PDF Export: OpenType fonts with PostScript outlines broken

infotexture · Blue Pill Joined: Jul 03, 2012 Posts: 1

Earlier versions of NeoOffice on SnowLeopard embedded OpenType fonts with PostScript outlines (*.otf) properly during PDF Export, but v3.2.1 & 3.3 beta 2 under Lion seem to have introduced a regression that prevents such fonts from being properly embedded, whereas OpenType fonts with TrueType outlines (*.ttf) are embedded as expected.

According to http://www.oooforum.org/forum/viewtopic.phtml?t=29103, which quotes
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=16032#c4, this is apparently an old bug in the OOo codebase.

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

This is an invalid feature request. NeoOffice has supported OpenType fonts since NeoOffice 3.2 when we switched to using Apple's Core Text text rendering APIs.

We do not use OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice's obsolete Mac code. Neither of them have upgraded to Core Text nor does either use Apple's native "draw text to PDF" functions that NeoOffice uses so your new feature request is really a support request and I have moved it to the NeoOffice Beta Support forum where it belongs.

To be thorough, I will download a sample OpenType font to determine if any Mac OS X 10.8 changes have broken our existing support, but before you pay more to reply, you should verify that your OpenType font is not copy protected as Mac OS X will honor any copy protection that the font vendor is put in the font.

Edit by pluby: added link to our features page that explains what Core Text adds to NeoOffice

Patrick

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I have confirmed that this is a new bug that appears only on Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8 and works correctly on Mac OS X 10.6.

I used Apple's STIX General Regular OpenType PostScript font on all 3 Mac OS X versions so the mostly likely cause of this bug is that Apple changed the PDF output format for embedded OpenType fonts in Mac OS X 10.7.

I will need to investigate what changes Apple made in Mac OS X 10.7. Once I determine what changes they made and I have a fix, I will post a test patch.

Patrick

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I forgot to mention that this bug does not affect NeoOffice's printing of OpenType fonts so there is a workaround: print the document and, in the native Print dialog, select the PDF :: Save As PDF option.

This workaround prints directly to a PDF file and bypasses our native "draw to PDF" code that we use to get font data to OpenOffice.org's Export as PDF feature.

Patrick

pluby · The Architect Joined: Jun 16, 2003 Posts: 11949

I think that I have fixed this bug. Only a small tweak to our "draw glyphs to PDF file" code was needed to handle the changes that Apple made in Mac OS X 10.7.

The following test patch works with Apple's bundled STIX fonts. If anyone has OpenType fonts with PostScript outlines, can you install the test patch and tell us if the fonts are displayed when you open a PDF that was created using NeoOffice's Export as PDF toolbar or menu in Mac OS X's Preview application?:

Intel:
http://sally.neooffice.org/test/NeoOffice-3.3-Patch-0-Test-3-Intel.dmg

Edit by pluby: I moved this topic into the NeoOffice Support forum and tweaked the topic title to reflect that this is a bug in NeoOffice 3.3.

Patrick