[reportlab-users] Asian text not rendered

[Tim Roberts]

J Maxwell wrote:

> Tim Roberts wrote:

>> J Maxwell wrote:

>>   

>>> Japanese text in pdf files produced by reportlab 2.0 displays in some

>>> pdf viewers, but not in others.

>>> ...

>>> Can reportlab be tweaked to avoid this anomaly? 

>>>     

>> It is interesting to me that you view this as a failure in ReportLab,

>> rather than a failure in kpdf.

>>

>> Are you sure you have the correct fonts installed?  There's nothing

>> magic about Japanese text.  The key is the fonts.  The sample uses

>> HeiseiMin and HeiseiKakuGo.  It's possible, for example, that your

>> OpenOffice test is using a different font, which kpdf happens to know about.

>>

>>     

> It is interesting to me that you view my post as a belief in the

> failure of ReportLab.

> This perhaps reveals a certain bias in your thinking.

>

> You write that there's '...nothing magic about Japanese text." Well,

> it seems that reportlab was unable to grasp this simple truth.

> Unfortunately the developers have not done their homework if it's up

> to the end-user to choose the 'right' font among fonts known to be

> present on a system.

>

> " Can reportlab be tweaked to avoid this anomaly? " I asked.

> Apparently not.

>

> I'll be sticking with OpenOffice when I need to make a pdf file.

> And now for the barrage from disinterested acolytes.


I didn't insult you or your intelligence, and I'm not at all sure why
you responded so violently.  I was merely trying to suggest a method to
isolate the problem more specifically.  ReportLab is being used
successfully with other non-ASCII character sets; there is no difference
between Cyrillic and Japanese in this regard, so it seems clear that
some more characterization is needed.

I don't speak for ReportLab.  I'm merely an interested user.  Don't
discard the product because of what I said.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.