Canva files and editing

[ozpall]

don't directly open the PDF in illustrator, do an image place and in settings select outline fonts.

 

[Philw]

Not sure that is any different then an other PDF file when opening it in illustrator and having to deal with fonts not embedded or you don't have. We ways open the PDF in Acrobat and convert text to outline before opening in Illustrator.

Well bad news seems to be coming your way as well as the way of all the rest of us. Like you guys I grapple with customer's home baked files and one of my go-to's for missing fonts was Acrobat's 'print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines'. Except then it seemed to stop working.

One option I used to use to get around this if I didn't need to open and edit the offending file was to place it onto the Illustrator art board, add a die line, step and repeat and then save the file to load into the RIP. Since Illustrator 2025 (29.5.x) a warning comes up when opening that there are missing fonts and again when saving a warning pops up that there are missing fonts which won't be included in the saved file so after saving the file and opening it in the RIP indeed the text is missing.

So falling back to Acrobat's 'print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines' the fonts were reported as being successfully converted. However opening the file in Illustrator 2025 shows no outlines and only missing fonts. I thought Acrobat Pro was at fault until I found when opening files that had been processed with Acrobat's 'print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines' in Illustrator 2023 (I think 2024 is also ok) did show the outlines were present. Yet opening the same file in Illustrator 2025 again there were no outlines.

Then a designer sent me some pdf's and he works with layers where he has one layer as text and another layer as outlines. He turns the text layer off and sends me the pdf, but Illustrator 2025 only shows missing fonts without any outlines so now he has to delete the text layer before sending me the file.

Clearly all aimed at screwing font licensing down but personally I find it way OTT.

Due to using some third party extensions in Illustrator that are always late being updated to compatibility with Illustrator'sl atest update I always run three versions of Illustrator being current (for future use) plus two releases prior. Now what I do is run the Acrobat's print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines, open the file into Illustrator 2023, save it out and then reopen it in Illustrator 2025 with no problems (for the moment, until Adobe tightens the screw a few more turns).

Another aspect in all of this is that from Creative Cloud you can now only access the current version of Illustrator plus one version prior with anything older having been removed so if you want earlier versions you have to contact Adobe and explain yourself. Not sure that "... so that I can get around your onerous Illustrator 2025 fonts licensing" is going to cut the mustard. Also from around the time older software versions were removed from Creative Cloud Adobe's licensing now appears to only authorize you to use the current plus one prior version, the right to use older versions appears to be rescinded.

I do use other processes to work around the outlines issue but the time it takes all starts adding up and customer's files keep getting worse, the world's just getting more and more complicated.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Another aspect in all of this is that from Creative Cloud you can now only access the current version of Illustrator plus one version prior with anything older having been removed so if you want earlier versions you have to contact Adobe and explain yourself. Not sure that "... so that I can get around your onerous Illustrator 2025 fonts licensing" is going to cut the mustard.

The joys of always being on "the latest and greatest". Anything can be deprecated and/or removed at an update away. The writing on the wall was back in 2012 on this when CS6 was the last perpetually licensed version.

 

[Kemik]

Well bad news seems to be coming your way as well as the way of all the rest of us. Like you guys I grapple with customer's home baked files and one of my go-to's for missing fonts was Acrobat's 'print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines'. Except then it seemed to stop working.

One option I used to use to get around this if I didn't need to open and edit the offending file was to place it onto the Illustrator art board, add a die line, step and repeat and then save the file to load into the RIP. Since Illustrator 2025 (29.5.x) a warning comes up when opening that there are missing fonts and again when saving a warning pops up that there are missing fonts which won't be included in the saved file so after saving the file and opening it in the RIP indeed the text is missing.

So falling back to Acrobat's 'print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines' the fonts were reported as being successfully converted. However opening the file in Illustrator 2025 shows no outlines and only missing fonts. I thought Acrobat Pro was at fault until I found when opening files that had been processed with Acrobat's 'print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines' in Illustrator 2023 (I think 2024 is also ok) did show the outlines were present. Yet opening the same file in Illustrator 2025 again there were no outlines.

Then a designer sent me some pdf's and he works with layers where he has one layer as text and another layer as outlines. He turns the text layer off and sends me the pdf, but Illustrator 2025 only shows missing fonts without any outlines so now he has to delete the text layer before sending me the file.

Clearly all aimed at screwing font licensing down but personally I find it way OTT.

Due to using some third party extensions in Illustrator that are always late being updated to compatibility with Illustrator'sl atest update I always run three versions of Illustrator being current (for future use) plus two releases prior. Now what I do is run the Acrobat's print production | pre-flight | convert fonts to outlines, open the file into Illustrator 2023, save it out and then reopen it in Illustrator 2025 with no problems (for the moment, until Adobe tightens the screw a few more turns).

Another aspect in all of this is that from Creative Cloud you can now only access the current version of Illustrator plus one version prior with anything older having been removed so if you want earlier versions you have to contact Adobe and explain yourself. Not sure that "... so that I can get around your onerous Illustrator 2025 fonts licensing" is going to cut the mustard. Also from around the time older software versions were removed from Creative Cloud Adobe's licensing now appears to only authorize you to use the current plus one prior version, the right to use older versions appears to be rescinded.

