Type appears bolder after converting to outlines
When converting live type to outlines, the outlined text appears noticeably bolder. If you zoom in closely, the weight looks correct again.
This becomes a real problem when testing precise font weights for logos or identity work. Once type is outlined for customization, the apparent weight changes is making it difficult to accurately judge the final result. I often zoom out to evaluate designs at small sizes, but with outlined type, the visual weight no longer reflects how it should actually appear.
This behavior also shows up in exports:
If the outlined type is exported at small dimensions, the text appears heavier than intended in the resulting image file. When exporting at larger dimensions, the weight looks correct.
This feels like a rendering inconsistency between live type and outlined type that affects both on-canvas preview and small-size exports.
I’ve been using Illustrator for about 20 years, and as long as I can remember, outlined type has tended to appear slightly bolder. I’ve always assumed this was a known rendering issue and never reported it.
Attached are screenshots from Illustrator.
Please fix this 🙏
Hans
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I know what you mean, and there is an explanation.
A font is a program.
This program includes 'hinting' instructions — where to shift parts of the outlines of the characters, so that they fit precisely into the grid of the output device — it can be a screen or paper. It mattered more when screen pixels were bigger, and blurred edges were less wanted, but it still works today. A page with live text printed would look more crisp than the same design, printed from outlined text.Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_hinting
Outlining is a destructive operation that throws instructions away. We can force Ai to treat live text as outlined — by applying Outline Object effect. This would be much slower, but it would help you in some cases (I used to use this method a lot in older days) ...but not the other way around. There is also no way to 'flatten' the hint instructions into outlines and would never be, I personally believe.
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