What is a potential file-size impact of leaving text as outlines in a PDF?

What is a potential file-size impact of leaving text as outlines in a PDF?

• A. Substantially reduces file size
• B. Typically inflates file size
• C. No effect on file size
• D. Always reduces readability

Answer: (B)

Outlining text converts each character into its own vector shape, so the PDF stores the drawing instructions for every letter rather than referencing a font program. Fonts are compact because one glyph description can be reused across many characters and pages; when you outline, that reuse is lost and all the path data for every instance is embedded. On dense text, this adds a lot of data, usually making the file larger rather than smaller. You also trade off searchability and accessibility, since outlined text is no longer selectable or copyable, even though the visual appearance remains the same.

Outlining text converts each character into its own vector shape, so the PDF stores the drawing instructions for every letter rather than referencing a font program. Fonts are compact because one glyph description can be reused across many characters and pages; when you outline, that reuse is lost and all the path data for every instance is embedded. On dense text, this adds a lot of data, usually making the file larger rather than smaller. You also trade off searchability and accessibility, since outlined text is no longer selectable or copyable, even though the visual appearance remains the same.