you can get to the Flattener Preview through View>Tools>Print Production.
Wish I had known of this much earlier. GREAT tool. Thanks.
That was absolutely magical!!! Been dealing with this problem for years and now I’ve finally found my magic wand. Thanks!!!
Thank you Casey, just what I needed!
Worked, thank you very mucho.
Also tried Pablo’s post directly in Illustrator. Also Worked!
This helped me so much….
There is a simpler way. Open a new file in Illustrator. Place the pdf in the artboard. Make sure when you place that you check link artwork. Then, go to documents, flatten transparency, check convert to outlines and hit enter. That’s it. You have a fully vectorized file. You can then save back to PDF if you need to use it elswhere…..
This is fantastic, thank you so much!
thank you very much! A life saver
Thanks so much! I just started as a digital press operator and ran into this the first week. Saved my hide!
I think I love you.
howdy
No problemo John!
Brilliant! I wish I’d have found your fix years ago!
Thank you so much for sharing
This was great! Informative & to the point. I also had a good laugh reading “rad ass fucking logo” & “…total bullshit.” Finally someone with some humor… Thanks!
thank’s, it’s really help my work
Ahh this saved my life, thank you so much!! I truly thought there was no way it could be done.
legend!
Great trick…
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU
This is an interesting workaround but there’s a much simpler method that doesn’t require Acrobat:
Just Place the pdf into an Illustrator document (make sure “Link” is checked in the Place dialog) and then Object > Flatten Transparency. Done.