Why is outlined type thicker than regular editable type?

[zero2dash]

And is there anything I can do to not make it thicker?

Sometimes I have to outline type (in Illustrator or InDesign) to send customer files because they're running Windows and I'm using a font that either a) doesn't play nice with Windows or b) won't install in Windows and the client doesn't have ATM (or the like) font manager program under Windows.

Any help or info would be very appreciated; I've dug around on Google and also the Adobe support forums and not really found any info regarding this. (Either that or I'm not digging around enough.) <shrug>

 

[Blue Velvet]

I've never found it to be much of a problem except at very small sizes. But then it's rare that I have to send files to Windows users.

It could have something to do with the number of points that it creates or the way in which it translates the metrics... also occasionally, I mess up and inadvertently apply a thin stroke to it which will thicken things up.

Possibly interesting question: does it do the same for TrueType, PostScript and OpenType fonts?

I'm not a habitual InDesign user. Is it noticeably different when it's done in Illustrator?

 

[beatsme]

And is there anything I can do to not make it thicker?

Sometimes I have to outline type (in Illustrator or InDesign) to send customer files because they're running Windows and I'm using a font that either a) doesn't play nice with Windows or b) won't install in Windows and the client doesn't have ATM (or the like) font manager program under Windows.

Any help or info would be very appreciated; I've dug around on Google and also the Adobe support forums and not really found any info regarding this. (Either that or I'm not digging around enough.) <shrug>

is the text locked? I've noticed InDesign will thicken up the text if the text block is locked.

 

[zero2dash]

Possibly interesting question: does it do the same for TrueType, PostScript and OpenType fonts?

I'm not a habitual InDesign user. Is it noticeably different when it's done in Illustrator?

I'm not sure if the font type matters; it seems like it's equally "bolder" across the board for all of them. As for InD vs Illustrator - I think they're also about as bold between the two if you outline the same type line in InD and also Illustrator and compare the two. Seems that way to me at least. Some fonts it's much more worse than others; Helvetica is usually a pretty good outlined font (not really any thicker) but some fonts, like say Avant Garde (one of the more noticeable ones I've seen) are 2-3x thicker if they're outlined.

is the text locked? I've noticed InDesign will thicken up the text if the text block is locked.

Nope, I thought about that but I never lock the text. Then I thought maybe because several text boxes were grouped together, so I ungrouped them and tried again - and still had no luck on making the outlined type thinner.

The only real info I've found about this is something along the lines of outlining the fonts turns them into Postscript art or something, which I can sorta correlate and wonder "well maybe that's why". *sigh* Aargh its times like these I wish that either a) everyone in the world had 1 platform (ie Mac) or b) companies refusing to buy a Mac would at least invest the cheap cost in buying a font management program instead of using the laughable one that's built into Windows that does nothing. I wonder if Microsoft will rip off Font Book and put it in Vista (if it's ever released).

edit: I uploaded some sample pictures.