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  1. Mark / Feb 17 2014

    Thank you so much Casey, this is great!
    It also works in CS6

  2. Jennifer / Mar 5 2014

    Oh my god! Thanks a million effin’ times!

  3. Jodie / Mar 24 2014

    Thanks to Pablo and Casey… this is awesome and the Illustrator trick has made my year!!! Thank goodness.

  4. Zach / Mar 27 2014

    You are my hero. Thank you.

  5. Maclein / Apr 18 2014

    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.

  6. Casey / Apr 22 2014

    Great! Thanks for letting me know. I was thinking about updating this since the info is kind of old now.

  7. Andy / Apr 25 2014

    Thank you x million

  8. Mothusi / Apr 30 2014

    It worked like a charm.

  9. Hope / Apr 30 2014

    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

  10. 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

  11. 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!

  12. Casey / May 28 2014

    You’re very welcome Damien. That will be a thousand dollars please.

  13. Ubi / Jun 15 2014

    Good tricky way to convert text to outline. Very helpful! Thank you!!

  14. Antoine / Jul 8 2014

    Thank you very much Casey. How do you feel still being thanked almost 2 years after the fact?

  15. Max / Aug 4 2014

    Where is the watermark section in Acrobat 11?

  16. 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.

  17. Don Alister / Sep 9 2014

    Good afternoon my boss you are too great.
    Many Thanks

  18. Debra / Sep 12 2014

    You are so awesome!!!!

  19. Nick / Sep 17 2014

    very helpful, has plagued me for years.

    Thanks you

  20. 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!

  21. 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 seƱoritas waiting for you.

  22. Adriana / Oct 24 2014

    Worked wonderfully! Thank You!

  23. 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!

  24. Karl / Nov 12 2014

    Lifesaver! Thank you, worked fine.

  25. Hai Vu Minh / Nov 19 2014

    Thank you so much, you save my day!!!

  26. Sol Kornfeld / Dec 1 2014

    This technique worked perfectly without any issue. Thanks so much!

  27. 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.

  28. 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!!!

  29. Andrei / Jan 27 2015

    Thank you Casey, just what I needed!

  30. Trevor / Feb 6 2015

    Worked, thank you very mucho.
    Also tried Pablo’s post directly in Illustrator. Also Worked!
    This helped me so much….

  31. 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…..

  32. Nikki / Apr 9 2015

    This is fantastic, thank you so much!

  33. Don Clements / Jun 11 2015

    thank you very much! A life saver

  34. John Cordova / Jul 9 2015

    Thanks so much! I just started as a digital press operator and ran into this the first week. Saved my hide!

  35. Me / Jul 10 2015

    I think I love you.

  36. Casey / Jul 11 2015

    howdy

  37. Casey / Jul 11 2015

    No problemo John!

  38. Paul / Jul 27 2015

    Brilliant! I wish I’d have found your fix years ago!
    Thank you so much for sharing

  39. 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!

  40. Dhedhy / Sep 21 2015

    thank’s, it’s really help my work

  41. Cameron / Nov 27 2015

    Ahh this saved my life, thank you so much!! I truly thought there was no way it could be done.

  42. ty / Jul 25 2016

    legend!

  43. Publivision / Sep 20 2016

    Great trick…

  44. Jen Cook / Aug 30 2017

    THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

  45. 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.

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