itext Marathi (indian) language display issue

Question

I am evaluating iText as a PDFGenerator for java swing application. The output is supposed to be in "Marathi", which is a local Indian langauge similar to hindi but not same.

For evaluation purposes this is the text i am trying to print:

मराठी ग्रीटींग्स, मराठी शुभेच्छापत्रे

Here is the source code:

package pdftest;

import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import com.itextpdf.text.Document;
import com.itextpdf.text.DocumentException;
import com.itextpdf.text.Font;
import com.itextpdf.text.FontFactory;
import com.itextpdf.text.Paragraph;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.BaseFont;
import com.itextpdf.text.pdf.PdfWriter;


public class CPDFTest 
{
    private static String FILE = "c:/will/FirstPdf.pdf";

    public static void main(String[] args) 
        {
        try 
                {
            Document document = new Document();
            PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(FILE));
            document.open();
            addMetaData(document);
            addTitlePage(document);
            document.close();
        } 
                catch (Exception e) 
                {
        }
    }

    private static void addMetaData(Document document) 
        {
        document.addTitle("My first PDF");
    }

    private static void addTitlePage(Document document)
            throws DocumentException 
        {

            Paragraph preface = new Paragraph();

            FontFactory.registerDirectory("C:\\WINDOWS\\Fonts");

            Font marFont = FontFactory.getFont("arial unicode ms",BaseFont.IDENTITY_H,true);

            // Lets write a big header
            preface.add(new Paragraph("मराठी ग्रीटींग्स, मराठी शुभेच्छापत्रे", marFont));

            document.add(preface);
    }
}

Please check the following image for error details:

enter image description here

I think the issue maybe with the encoding or something but am not able to figure it out as of now. Any help will be appreciated.

How about if you convert each Marathi character into equivalent Unicode codepoint like in the given [example](http://itextpdf.com/examples/iia.php?id=201)? — ecle, Feb 09 '12 at 12:51

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 09 '12 at 13:23

2

Unless included in one of the most recent versions, iText does not support the Devanāgarī writing system.

In some writing systems, there is no one-to-one relation between the actual letter and the correct glyph, but the glyph shape differs depending on e.g. the surrounding glyphs or its position within a word. To render the text correctly, the type setting software needs to implement these rules and AFAIK, iText implements such rules only for Arabic.

answered Feb 09 '12 at 13:23

jarnbjo

33,923
7
70
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Thanks for the response jarnbjo. Do you know of a pdf creator which supports Devanāgarī script? – Will Feb 09 '12 at 13:34
Update to this answer: iText 7, with the pdfCalligraph add-on, supports Devanagari and many other writing systems. – Amedee Van Gasse Apr 02 '18 at 08:25

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 29 '13 at 10:54

The following worked for me.

import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.io.*;
import com.lowagie.text.*;

public class Test { 
    /** Path to the resulting PDF file. */
    public static final String RESULT
    = "/home/test.pdf";
     /**
     * Creates a PDF file: test.pdf
     * @param    args    no arguments needed
     */
    public static void main(String[] args)
        throws DocumentException, IOException {
        Document document = new Document();       
    PdfWriter writer =       
                    PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(RESULT));       
    document.open();       
    int w = 400;
    int h = 150;

    PdfContentByte cb = writer.getDirectContent();
    PdfTemplate tp = cb.createTemplate(w, h);
    Graphics2D g2 = tp.createGraphicsShapes(w, h);        
    g2.drawString("मराठी ग्रीटींग्स, मराठी शुभेच्छापत्रे", 20, 100);                
    g2.dispose();
    cb.addTemplate(tp, 50, 400);
    document.close();        

    }
}

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 18 '17 at 11:21

As itext is not supporting vernacular language,Convert text to bitmap and set as image.Use Below Method for conversion:

Step 1:

public Bitmap textAsBitmap(String text, float textSize, float stroke, int color) {

    TextPaint paint = new TextPaint();
    paint.setTextSize(textSize);
    paint.setAntiAlias(true);
    // paint.setTextAlign(Paint.Align.LEFT);

    paint.setColor(Color.BLACK);
    // paint.setStyle(Paint.Style.STROKE);
    paint.setStrokeJoin(Paint.Join.ROUND);
    paint.setStrokeWidth(20f);
    paint.setTypeface(Typeface.create(Typeface.DEFAULT, Typeface.NORMAL));
    float baseline = (int) (-paint.ascent() + 3f); // ascent() is negative

    StaticLayout staticLayout = new StaticLayout(text, 0, text.length(),
            paint, 435, android.text.Layout.Alignment.ALIGN_NORMAL, 1.0f,
            1.0f, false);


    Bitmap image = Bitmap.createBitmap(staticLayout.getWidth(),
            staticLayout.getHeight(), Bitmap.Config.ARGB_8888);

    Canvas canvas = new Canvas(image);
    canvas.drawColor(Color.WHITE);
    canvas.drawBitmap(image, 5, 5, null);

    staticLayout.draw(canvas);

    return image;
}

Step 2:

ByteArrayOutputStream stream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
Bitmap bitmap = Bitmap.createBitmap(Utils.textAsBitmap(""+yourString,14,2,200));
bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100 , stream);
Image myImg = Image.getInstance(stream.toByteArray());
document.add(myImg);

itext Marathi (indian) language display issue

3 Answers3

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