How to convert text to outlines

When printing onto clothing, some decoration processes require vector graphics. Vector graphics are especially important for Vinyl Printing, Digital Transfer Printing and screen printing.

To ensure that the correct font is printed, it is vital to convert text to outlines in your vector graphic.

What does converting text to outlines mean?

In short, converting text to outlines, means converting the text into shapes. This ensures even if we don’t have your font on our system, we are still able to print your design as you require it.

How do I convert my text to outlines?

The process is really easy and won’t take you any longer than 30 seconds.

Once your design is loaded in Adobe Illustrator, click Select > Select All. It doesn’t matter if other graphic elements are selected. Select Type > Create Outlines from the menu. The text will then be outlined and a vector graphic. Finally save this document under a different name to your original file (do not overwrite the original editable copy – just in case you need to change the text later).

 

Please note, once text has been converted to outlines, the text cannot be edited as text.
It is essential to keep an editable copy (as well as the outlined version you send us) of your document as an AI file before converting the text to outlines. This allows you to come back and edit it later, otherwise you’ll have to recreate the artwork with text again.

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