PDF & Asian Languages

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Alexey
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Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:15 pm

PDF & Asian Languages

Unread post by Alexey »

Hello,
We have a problem with Asian languages in PDF (didn't notice when it started exactly, but in some previous versions it was OK).
We have a mix of Japanese and English in one project.
If we set Font mode = Embed True Type fonts (exclude fonts below), the PDF becomes very large (~350 MB)
If we set Font mode = Embed Type 3 fonts, the PDF size is OK (~27 MB), BUT some of the Latin letters display in a strange way - they're jumping (pls see the image attached). Is there a workaround for this?
In the PDF export tab, the printer driver is set to Microsoft XPS Document Writer.
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Tim Green
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Re: PDF & Asian Languages

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Alexey,

Before doing anything else, please make sure that you are using the current version of Help & Manual 7, which you can check with Help > About. The current version is 7.3.5 Build 4431. If you need to update you can download the latest installer from

https://www.helpandmanual.com/downloads.html?upd

Just install on top of your current version to update.This will not change any of your settings etc. If you have any problems installing on your machine, start the installer by right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer and selecting "Run as Administrator" from the context menu displayed.
If we set Font mode = Embed True Type fonts (exclude fonts below), the PDF becomes very large (~350 MB)
This means you are using the wrong font for your content and language. If even one character you use is not included in the font, Windows will replace ALL characters with graphical glyphs. The result is that the PDF is made up of thousands of tiny graphics, one for each character. You must use either full Unicode fonts that contain ALL the characters used for both languages, or use styles with separate, language-specific fonts for each language.

The Type3 fonts setting may not work for all fonts. Also try the CID fonts option.

If you continue to have problems with the current build please mail a small demo project to support AT ec-software.com (replace the AT with @) and we will check it for you. Please include a description of what the problem is and where it can be seen in the accompanying mail. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Alexey
Posts: 95
Joined: Mon Feb 09, 2009 3:15 pm

Re: PDF & Asian Languages

Unread post by Alexey »

Hi Tim,
Thanks for your reply.
I just updated to the latest version (I had 7.3.4) and it helped with Chinese. Now it is displayed fine with "Embed Type3 fonts".
However it didn't help with Japanese (though it looks slightly better than before - letters don't jump, but look bold). You can see that on the screenshot attached.
I tried setting "Embed CID fonts" for the Japanese project. It makes it look fine, but the file size increases back to 350 MB, and text search doesn't work.
I'll send both projects at your email.
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Tim Green
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Re: PDF & Asian Languages

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Alexey,

Thanks for the demo files. As far as I can see, your problems are caused by choosing incompatible fonts for this task. Courier New is not a full Unicode font, and if you use it for text in both languages there will be substitutions for the entire text, not just for the missing characters (this is the way font management works in Windows). Then you will either get characters that don't look quite right (like the bold characters) or incorrect characters.

For example, if I replace all the fonts in your stylesheet with a full Unicode font like Lucida Sans Unicode then the problems disappear.

One thing you can do is create text styles with Latin fonts for the English text and native Japanese and Chinese fonts for the Asian text. Then you need to apply these styles to the text, also within paragraphs.

Our developers are also having a look at your demo projects to make sure, but this is the most likely situation. I'll post an update as soon as I have their analysis. :)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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