Fonts corruption when printing a PDF programatically

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Pete Ocasio
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 16 2008

Fonts corruption when printing a PDF programatically

Post by Pete Ocasio »

I am having strange issues when printing a pdf created by PDF converter. I create the pdf programatically and then send this same pdf to a printer through the print function in PDF converter. In some cases, the printing of the pdf to the hard copy comes out with a lot of strange symbols. It looks like the printing function cannot resolve the fonts. Usually occurs with Times New Roman but lately it is happening with a variety of fonts. If I use ShellExec to print the same file the document prints fine and the same is true when I simply open the PDF and printed directly to the printer. This has been an issue with the PDF Converter 2.51-d in my case. Have any of you seen this issue before and have a solution or a reccomendation on how to fix. I am at the end of the rope in figuring this one out and am considering looking for another pdf print solution that I can distribute to my clients. I have too many unhappy clients because of this. Too many problems and very few answers to Converter issues... Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Pete Ocasio
kschmidt
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006

new tool

Post by kschmidt »

What other tools have you been considering?
Pete Ocasio
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 16 2008

Post by Pete Ocasio »

I have not started yet... but have some in mind... I thought of writing a wrapper alround acrobat 6, 7, or 8. Also, CutePdf may be an option. I use to have a wrapper for acrobat PDF writer but they abandon it so no luck there. I definetely need to come up with something. Don't take me wrong if the solution for this problem comes up I will stick with Amyuni.. I still think is a good product but at time it has seem somewhat unreliable. The thing is that is not with all systems or specific OSs.... so its been tough to figure out.
Joan
Amyuni Team
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Joined: Wed Sep 11 2002
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Post by Joan »

Hello Pete,

As I understood you are using version 2.51-d, am I right? This version is a little bit old, i will check if there is a known issue related to printing pdf documents using the PDF Converter in 2.51-d.

Please let me know which OS you are using and let me know if you are generating your PDFs using font embedding or not.

I will check this issue and let you know.
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Pete Ocasio
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jan 16 2008

Post by Pete Ocasio »

This has been an ongoing problem. I generate the PDFs using font embedding and the OSs that have shown the problem are WinXP and Win2000.
Jose
Amyuni Team
Posts: 553
Joined: Tue Oct 01 2002
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Post by Jose »

Hello Pete,

Based on your comments, I suspect that your issue is related to how you are handling the PDF Converter printer object.

When the PDF Converter prints a PDF document with embedded fonts, in order to provide accurate printing, it will create temporary fonts on the system. These fonts are then removed/deleted when the printing has terminated or the object is destroyed.

In the case were the developer destroys the PDF Converter object before the printing process ends, the printing will continue but since the temporary fonts no longer exist, the fonts are replaced by other fonts.

In order to resolve this scenario, we suggest that on the hardware printer you disable “Spool print documents..” and enable “Print directly to printer”. This will cause the EndPrint() to return only when the printing has finished and at that point you can destroy the thread.

Hope this helps?
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