how to read bullets from RTF file

Question

I have a rtf file which has some text with bullets as shown in the screenshot below

I want to extract the data along with the bullets but when I print in the console, I get junk values. How do I print exactly the same from console. The way I tried is as below

public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, BadLocationException {
    RTFEditorKit rtf = new RTFEditorKit();
    Document doc = rtf.createDefaultDocument();

    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("C:\\Users\\Guest\\Desktop\\abc.rtf");
    InputStreamReader i =new InputStreamReader(fis,"UTF-8");
    rtf.read(i,doc,0);
    System.out.println(doc.getText(0,doc.getLength()));
}

Console output:

I assumed junk values are due to console not supporting chareset so I tried to generate a pdf file but in pdf also I get the same junk values. this is the pdf code

Paragraph de=new Paragraph();
            Phrase pde=new Phrase();
            pde.add(new Chunk(getText("C:\\Users\\Guest\\Desktop\\abc.rtf"),smallNormal_11));
            de.add(pde);

            de.getFont().setStyle(BaseFont.IDENTITY_H);
            document.add(de);
public static String getText() throws IOException, BadLocationException {
        RTFEditorKit rtf = new RTFEditorKit();
        Document doc = rtf.createDefaultDocument();

        FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("C:\\Users\\Guest\\Desktop\\abc.rtf");
        InputStreamReader i =new InputStreamReader(fis,"UTF-8");
        rtf.read(i,doc,0);
        String output=doc.getText(0,doc.getLength());
return output;
    }

Instead of writing to something as complex as a pdf file, write the same thing as your console output to a plain UTF-8 text file, then hex-dump that file to see the actual values being written. — Stephen P, Nov 15 '16 at 22:46
I deleted the `itext` tag (edit pending moderator approval), because your question is not about iText. It's about RTF. Stephen is absolutely right. Split up your problem, first make sure it works in the console before you even start thinking about PDF. — Amedee Van Gasse, Nov 16 '16 at 07:58
I think he tried to change to pdf to get around the problem, it's not his final goal. — Asoub, Nov 16 '16 at 12:50
You can walk through document elements, [`doc.getDefaultRootElement()`](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/javax/swing/text/DefaultStyledDocument.html#getDefaultRootElement--). I expect the bullets type is stored in paragraph attributes, see [`Element.getAttributes()`](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/javax/swing/text/Element.html#getAttributes--). — Alexey Ivanov, Nov 23 '16 at 09:17
Is it possible to have your input file (abc.rtf) made available somewhere ? I would like to test it on my environment ? Thanks. — Benoit, Nov 23 '16 at 19:46

score 6 · Answer 1 · edited Nov 26 '16 at 13:10

Despite what you said, my guess is that it is a console encoding problem.

Anyway you can easily check it:

Just replace this line:

    System.out.println(doc.getText(0,doc.getLength()));

With these 2 lines :

    PrintStream ps = new PrintStream(System.out, true, "UTF-8");
    ps.println(doc.getText(0,doc.getLength()));

This will force console encoding to UTF-8.

If it is still wrong, I would suspect your file is not fully rtf-compliant.

I made some tests and your code works well (the console one, I did not try the pdf) under Linux, but the console is natively in UTF-8.

how to read bullets from RTF file

1 Answers1