Printing Text When the printer doesnt have the font

[properez]

Hello, Im a designer that designs Paintball jerseys and Sports uniforms. My design weapon of choice. Xara Designer pro x. I love Xara.

Anyway I wanted to just help out and point out a little tip in the printing world that can be overlooked. Sometimes printing shops may not have the text youre
using for a particular design youre working on and they may be from over seas or seem a bit dense on fonts and how they are handled. So you may have sent in a project and they see the text looking different on their end than the way you see it on your end. This means because they didnt have the text installed, they wont be able to print it the way you designed.


The fix to that is highlight or choose the text, right click, and choose: "Convert to editable shapes". notice it is plural. ( "shapes" )
Xara will group the letters but they will be vector shapes.
To be able to edit each letter using the shape tool, un group the letters "TWICE". You will be able to edit them as shapes.

When exporting to PDF, the text will be as you have edited it because they are no longer font text, they are shapes.
The print shop will then be able to print it as shapes in the exact way you see it.


This can be done in Xara mx, 365, and pro.

I was just looking to be helpful. Hope this helps someone as I actually had to learn this the hard way.. LOL

[roly]

Hi Properez, thank you for the explanation. I do not need it now but more than likely will in the next 6 months.

Ciao

Roly

[mwenz]

I've only needed to convert text to curves (shapes) a handful of times in all my years of design. Those times I have needed to do so have been when dealing with Luddite print establishments that insist on opening PDFs in Illustrator in order to impose or otherwise muck about with the design to make it work on their sheets. They are too cheap to actually use imposition software and or real RIP software.

That said, at least in XDP (which is all I have ever owned), you can do so during export to PDF and therefore don't need to maintain an editable version and one that is sent to the Luddites.

[properez]

That is true. I shouldve mentioned that you can do it during the PDF export. But in my line of work, the text sometimes has to be much more elaborate far beyond warping. So editable files will work. And i will say you are right about the rip software. My last manufacturer was lazy like you wouldnt believe. I had all sorts of print problems that I shouldn't have.

Thanks for the addition though.