Text not editable when opening a .PSD in Illustrator

[Scott Roberts]

That function is probably wishful thinking. If you’re running into issues like you are, finalize typesetting in Photoshop and don’t rely on this special function. Whenever you’re dealing with a printer, make your file simple and easy so there are no issues in pre-production.

LittleBlackBird.net

[Mike Steffler]

What function is “wishful thinking”? It’s not wishful thinking to want to edit text from a PSD in Illustrator, it’s supposed to be that way. I can create a PSD with just some text in it and open it in Illustrator, and all the text is editable. I don’t understand what “special function” you’re talking about.

My file for the printer was simple. They need an AI file. They got one. Now they are coming back and saying they need the font outlines for all the fonts in it. It ain’t me that’s making it unsimple. 😐

[Vincent Rosati]

Will the printing service be editing the file? Can you just flatten the PSD as a TIF, or save the file as a Photoshop PDF?
It doesn’t seem typical, that they would want an AI file over something more portable than TIF or PDF.

Is it possible that the problem fonts are different versions than the ones that you have installed on your system?
What happens when you try to edit the problem text in Photoshop? It sounds like you haven’t fully tested them yet?

Based on your ‘permission bits’ note, I’d guess that the font’s simply can’t be embedded due to a licensing restriction.
But, since your goal is to outline the text, this shouldn’t be an issue. Your goal is to not embed the fonts. In AI, just make sure all layers are unlocked, select all, and object/expand.

ps – I think Scott was just trying to help. We all do this because we just want to help. You may have read into his words a little too much. We’re mostly pretty easygoing here, just to give you some background, since it looks like you’re new here.

Vince

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[Tova Sapir]

Hey Vincent,

I realize this is almost a year old, but I just wanted to post that I understand what Mike is saying and his frustration with the response he received.

I am having the same issue right now:
I created a project in PSD because of certain capabilities that are specific to PSD, but in order to print it, I need it in AI format. Due to the nature of the printing machines we are using, the text has to be editable in AI format but, even after making the photoshop file as simple as possible, not all the text is editable. I have used two fonts – one that AI is reading and one that it is not. However, even though it is reading one of the fonts, not all of the text boxes that contain that particular font are being read by AI. I have the same exact text in the exact same text boxes multiple times on the artboard, and yet AI is only reading one of the text boxes. It is incredibly frustrating and no matter what settings I change or what I move around, it will either read only one text box or none of them at all.

If you have any advice, I would love to hear it. 🙂

[Mike Steffler]

For the record, I found no good solution, I just altered my methods and did the Photoshop stuff without text, and just added 100% of the text later in Illustrator. 🙁

[Tova Sapir]

Yeah, that’s pretty much what I’ve been doing, too. It seems like the only way to get it to work. But that doesn’t make sense. There should be a way to troubleshoot this issue and get it to work, right?

[Mike Surber]

I think I’ve found a solution! In my situation, I have about 8 text layers. 2 of them have some heavy effects applied (glow, gradient, etc). All these as well as all the clean text layers BELOW the effected layers were flattened into the background image. After moving them above the effects layers then opening in AI they were editable! I don’t imagine that editing the text layers that had effects applied is possible, but at least I got the rest. Hope this helps somebody!