Illustrator embeds font that has been converted to paths?

February 6, 2019 6:36 AM

When generating a PDF, why would Adobe Illustrator still embed a font that has been completely converted to paths?

I recently did a simple ad design for a client. I converted the large headlines and subheads to paths. Those were the only instances of that particular font in the piece. There were no stray points anywhere. However, when I generated the PDF, Illustrator threw me an error to the effect that the font in question couldn't be embedded (somethingsomethinglicensingsomething...) and that outlined type would be invisible. The PDF looks exactly as designed, though, and the printer reports no problems.

I opened the PDF in Acrobat Pro and took a look at the font properties and, sure enough, it shows this particular font as being embedded.

I did a quick test and simply copy/pasted the outlined type into a new document. Those outlines should have simply been seen as plain objects. Yet, when I generated a new PDF, I got the same error and Acrobat shows that the font has been embedded in the new PDF.

Why would outlined type still be seen as a discrete, live font? I've been using Illustrator since Illy '88, and I can't recall ever running across this weirdness. I've encountered fonts that, for various licensing issues, couldn't be embedded in a PDF, but converting the type to paths has always remedied that problem.

posted by Thorzdad to Media & Arts (3 answers total)

Best answer: I've had something like this pop up once or twice and it was a matter of me having the raw font somewhere in the file I wasn't aware of or wasn't easily visible on the sides or something. Try using "find font" under Type and that box will let you see where and what fonts are still lurking somewhere.

Could also just ctrl+a, ctrl+o to just convert everything to paths in one go and see if that doesn't fix it. Last idea would be hidden layers or a font someplace that's been hidden by a clipping mask or what have you.
posted by GoblinHoney at 7:27 AM on February 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: Many thanks, GoblinHoney!

Turns out there was a blank errant point hiding directly underneath a path. 'Tis fixed! Can't believe I didn't think about using Find Font.

Thanks, again!
posted by Thorzdad at 7:42 AM on February 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

I agree with what GoblinHoney wrote, although this detail -

I did a quick test and simply copy/pasted the outlined type into a new document. Those outlines should have simply been seen as plain objects. Yet, when I generated a new PDF, I got the same error and Acrobat shows that the font has been embedded in the new PDF.

makes me wonder... Did you select the outlined text with the Direct Select tool (A) or the Regular select tool (V)? The reason I ask, is that maybe there's something still mysteriously grouped in, that using the Direct Select tool could avoid? You say it still works just fine for the client, so it sounds like you are wanting to answer the question for your own curiosity. I'd maybe try selecting each outlined letter individually using the Direct Select tool plus Shift and seeing if I could bring only their outlines over that way. Maybe also you could select the outlined letters and do Path -> Expand?
posted by Slothrop at 7:42 AM on February 6, 2019