Does anybody know how I can export curved labels to adobe illustrator without the each letter getting carved out to a different layer?

[JTMTadministrator]

To my knowledge this was possible in earlier versions, but now, using arcgis 10.4 it doesn't work. As long as the label is on a straight line everything's fine - it's just the curved instances, or even if the label was placed by maplex engine in two lines - the two lines become two distinct text boxes.

[AbdullahAnter]

Try to use Insert Object.

Or

export your curved label to picture

[KevinLECOCQ]

I'm using ArcMap 10.2 and it's the same behaviour. This old topic talks about that: ArcGIS Labeling to Illustrator - Software Applications - CartoTalk so I think the issue is not new.

When you are labeling line features, especially if you use the Maplex 'street placement', you can get several cases in Illustrator side:

- each letter separated

- each word separated as text on path

- one straight text

This behaviour is very disappointing for me. Ideally, I would get only texts on path, where path follows the whole street line. That would be so easier to adjust manually in Illustrator.