Arial font required in PDF (BIRT pdf renderer, Linux)

Question

I've created a rptdesign file using BIRT IDE. This file contents are in Arial font, when I export the report to PDF in windows it works fine.

I uses the default viewerServlet to create reports. But when I moved the report to a linux system, all contents in the report was displayed in Times New Roman font instead of Arial in th PDF file.

Then I copied the Arial.ttf file to /var/font/truetype and added the following line to platform/plugins/org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.fonts_2.3.2.r232_20090202/fontsConfig.xml

    <font-paths>
        ---------------
        ---------------
        ---------------
        <path path="/var/font/truetype" />
    </font-paths>

After adding this line all contents are coming in Arial font, but the contents which are bold appears to compressed and look very ugly.

Has anyone faced this problem and has any solution?

Thank you Regards, Arun

Sputnik

I don't know your particular framework, but doesn't it offer the possibility of embedding the used fonts into the PDF? – Depressant

Answer 1

Here is my fontsConfig_pdf.xml file

<font>
<font-aliases>
    <mapping name="sans-serif" font-family="Arial" />
    <mapping name="serif" font-family="Times-Roman" />
    <mapping name="monospace" font-family="Courier" />
</font-aliases>
<font-encodings>
    <encoding font-family="Times-Roman" encoding="Cp1252" />
    <encoding font-family="Helvetica" encoding="Cp1252" />
    <encoding font-family="Courier" encoding="Cp1252" />
    <encoding font-family="Zapfdingbats" encoding="Cp1252" />
    <encoding font-family="Symbol" encoding="Cp1252" />
    <encoding font-family="STSong-Light" encoding="UniGB-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="STSongStd-Light" encoding="UniGB-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="MHei-Medium" encoding="UniCNS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="MSung-Light" encoding="UniCNS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="MSungStd-Light" encoding="UniCNS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="HeiseiMin-W3" encoding="UniJIS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="HeiseiKakuGo-W5" encoding="UniJIS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="KozMinPro-Regular" encoding="UniJIS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="HYGoThic-Medium" encoding="UniKS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="HYSMyeongJo-Medium" encoding="UniKS-UCS2-H" />
    <encoding font-family="HYSMyeongJoStd" encoding="UniKS-UCS2-H" />
</font-encodings>
<font-paths>
        <path path="/var/fonts/truetype"/>
</font-paths>
<composite-font name="all-fonts">
    <font font-family="Times-Roman" catalog="Western" />
    <font font-family="MSung-Light" catalog="Chinese" />
    <font font-family="HeiseiKakuGo-W5" catalog="Japanese" />
    <font font-family="HYGoThic-Medium" catalog="Korean" />
</composite-font>
</font>

Sputnik

Answer 2

Try explicitly stating your path to the font like this:

<font-paths>
   <path path="/var/font/truetype/arial.ttf" />
</font-paths>

Setting this property (font-paths) cause the default fonts directory to be ignored in favor of only the paths in this set. This will make Arial the only available font for your PDF. To include the default fonts (TNR, Courier, etc...) add the default path (org.eclipse.birt.report.engine.fonts) under the eclipse plug-ins to you font-paths entries as well.

You can also choose to just add Arial.ttf to the default directory and REMOVE ALL ENTRIES from font-paths and pick up the Arial type that way. Either way should work.

Good Luck.

Patsy

After doing this also the bold characters are appearing very bold and compressed. I think it is same as the including the font folder. Instead of loading all the fonts it will load only the Arial font. – Sputnik

Arial.ttf has a bold variant in the font itself. As long as the font class is being found, it is the PDF engine that is having trouble handling the bold weight. – Patsy

Do you know where fontsConfig.xml lives in the BIRT (4.3.2) runtime? – Periodate

Answer 3

Can any one tell me if there is any issue with Arial font in linux, if the characters are set as bold

Everything works fine for us. Below is my patch for fontsConfig.xml:

<font-aliases>
    <mapping name="sans-serif" font-family="Arial" />
    ...
</font-aliases>
<font-paths>
    <path path="fonts"/>
</font-paths>

Put in fonts folder arial.ttf and arial.xml files.

Amorita

Hi, Thanks for your answer. But it is still not working for me. I've added the font-aliases and font-paths in fontsConfig_pdf.xml file. Can you tell me any how the bolded text in your reports works, is it looks ok? – Sputnik

Yes. Bold Arial looks fine. Did you have multiple fontsConfig files? I recommend you (if it possible) leave 1 file fontsConfig.xml and configure everything in the file. – Amorita

Answer 4

I spent hours searching for this:

export BIRT_FONT_PATH=/usr/share/fonts/truetype

Execute this and done!

Pericycle

Answer 5

Then I copied the Arial.ttf file to /var/font/truetype

Arial.ttf only contains the plain version of the font. For bold, italic and italic-bold there are different files (arialbd.ttf etc). Just copy these, too.

Aedile