Expert: Tom Rouze - 3/29/2006

Question
Hi there .. I'd like to be able to stroke the outside of some text without first converting the text to paths. When I apply a stroke it always applies to the centre of the line and the usual controls within the stroke pallete are greyed out as long as the text remains editable, they're only available to me after I convert to paths. I'm producing certificates which are converted to PSD files where I want the text to remain editable. The font I have to use doesn't look good with the stroke placed along the centre. I'm using Illustrator CS2 and PS CS2. Hope you can help .. many thanks in advance.

Answer
Hi David,
I'm not exactly sure how to get around this.  I have two suggestions. I'm not sure why you're creating type in Illustrator then bringing it into Photoshop. You should be working the other way around, do everything you need to in Photoshop then bring that image into Illustrator and do your text.  Then you would be able to change the text to outlines apply the stroke and revert back to text before you save.  My next suggestion is something I do all the time (habit from earlier days), outside the print area I type the name of the fonts used in the cases when I convert the type to outlines for the very reason that you mentioned (I want to be able to change it as needed.)  There may be an easier solution but I haven't had the need to do this often.

Hope this helped.

Thank you,

Tom