Legacy Text and Backward Compatibility


After reading through this chapter, it's obvious that the text features that appear in Illustrator's next-generation text engine are a powerful set of tools that bring a professional level of typography into the hands of users such as yourself. Beyond that, the advanced technology that enables Unicode and OpenType support and features like optical kerning means that you can rely on consistent type today and in the future.

All of this functionality comes at a price, though, when you consider backward compatibility with versions of Illustrator that use the older text engine. At the end of the day, the text engine that appeared in Illustrator CS wasn't just an enhancementit was a brand new feature.

When you have a particular feature in a new versionsay symbols in Illustrator 10you can use this feature in that version, but you can't export that file to an older version and expect to edit it, right? For example, you can't create a symbol in Illustrator 10, save the file as an Illustrator 8 file, open it in Illustrator 8, and expect to edit the symbol. This is because the symbol feature doesn't exist in version 8. The visual appearance is correct, but the art isn't editable as a symbol anymore.

Because of the huge advancement in technology of the new text engine in Illustrator CS, text isn't compatible with previous versions of Illustrator. You can think of this as a line drawn in the sand, with Illustrator CS2 and CS on one side, and all older versions (Adobe calls these "legacy" versions) on the other.

Opening Legacy Illustrator Files in Illustrator CS2

Let's take a common design scenario. You launch Illustrator CS2 and open a file that contains text, which was created in a legacy version of Illustrator (say Illustrator 10). When you open the file, you're presented with a warning dialog that states that following: "This file contains text that was created in a previous version of Illustrator. This Legacy text must be updated before you can edit it." The dialog presents you with three options:

  • Update. Clicking the Update button converts all of the legacy text in your file so it is compatible with the new text engine in Illustrator CS2. This process may result in some of your text reflowing and displaying different line breaks and kerning. However, sometimes no reflow occurs at all. Because this happens as you open the file, you won't see the reflow or kerning changes happen if they do, and so if text placement is critical, you should avoid choosing this option (you'll see shortly how you can update the text manually later). The only time it makes sense to choose Update is when you know you will be changing or deleting the text anyway.

  • Cancel. In essence, clicking Cancel is like saying, "I always wanted to be a welder anyway." Cancel simply closes the file and Illustrator forgets this little incident ever happened.

  • OK. If you click OK, the file opens and none of the legacy text is affected at allthe file opens just as it did in Illustrator 10. The catch is, you can't edit the legacy text, which appears in the document much like a placed filein a box with an "X" through it. You can print the file perfectly and make edits to other art in the file, but Illustrator treats the text as a foreign object, which cannot be edited. However, you can convert individual legacy text objects to the new text engine as you need to, as you will soon learn.

Basically, if you are opening a file where you know you will be changing or deleting the text, choosing Update is the best way to go because you don't care if the text reflows. If, however, you just want to open a file so that you can print it, or if text placement is important (which it usually is), choosing the OK option is the smart choice.

Updating Legacy Text in an Open Document

If you choose to open a legacy Illustrator file by clicking OK, the file opens, but each text object is not editable until you convert it to the new text engine (Figure 6.25, next page). You can do so on an object-by-object basis by selecting the Type tool and clicking a legacy text object, at which time Illustrator presents you with another dialog that offers three options (Figure 6.26):

  • Copy Text Object. Choosing the Copy Text Object option converts the legacy type to the new text engine, and therefore the text is editable. Some reflow may occur in the conversion, but Illustrator creates a copy of the legacy text on a locked and dimmed layer beneath the new converted text. If the new text did actually reflow, you can see the difference between the new text and old text, which is on the layer beneath it. You can then adjust the new text to perfectly match the legacy text.

  • Cancel. Choosing Cancel leaves the legacy text as a foreign objectit can be printed, but not edited.

  • Update. Choosing Update converts the text to the new text engine so that you can edit it. However, a copy of the legacy text is not created, so if the text does reflow, you may not be able to tell.

Figure 6.25. A legacy text object is not editable, and it appears much like an image does, although the text is vector.


Figure 6.26. Trying to edit legacy text with the Type tool results in another dialog.


For converting taglines, logotype, and other sensitive type treatments, choosing the Copy Text Object option is obviously the best. However, if you have a lot of text objects to convert, it can take a long time to ensure that all of the text matches the legacy document (although depending on the task, you may not have a choice). The Update option can be useful if you just want to make an edit to a few lines of text and the reflow there won't make a difference anyway.

You may find that when you're updating text, no significant reflow occurs. If, after updating several text objects, you decide to convert all of the legacy text at once, you can choose Type > Legacy Text > Update All Legacy Text. Additionally, you can select several legacy text objects on your artboard and choose Type > Legacy Text > Update Selected Legacy Text. Both of these options perform the same function as choosing the Update option, but to multiple legacy text objects at once.

When opening files that were created in previous versions of Illustrator (what Illustrator refers to as legacy files), you may have to adjust text objects. In order to prevent you from accidentally overwriting your original files, Illustrator tacks on the word [converted] to your file name when it opens legacy files. You can disable this behavior in Illustrator's General Preferences, although we don't suggest it.



If you did choose the Copy Text Object option so that you can see if there was text reflow, remember that the copy of the legacy text that was created will still print. Once you have matched the new text to the legacy text, you must delete the legacy text copy by either removing it manually from the Layers palette, or by choosing Type > Legacy Text > Delete Copies.

Saving Illustrator CS2 Files to Illustrator Legacy Versions

It's said that sticking your hand into a thorn bush isn't painful, because the thorns are shaped facing in toward the center of the bush. It's pulling your hand out of the thorn bush that causes the wound. With Illustrator, moving text from legacy versions to the CS versions is a straightforward transition. However, trying to move text from the CS versions of Illustrator so that it is compatible with legacy versions can be painful.

Based on a preference in your Document Setup dialog, text is either broken up into individual Point Type objects (the default setting) or the text is converted to outlines. You can change this setting by choosing File > Document Setup, navigating to the Type panel, and choosing Preserve Text Editability or Preserve Text Appearance, respectively. In Chapter 12, Save and Export, you will learn how to create files that are compatible with legacy versions of Illustrator.

Basically, there isn't much you can do to avoid this issue. There are scripts that are available (such as Rick Johnson's most excellent Concat Text script, which you can find at http://rj-graffix.com/software/scripts.html) that allow you to select broken up text and combine it into a single string of editable text. While these scripts will help, they certainly aren't a solution. If you're creating a file that must have editable text that you can use in a legacy version of Illustrator, you might consider creating your file in Illustrator CS2, but saving it in Illustrator 10 format and adding the text using version 10.




Real World Adobe Illustrator CS2
Real World Adobe Illustrator CS2
ISBN: 0321337026
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 147
Authors: Mordy Golding

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