ICEsoft.org Forums: ICEfaces, ICEmobile, ICEpdf

PNG images captured using the open source libraries do not use the correct fonts. The output using the ice-pdf pro trial appears to use the correct fonts.

Was this sort of font support intentionally left out of the open source branch?

Is ICESoft willing to assist the open source community in adding this to the project?

The open source version uses font substitution. The font engine is part of ICEpdf pro and is not open source due to the code being owned by a third party and therefore cannot be part of the open source version. If you wish to utilize the font engine you can purchase a subscription which provides the license to use it. Please refer to http://www.icepdf.org/support/support-options.html.

Is it possible to add support for the proper fonts via "font substitution" then?

There is quite a bit of information about this in the developers guide but I'll summarize below what can be done to improve font substitution.

1. Install the ghost script fonts on your system, these fonts have font metrics that are close to the Adobe's core 14 fonts.
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-other-6.0.tar.gz

2. The open source version is capable of reading some embedded font types through java.awt.Font but this feature is turned off by default as it can crash the jvm. You can enable java.awt.font embeddef font support with the system property org.icepdf.core.awtFontLoading=true if you want to give it a try.

Thank you!

Hmm, is there any magic involved in installing the fonts (converting etc)? Downloaded the core fonts and Windows sees the descriptions but fails to recognize them for install.

I also tried System.setProperty("org.icepdf.core.awtFontLoading", "true");

but I still get garbled fonts (lots of squares etc). The pro-trial works fine but it would be nice to be able to do *some* evaluation of the open source package.

Thanks in advance,
Nik

I have had success using https://pdf-renderer.dev.java.net/ .

Hello all.

I've played with the ICEpdf Open Source 3.1, but at mine machine (Win 7 64 bit, Java 1.6) the pdf is rendered ok, but every font is substitued with a generic font in my rendering (to png or tiff). The pro works fine.

Actually, which pdf (or fonts in a pdf) is supposed to really work with the OpenSource version ?

Regards Bjørn-Willy Arntzen, KLP, Norway

If you set org.icepdf.core.awtFontLoading=true you will get some embedded font loading functionality out of the OS version, mainly TrueType and some OpenType. Otherwise the OS version uses font substitution to try and render PDF content.

Font substitution will generally provide a readable PDF document for TrueType and OpenType fonts. For CID and Type 3 fonts the Font encoding must provide a ToUnicode Cmap entry in order for font substitution to work correctly.

OS = OpenSource ?

Yes, that is correct. Sorry about that.

The Pro version supports all embedded font types. You can get a better break down of the product differences here, http://www.icepdf.org/product/pdf-compliance.html .

I was rendering the DevelopersGuide.pdf and that is based on TrueType and that rendered fine with OS.

The one that is really creating issues is one with fonts like the attached jpeg.

Can you tell me what kind for fonts that is ?

You might have better luck if you download the ghostscript urw-fonts. It contains a Dingbats font that helps with rendering symbols. http://svn.ghostscript.com/ghostscript/trunk/urw-fonts/Dingbats.afm

patrick.corless wrote:

There is quite a bit of information about this in the developers guide but I'll summarize below what can be done to improve font substitution.

1. Install the ghost script fonts on your system, these fonts have font metrics that are close to the Adobe's core 14 fonts.
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/gs-fonts/ghostscript-fonts-other-6.0.tar.gz

2. The open source version is capable of reading some embedded font types through java.awt.Font but this feature is turned off by default as it can crash the jvm. You can enable java.awt.font embeddef font support with the system property org.icepdf.core.awtFontLoading=true if you want to give it a try.

I'm using the ICEpdf open source in windows and facing the same problem. according to the solution mentioned above, i applied the 2nd method but no improvement. so can anybody help me apply the 1st method? how to install the ghostscript-fonts?

note : i have gone through the ghostscript-fonts but they are different from windows font.

Installing the fonts on Windows is a bit of a strange process.

For windows 7 and vista
- drag all the fonts on the windows font directory.
- the fonts will install but there will be some errors related to formats not recognized by windows.

For windows xp and earlier
- control panel -> fonts
- go to the file menu "install new font..." from the file menu.
- the fonts will install but there will be some errors related to formats not recognized by windows.