Keep Text as Live, Searchable Text

For efficient and accurate proofing, text should remain editable and searchable within the PDF. Converting text to outlines or images significantly limits text extraction, comparison, and spellcheck capabilities.

Best Practices

• Retain live text layers to ensure all content remains selectable and extractable for proofing.
• Avoid outlining text unless required for specific printing or font licensing reasons (e.g., logo treatments).
• Ensure embedded fonts for multilingual or special character sets, especially when the document contains non-Latin scripts or symbols.
• Validate text integrity by performing a quick search or copy-paste test — if the text cannot be selected, it’s likely rasterized or outlined.

Why this matters for proofing?

When text is flattened or converted into outlines, the proofing engine cannot directly read or extract the content. In such cases, the system performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to identify and compare the text. This process is more resource-intensive and can sometimes lead to minor inaccuracies in recognition, especially with complex fonts or curved text paths.

Therefore, convert text to outlines only when absolutely necessary—for instance, when required by the printer or to preserve unique design effects. Maintaining live, editable text whenever possible ensures faster, more accurate comparisons, reliable spellchecks, and consistent quality verification across multiple artwork versions or language