I do use other processes to work around the outlines issue but the time it takes all starts adding up and customer's files keep getting worse, the world's just getting more and more complicated.

Try this for converting fonts

PDF-TEXT-To-Outlines -Convert PDF TEXT To Outlines online Free tool.

PDF-TEXT-To-Outlines -Convert PDF TEXT To Outlines online Free tool.

pdf-editor-free.com

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Try this for converting fonts

PDF-TEXT-To-Outlines -Convert PDF TEXT To Outlines online Free tool.

PDF-TEXT-To-Outlines -Convert PDF TEXT To Outlines online Free tool.

pdf-editor-free.com

I personally never have been fond of these types of services, but that could just be me. Just never know what is going on in the background, where it's being sent to plus the added joy of PDF files having JS execution ability.

The irony is the pdf format itself is an open standard, for the most part, I'm sure there are quirks out there that may be vendor specific.

Okular has been my go to for making sure about fonts, but depending on one's needs that may not be good enough, for me it is. I don't know how well their Windows/Mac ports are though, if there is feature parity etc.

 

[Kemik]

I personally never have been fond of these types of services, but that could just be me. Just never know what is going on in the background, where it's being sent to plus the added joy of PDF files having JS execution ability.

The irony is the pdf format itself is an open standard, for the most part, I'm sure there are quirks out there that may be vendor specific.

Okular has been my go to for making sure about fonts, but depending on one's needs that may not be good enough, for me it is. I don't know how well their Windows/Mac ports are though, if there is feature parity etc.

I've been using the web tool for over a year with no issues. They recently blocked the use of ad blockers, which is annoying!
I've never tried Okular, does it have a tool to convert fonts to outlines?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I've been using the web tool for over a year with no issues.

May be nothing, but something about that whole process gets my spidey-senses going.

They recently blocked the use of ad blockers, which is annoying!

How does one expect them to pay the bills without showing ads in one's face? After all, that has to be done at the OS level as well for some.

I tend to handle things at the firewall. Or a poor man's solution, use the hosts file.

I've never tried Okular, does it have a tool to convert fonts to outlines?

There was a plugin that I had found, can't remember where, that interfaced with Ghostscript and that would handle things like that. Ghostscript is CLI by itself (think of it like the FFMPEG of postscript files/pdf files). Scribus, which is like Id, would have this ability as well as it integrates with ghostscript out of the box.

I like programs that have an open plugin API to where most can create plugins for it and not just an select few (and typically they are open as well as it tends to be python or js based). If I can't create something, chances are someone else has.

 

[Geneva Olson]

Your wholesaler is absolutely correct.
Canva is mainly for web use, small format & desktop publishing/ printing tasks, crafters, hobbyists... Customers need to be told this, that it's not comparable to professional design software.

The soccer mom who has a cricut and wants to do stickers for the team, the restaurant who edits and prints their own menus, the lady in the sewing circle who bought that embroidery sewing machine and wants to make patterns, the small business who sells or advertises on social media and wants more professional looking posts/ pictures. These, and other tasks like them are what it's for, there are millions who it can benefit, and there's no learning curve, but they just don't understand it has limits.

I told my customer that and she started using Adobe Illustrator. Get this...she works at a private school. They bought it for her ALREADY, she was just intimidated by it and was using canva because of the "simplicity of it" . But she teaches yearbook. I told her she was going to have to bite to bullet and use ai. She did and the files she sent me last night were all done in AI. I'm very proud of her. LOL

 

[myront]

Try this for converting fonts

PDF-TEXT-To-Outlines -Convert PDF TEXT To Outlines online Free tool.

PDF-TEXT-To-Outlines -Convert PDF TEXT To Outlines online Free tool.

pdf-editor-free.com

You can get canva fonts.

 

[Kemik]

You can get canva fonts.

I used to try and find the fonts for every Canva file I receive, but sometimes I receive 50+ files from 1 client.
I find it much easier to merge all 50 files into 1 PDF and let the website do all the work.

 

[Goatshaver]

It's pretty easy to get Cava fonts. You have your design loaded on the Canva site and open the browser developer tab. There should be a fonts tab within that developer mode. Just refresh the page and you'll see all the fonts used. They are WOFF2 files and you just can convert them using a free converter and drop them in your font management system.

 

[Kemik]

It's pretty easy to get Cava fonts. You have your design loaded on the Canva site and open the browser developer tab. There should be a fonts tab within that developer mode. Just refresh the page and you'll see all the fonts used. They are WOFF2 files and you just can convert them using a free converter and drop them in your font management system.

That's great if I need to make text edits, but I have no desire to have all my Canva clients share all their designs with me so I can edit them, I would rather make them do the work!

 

[Goatshaver]

That's great if I need to make text edits, but I have no desire to have all my Canva clients share all their designs with me so I can edit them, I would rather make them do the work!

I get that. Sometimes asking a client to make a simple change that I can make in 2mins is far better than me waiting a week for a new file and most of my clients are professional weed growers and not designers or usually graphically inclined.