Individual Text

[Krysta_Starz@adobeforums.com]

OK...the other day I posted a message because I couldn't identify a font. Well, I figured it out, it turned out to be what I thought it was...Agfa Rotis Sans Bold. Now the problem I'm having is when I use this type, it still doesn't match exactly. It isn't bold enough or fat enough or something. The only reason I can come up with for the non matching issue is that all the text in this file (previously created by someone else) is written as individual letters. Why someone would do this really confuses me! Is this the way it is supposed to be done? Because when I was adding text I just used the text tool, the only difference is that it is all linked together as one entity...not individual letters. Could this be the reason for my mismatch? Am I missing something here? I am apsolutly 110% positive that I have the correct font! Is there some other way I should be adding it other than the text tool to make it match better?

Thanks,
Krysta

[B. Philippus]

Krysta:

It sounds like the person who sent you the file may have outlined the font (essentially making a little vector object out of each individual letter), which is frequently done so the file can be opened on any computer without the risk of errors because that computer may not have a specific font on it. The drawback is, that the text loses its editability as text...

To outline text, go to Type>Create Outlines with some text selected.

Now, as far as your letters being less bold than the text in the original, have you tried putting a narrow stroke on the text?

Bert

Edit: It may also be, that the text was written in another program, and it's being interpreted as loose point type in Illustrator. Are the individual letters selectable as text, or are they actually outlined?

[Krysta_Starz@adobeforums.com]

Thanks for your quick reply. The text was most likely created with the same program, Illustrator, but may have been a different version. As far as the individual letters go, when I select them I cannot edit them like I could regular text...which makes me believe that they are actually outlined, but I'm not too familiar with all of this so I'm not positive. The other thing that I've noticed is that when I select on the text that I have added, in the text box or menu or whatever it tells me what type it is, size and all that sort of stuff. When I select the origninal type nothing comes up.

What do you mean by narrow stoke?

Thank you so much for your time and help!
Krysta

[LenHewitt@adobeforums.com]

Krysta,

That text has been converted to Outlines - it is not now 'text' but 'a
drawing of text'.

You can add a stroke to any Illustrator object, and adding a narrow stroke
(say 0.25 pt) will bolden up the appearance of a font, although the degree
of stroke required will depend upon the size of your specific text.

[Krysta_Starz@adobeforums.com]

OK...now the strangest thing just happened!!! After reading your reply I started playing around with the Creating Outlines thing...it made all the text individual like it should so it was like all the other text. However, the text still didn't look quite the same as the old stuff. Out of no where I decided to try retyping it, maybe the first time I had a setting wrong or something, I don't know. So I retyped it...and it looks exactly like the original!!! I was baffled! So I left it there and tryed writting it again just to compair and see which way it turned up...it was the exact same as the text that I was having problems with because it wasn't appearing bold enough! So now I'm convinced that maybe it's just how it appears on my screen, that maybe the whole time I've had the right font written correctly, it just looks different on my screen. I print. Nope, not my screen, looks different on paper too! So I'm extreemly confused how I can type the exact same thing the exact same way multiple times and it always comes up different...sometimes it matches, sometimes it doesn't! I even tryed it with another file...same problem! So, in esence, I fixed my problem text, and I can just paste it into all the other files. Unfortunatly I'm a lot more confused than I was in the first place and I don't see how there is any logic behind this. Have any ideas...cause I would really like to know what is going on?

Going Krazy.....Krysta

[B. Philippus]

Krysta:

If possible, could you email <mailto:bert@amen-packaging.com> me the file so I can take a look, rather than stabbing in the dark. You'll have to also send the font file, because I don't have that font on my system.

Bert