Turning text into shapes with Create outlines in Layout
Create outlines in Layout by Zaweba turns text into vector shapes. Here is when that helps with logos and display type, and when to leave text live.
Outlines are what letters become when they stop being text. Create outlines in Layout by Zaweba converts text into vector shapes: each letter turns into a path with the same outline it had in the font, but it's no longer something you can type into. It becomes artwork.
That sounds like a small change, and in one sense it is. The page looks the same straight after. What changes is what you can do with it next, and what you can no longer do.
What you gain
Once text is outlines, every letter is a shape you can edit point by point with the drawing tools. You can stretch the tail of a Q, join two letters into a ligature of your own, cut a letter with another shape using Pathfinder, or nudge a single curve to make a headline feel more like a logo.
Outlined letters can also be treated like any other shape on the page, so a large word can take the same fills, gradients, strokes and effects you would give a drawn shape.
And because the result no longer depends on a font, it looks the same wherever the document goes. A display word in an unusual font won't change if the document is opened on a computer that lacks it.
What you give up
The text is no longer text. You can't correct a spelling, change the font or adjust the tracking with the type tools once it's converted. Spell check won't see it, find/change won't find it, and it won't appear in a contents list or an index. Screen readers and EPUB exports have no words to read there either.
So outline only what is truly artwork: a logo, a decorative headline, lettering on packaging, a single large word on a poster. Body copy, captions and anything that might be edited should stay as live text.
A safer way to work
Before converting, duplicate the text frame and keep the copy, either on the pasteboard or on a hidden, non printing layer. If the wording changes later, you edit the live copy and convert it again rather than redrawing letters.
Finish all the typographic work before you convert. Kerning, tracking and size are much easier to adjust on live text, and once the letters are shapes you'd be moving each one by hand.
Check the spelling before you outline. It is surprisingly easy to turn a typo into permanent artwork, and once spell check can no longer see the word, nobody's software will catch it.
Outline mistakes that come back to bite
Outlining a whole page of text to avoid a font problem is the big one. It makes the document uneditable and heavy. Install the font instead, or package the document so the font travels with it.
Converting text that later needs to change, without a live copy kept, means typing and styling it all again.
Forgetting accessibility is the quieter mistake. If a word is important to the meaning of a page, consider whether it should stay as text.
Where it fits with the rest of the app
Create outlines works hand in hand with the drawing tools and Pathfinder in Layout by Zaweba. Type gives you well designed letterforms to start from; outlines let you shape them further. Used for a small amount of display type, it's a quick route to a custom headline or simple logo without leaving the layout.
