About PDF export of text including Variation Selector.

[nf64]

Hello,

I using Spire.XLS 9.7.
Will need to output text containing Variation Selector to Excel and make it PDF.

Using Spire.XLS, exported to Excel with text containing Variation Selector.
'result.xlsx' is displayed without problems on MS Excel.

When this is saved as PDF, the Variation Selector is displayed as garbled characters.
There was no problem when 'result.xlsx' was export to PDF with MS Excel.

Code: Select all

var baseChar = "\U00008FBB";
var baseCharWithVariationSelector = "\U00008FBB\U000E0100";

using (var workbook = new Workbook())
{
    var worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    var style = workbook.Styles.Add("style");
    style.Font.FontName = "ＭＳ 明朝";

    worksheet["A1"].CellStyleName = style.Name;
    worksheet["A2"].CellStyleName = style.Name;

    worksheet["A1"].Text = $"CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-8FBB : '{baseChar}'";
    worksheet["A2"].Text = $"CID+3056 : '{baseCharWithVariationSelector}'";

    workbook.SaveToFile("result.xlsx", Xls.FileFormat.Version2013);
    worksheet.SaveToPdf("export_by_spire.pdf");
}


Is there way to work around this issue?
Or are there any plans to support IVS?

Thanks in advance.

[Amber.Gu]

Hi,

Thanks for your inquiry. This is Amber from E-iceblue support team.
From you information, I think you want the result like export_by_MSExcel.pdf without any square boxes. And you said while opening result.xlsx, the characters display correctly. Yet I see different result when I open your Excel file with Excel 2013.

box.png (3.1 KiB) Viewed 1326 times

Could you please tell us what Excel version you used for opening the result Excel file is? And could you provide a screenshot of displaying effect?

I could generate the same result PDF as the file export_by_spire.pdf via Spire. As for garbled characters issue, do you mean there is the square box? And do you want to generate excel and pdf file without these square boxes?

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team

[nf64]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

Yes, Garbled characters are square boxes.
I want the result without this box, that is, the same result as export_by_MSExcel.pdf.

When result.xlsx is opened in MS Excel, it is displayed as follows.
I using Excel 2013 (15.0.5153.1000), and Japanese environment.

View in MS Excel 2013

View_by_MSExcel2013.png (3.34 KiB) Viewed 1322 times

When this is exported to PDF, the result is similar to export_by_MSExcel.pdf.
It would be best if you could get similar results using Spire.

This is a screen shot displayed with Acrobat Reader.
Using Acrobat Reader DC 2019.012.20035.

View in Acrobat Reader

View_in_acrobatReader..png (12.33 KiB) Viewed 1322 times

However, When opening each PDF with Acrobat Reader and checking the Property, I noticed that there is a difference in the embedded font.
The PDF that is displayed correctly seems to have embedded fonts that have ANSI encoding.

Embedded fonts

pdf_embFonts.png (11.61 KiB) Viewed 1322 times

Thank you for your support,

[Amber.Gu]

Hi,

Thanks for your information.
I opened the “result.xlsx" with Excel 2013 under win10 system. And the file displays without square boxes.
I have logged your issue into our bug tracking system. Once there is any progress, we will inform you.
Sorry for the inconvenience caused.

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team

[Amber.Gu]

Hi,

Hope you are doing well.
To ensure the fix of the issue will work well on your side, please offer us the information of your operation system so that we could verify it after fixing the issue.

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team

[nf64]

Hello,

We used Windows10 64bit Japanease version.
Our product will work in a Japanese environment.
Please let me know if you have any other necessary information.

Thanks.

[Amber.Gu]

Hi,

Thanks for your information.
After further investigation, we found the encoding “U000E0100” will display as a special character when parsing with Unicode.
Note that the display of the encoding is controlled by system. Although the special character of “U000E0100” is not displayed while opening by MS Excel under Win10 System, it really exists in the Excel file(result.xlsx). When converting to Pdf, our Spire.Xls will generate Pdf file according to the actual data of Excel file, thus there will be the character which shows as a square box.
I’m afraid it’s not a bug of our product. Hope you could understand.

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team

[nf64]

Hello,

Yes, it may not be a bug.
I would like to ask if you can use the Variation Selector in Unicode.

'U00008FBB' is the Kanji '辻', but by adding 'U000E0100' immediately after this, it will change to another character.

See the next image.
Note that there is a change in the part surrounded by the red frame.

difference_of_ideograph.png (35.84 KiB) Viewed 1248 times

When using Spire.Xls, only 'U00008FBB' is recognized as a correct character and 'U000E0100' is now a square box.

Excel 2013 correctly recognizes 'U000E0100' and exports to PDF as intended.
I want to do the same when exporting from Spire.Xls to PDF.

At least there are strong needs from Japanese customers.
Are there any plans to support Variation Selector in Unicode?

I am always grateful for your help.

[Amber.Gu]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.
Since MS Excel will save the data of the document before transferring it to Pdf file, the data of your file may be changed after this saving.
Could you please save the result file(generated by Spire.Xls) as .xlsx file using MS Excel then send it to us?

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team

[nf64]

Hello,

Thanks for your reply.

Attach a new file.
This file is an .xlsx generated by Spire.Xls, opened and saved in MS Excel 2013.
There seems to be no significant difference in content.

[Amber.Gu]

Hi,

Thanks for your information.
After further investigation, we found that the data of your original Excel file is actually changed by MS Excel after saving to Pdf. And we found if you change the font setting of the second character to “宋体”, the display effect of the characters in the result Pdf could just be the one you want. I have attached the result files generated by Spire.Pdf, please check it. Below is the code for your reference.

Code: Select all

                var style1 = workbook.Styles.Add("style1");
                style1.Font.FontName = "ＭＳ 明朝";

                var style2 = workbook.Styles.Add("style2");
                style2.Font.FontName = "宋体";
               
                worksheet["A1"].CellStyleName = style1.Name;
                worksheet["A2"].CellStyleName = style2.Name;

Note the display of character is controlled by System and is really not the problem of our product, thus we won’t make any change using your original code. Hope you could understand.

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team

[nf64]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.
My intention does not seem to be communicated correctly.

Your way is changed the font.
Therefore glyph corresponding to the character code has been changed.
As a result it looks like no problem.

18494_result.png (10.05 KiB) Viewed 1188 times

But that is wrong.
'U000E0100' is changed to a blank, not a square box, resulting in 2 characters being output.
You are need to understand Variation Selector in Unicode, and must output the pair 'U00008FBB' and 'U000E0100' as one character.

But, difficult for me to explain this problem in my poor english.
We are considering giving up this problem.
Unfortunately.

[Amber.Gu]

Hi，

Thanks for your reply.
I have understood your meaning. As I have mentioned, the data of your original Excel file is actually changed by MS Excel after saving to Pdf, thus you could see one character generated by “U00008FBB” and “U000E0100”, but in fact they are two characters when parsing with Unicode.
You could try the following code the see the characters parsed by Unicode on your side.

Code: Select all

string text = Encoding.Unicode.GetString(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(baseCharWithVariationSelector));

I am afraid we couldn’t make any change using your original code.
Hope you could understand.

Best wishes,
Amber
E-iceblue support team