Changing text in AI file in Affinity Designer

[mktimpact]

Hi,

I have imported a AI file from Illustrator and want to change a text element in the file. In the example I have attached, I want to change the '8' to a '7' so the year shows as 1972 instead of 1982.

I am new to AD, and am having trouble working out how to do it. All of the text is in curves. If I copy the '8' and try and change it, I cannot make any changes. I have tried changing the import settings (two checkboxes upon importing). I have also tried deleting the 8 and typing in a 7, however cannot find in the file what the font is that is being used, so cannot match it.

Appreciate some advice

 

[carl123]

49 minutes ago, mktimpact said:

I have also tried deleting the 8 and typing in a 7, however cannot find in the file what the font is that is being used, so cannot match it.

The numbers are similar to the "Monggoland" font but the text is not

[mktimpact]

Thanks @carl123 that is helpful. I downloaded Monggoland font, and was able to delete a number and insert the new text using this font. If I can't edit text directly, this is a good workaround!

 

[Dan C]

Hi @mktimpact,

Welcome to the Affinity Forums

When importing .Ai files into Affinity, we read the embedded PDF stream in order to convert the document to a useable format for the Affinity apps.

I can see your text is being imported as 'Curve' objects, which means they are no longer 'text' objects and cannot be edited as such - this is likely due to how the Ai (and embedded PDF stream) have been created.

When opening the .Ai file in Affinity, you should see the below PDF Options dialog. Within this dialog, if you select 'Favour editable text over fidelity' do you see any different results?

If not, then unfortunately this is simply how the file has been saved and Affinity isn't able to 'convert' these Curve objects back to text, so I'd recommend using Carls great suggestion above!

[Chills]

12 hours ago, Dan C said:

If not, then unfortunately this is simply how the file has been saved and Affinity isn't able to 'convert' these Curve objects back to text, so I'd recommend using Carls great suggestion above!

I don't think any program can convert from curves to text?  Its not just Affinity, CS6 can't do it either.

[mktimpact]

Hi @DanC, thanks, that is great information. When I import the ai file I do get the two tick box options. I have tried all variations - both ticked, one ticked, none ticked etc. The result is the same. It looks like the ai is not saved in a format that allows me to convert the curves to text. Thanks @Chills also, good to know that even CS6 can't do the conversion. I will follow the suggestion from @carl123 and locate the closest font I can for future projects, and just insert new text to replace the elements that need replacing.

Appreciate the help everyone

[Hangman]

11 hours ago, Chills said:

I don't think any program can convert from curves to text?  Its not just Affinity, CS6 can't do it either.

Although this looks interesting, shame it's an Illustrator only plug-in...

https://www.esko.com/en/products/deskpack/plugins/text-recognition

[Chills]

2 hours ago, Hangman said:

Although this looks interesting, shame it's an Illustrator only plug-in...

https://www.esko.com/en/products/deskpack/plugins/text-recognition

It is interesting. However it is £22 a month!!!!
The problem will be is that is an approximation so it will have to guess at the font? It could get this wrong and/or you may not have install the font it is looking for.
TBH It is going to be just as easy to replace the text yourself.

This problem is occuring because people are saving as curves.  Normally I only do this at the final stage before sending to the printer/publisher  So this suggests people are not getting the origional artwork?

 

[Hangman]

3 minutes ago, Chills said:

t is interesting. However it is £22 a month!!!!

That's for a set of eight different Illustrator/Phoroshop plugins, but they are really designed for pre press in the packaging industry... I just thought the technology was clever being able to convert outlined text back into editable text but again it's really aimed at the pre press market to make last minute changes to likely tiny amounts of copy or to correct the odd typo that's slipped through prior to going to print but it makes you wonder, when you have technology able to recognise fonts whether in the future this kind of technology could infact convert text back to it's original font...

8 minutes ago, Chills said:

This problem is occuring because people are saving as curves.  Normally I only do this at the final stage before sending to the printer/publisher  So this suggests people are not getting the origional artwork?

Agree, logically there shouldn't be any need to convert to curves if the fonts are embedded in the pdf...

[lacerto]

22 hours ago, Hangman said:

Although this looks interesting, shame it's an Illustrator only plug-in...

https://www.esko.com/en/products/deskpack/plugins/text-recognition

This was so bizarre as an idea that I just had to give it a try. It is a well implemented plug-in that shows the match in percentage and lets compare in live shapes the results, but the major problem is of course that the plug-in is dependable on installed fonts (perhaps live comparison to large collection of server-based fonts that can be subsequently used to install the best matching font is available?).

Anyway: it failed to recognize from outlines this rather peculiar font from Adobe Fonts (Utopian One BW), which is installed on the test computer.

To be fair, it was not recognized by Find My Font or WhatTheFont service, either (though it might just be that the font does not exist in their databases).

So it is a kind of a comfort that there is still room for human experience and eye, but having said that, the plug-in does a decent job in trying to match found glyphs and text positioning by using kerning, tracking and vertical and horizontal scaling. It is cheating and may produce awful results but might nevertheless be useful in some situations, at least as a help to quickly find a good base for manual tweaks -- the plug-in is not free, though, and costs roughly the same (per month) as Illustrator CC (must be 2020 or later) itself!

As for OP's dilemma, the plug-in suggested the one that I would have used (Utopia Std Bold) out of the rather random installed font-base on the test computer) as the 16th best option, but the ones that were suggested as a better match (e.g. Clarendon), did e.g. have more representative number "2", and it may well be that the original was a mix of glyphs from a Clarendon-kind of curved font and a Utopia-kind of stencil-shape font. So taking the number "7" (very different in these two fonts) from either would be well based. It is a compromise anyway.  

 

[Chills]

The problem is that fonts are not equal.  There is a huge difference in quality between them. More so with digital fonts where the differences are not usually visable to the human eye.  Some of it comes down to the number of points used in the digitising.   So two "Aerial Regular" fonts may be seen completley differently by the software when turning them to curves.    When reversing the process crom curves to characters the same will apply.   Therefore you may not end up with the software "guessing" the same font as you started with even if you have, by name, the same font on both computers.

Of course the font may have the "same name" when you look at it but not when the program looks.   I have one font that has two instalations.   One is  "Palatio Linotype" with 4 faces  that the PC (and several programs) expects to see there and the other "Paltino LT Std"  that is the full set of 20 faces from LinoType.  

Is the program case senistive when lokning for fonts? 

You may be better just starting again wit text and delete the curves.