Expert: Kevin Stohlmeyer - 4/17/2008

Question
Hi, I'm a graphic designer i designed a product box in CS3 and when my boss sent it to the printed in Japan they cant print it now every time they explain the problem they have a different solution. they said for me to "ctrl + Shift + O" everything and i did now they are saying only the text is "Grouped" and that the pictures need to be "ctrl + Shift + O". there deffintion of "ctrl + Shift + O" is grouping. now i kno that "ctrl + Shift + O" means to create outlines so i have no clue what they are talking about. but just incase I'm wrong some ware along the line i would like to know if there is any way to create outlines on pictures. i tried and it doesn't seem to do anything and i was under the impression that you could only create outlines on text that  is why its in the type drop down menu. please please help me

Answer
Hi Octavia,

Ctrl shift O turns your text into outlines, so others can open the document without the fonts.

Make sure you have selected the text first with the selection tool, then go to Type>Create Outlines.

There is not way to create outlines in embedded pictures (unless you use live trace, but that is not optimal at all!). You will need to embed the pictures into your document. Click on the placed image and on the top option bar, there is a button called "embed image" click that and it will embed your photo into your doc.

That should take care of the issue.

Thanks

Kevin