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This is an instruction how to create PDF document with Latin 2 characters under Joomla! 1.5  (I have tried only CZECH language, but I think, other central European languages - Czech, Slovak, Croatian, Slovenian, ... - will work too)

1. Create new ufm file e.g. freemono - ttf2ufm -a -F freemono.ttf - you need ttf2ufm.exe in joomla/libraries/tcpdf/tools
2. Attention - ttf2ufm.exe creates ufm file with error: Character "Ċ" instead of "č". You need to edit this ufm file:

Change this code from:
U 266 ; WX 600 ; N Cdotaccent ; G 204 ;
U 269 ; WX 600 ; N ccaron ; G 207 ;

to:
U 266 ; WX 600 ; N Cdotaccent ; G 207 ;
U 269 ; WX 600 ; N ccaron ; G 204 ;

(Changing values: Cdotaccent -> ccaron, ccaron -> Cdotaccent - [color=red]you must change G values and WX values too, if they are different[/color])
It is only example. Some ufm files doesn't contain "Cdotaccent" but only "Cdot". If you need "Ċ", don't do this change (Thanks karol.cejka for his advice)

At the end, you create freemono.php , freemono.z, freemono.ctg.z: php -q makefontuni.php freemono.ttf freemono.ufm - you need makefontuni.php in joomla/libraries/tcpdf/tools
and you copy this files (freemono.php , freemono.z, freemono.ctg.z) to joomla/language/pdf_fonts/

Don't forget to change your language xml file (e.g cs-CZ.xml in joomla/language/cs-CZ/):


And it should work. 

Thanks H13,
Please have alook here
http://forge.joomla.org/sf/frs/do/viewR ... .pdf_fonts

I don't understand. There are fonts, they don't support latin 2 languages?

all utf8, see the list I posted in the other thread concerning their usage.

ttf2ufm have a bug. H13 have pretty cool hack/update for Czech / Slovak language.

Could you specify which glyphs are available for that font and advantages compared to those already provided?

We may just include the new font on Forge.

It is not so easy.

Fonts in forge.joomla.org don't support Czech/Slovak/...(Latin 2) languages (or they do but not correctly).

If we create new font with help of ttf2ufm, it supports Czech/Slovak/... languages but ttf2ufm have a bug and PDF document shows "Ċ" instead of "č". We can hack it and PDF document will show it correctly. But character "Ċ" will be missing. Czech and Slovak languages don't need this character "Ċ", so it is all right. But there can be languages (I don't know), they need both characters "Ċ" and "č" and this can be problem. This solution isn't 100% for some Latin2 languages.

This hack can be used in the following languages (They contain character "č") : Lithuanian, Latvian, Croatian, Slovenian, Slovak, Czech, ...

Yes I've had the same problem with every font I compiled.
Thank you for the solution, I'll try it later and report back.




Jean-Marie, I've read those threads several times and it looks to me that included Vera font should work for latin2 range of languages. Am I wrong about this?

UNhappily I am not the specialist on these matters.
At reading David's post, this is what we get for Vera:


So it looks like some characters are missing indeed.

Jean-Marie, Vera font (forge.joomla.org) doesn't support Central European languages. There (forge.joomla.org) are other fonts, they support Central European languages but they contain error. This error ("Ċ" instead of "č") affects following languages:

- Lithuanian
- Latvian
- Croatian
- Slovenian
- Slovak
- Czech.

There are three possibilities how we can solve it:

1. We do nothing. Every user will create own font.
2. Somebody repair a bug in ttf2ufm (there is a source code).
3. We will create special font for affected languages.

H13, I would not know how to repair that ttf2ufm file.

If there are errors in the files present on Forge (which specific files please?), do you think you could correct them and let me know when available?
I will be pleased to replace the buggy ones with the corrected ones so as to let all Partners and users have access to them..

Thanks for your support.

Vera – doesn't support: č, ď, ě, ň, ř, ť, ů, Ď, Ě, Ň, Ř, Ť, Ů (Czech characters) – this font doesn't support Latin 2 characters

DejaVuSans – supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")
CyberBase - supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")
FreeSans - supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")
Romanuni - supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")
FreeSerif - supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")
Cyberbit - supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")
CyberCJK - supports Latin 2 characters but with one error ("Ċ" instead of "č")

But I can't correct these files, I can replace "Ċ" by "č". It is solution for discussed languages. If I do it, character "Ċ" will be missing and this can cause problems in other languages 

Understood now fully.

I'll ask if this glyph is used or not by any of our Translators.

That is great.

Last question:

Have you tried the last releases of Unicode GPL fonts (december 2006):
http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freefont/

I am asking because David did the job before these were released.

Now I have tried it. The outcome is the same because there isn't problem in ttf (font) but in the ttf2ufm.exe.
ttf2ufm.exe creates ufm file with error.

I may have good News for you all.
tcpdf library has been updated last night and we also get a new font package.
I tested the Ċ and č and it looks like working.

Please install last SVN (6576+) and download these new fonts

http://forge.joomla.org/sf/frs/do/downl ... s8747?dl=1

Waiting for your feedback

Jean-Marie, m'incliner devant toi.

It works great! The following code in tcpdf class is the solution:


Thank you very much.

All the merit goes to Louis Landry...
I happened to bug him about this as he was just committing the new library, explaining what was our problem.
I tested on the fly, that's all. 

I don't thank you for the solution (thanks to Louis Landry), I thank you for the output. 

I have not tested Vera fully, Inglia, but Vera  for sure does not display the Ċ

It's not important any more, Vera was just confusing because it has all the glyphs (for hr) but not all of them are represented with both lowercase and uppercase variant.

Thank you, all 3 of you, for the solution 

Hi to everyone in this forum.
I'm working with tcpdf and the pdf files that we create are about 240K, The pdf files come with Unicode support for Latin 2 characters. My question is how can we make the files smaller.

I have the same problem. I think, PDF document saves all utf-8 characters in font, because if I create PDF with e.g. Vera fonts, it takes 70 KB but without characters I need.

In FPDF also the father of TCPDF it is possible too convert fonts with different encodings and only the subsets for the needed languages. the unneeded chars in map files can be deleted. The font files are therefore smaller and smaller PDF files can be created.

Does anyone have an idea if the same can be achieved with tcpdf? I tried to convert fonts with subsets, the converted font files were as big as normal converted fonts.

H13: Considering that your conversation about PDF fonts generating for central eu languages took place in march, i assume that fix was already implemented in RC1. I found the same problem with polish language. Instead of ¶æñ¼¿± etc. I have squares in PDF. Do you have any solution for that already or I need to wait for full polish translation project finish?

Pajonkhfat,

Try to change font, because Vera (default PDF font for Joomla!1.5) doesn't support central European languages (Latin2). Now I use FreeSans and I have no problems with PDF creating. I think, FreeSans contains polish characters too.

Thanks for help. I've got freesans.php, freesans.ctg.z, freesansbold.z and freesansbold.ctg.z in my joomla/language/pdf_fonts/ directory. One more thing. How I can force joomla fpdf to use freesans instead of vera fonts? I could rename it to vera and overwrite old vera files, but it does not seems to be the best way for me

Hi pajonkhfat,

Try change the folllowing in your site language pl-PL.xml
vera
to
freesans