Export unicode text in dxf file into pdf

[ebrahimraeyat]

Hello. First thanks a lot for such interesting project. I use it in my workflow.

I have some persian text in my dxf file and wanted to export it to pdf with backend.

but when I export it, it did not show unicode text correctly.

Also I identify fonts folder:

import ezdxf
ezdxf.options.set(ezdxf.options.CORE, "support_dirs" , "G:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2020\Fonts")
ezdxf.options.write_file()

[mozman]

Hi!

You did everything right, but you didn't rebuild the font cache, see Rebuild Font Cache.

The font cache is created once when ezdxf is first started and is not automatically updated afterwards.

You should also create a permanent configuration file in your home directory, otherwise you will rebuild the font cache on every launch, which defeats the purpose of the cache:

ezdxf config --home

The config file is located at: C:\users\<username>\.cache\ezdxf\ezdxf.ini

You can also create the config file in your current work directory:

ezdxf config --print > ezdxf.ini

see also Config Files

And also note, the text rendering engine was not designed with active support for Right-To-Left languages, as I have no idea how that works.

[ebrahimraeyat]

Thanks @mozman for your quick and complete response.
I executed this command:

import ezdxf
from ezdxf.fonts import fonts
fonts.build_system_font_cache()

and gives me this errors:

'name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 222; Actual: 224
'name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 294; Actual: 210
skipping malformed name record #17
skipping malformed name record #18
skipping malformed name record #19
skipping malformed name record #20
skipping malformed name record #21
skipping malformed name record #22
skipping malformed name record #23
....
'name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 294; Actual: 210
skipping malformed name record #17
skipping malformed name record #18
skipping malformed name record #19
skipping malformed name record #20
skipping malformed name record #21
skipping malformed name record #22
skipping malformed name record #23
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<input>", line 1, in <module>
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\site-packages\ezdxf\fonts\fonts.py", line 126, in build_system_font_cache
    build_font_manager_cache(_get_font_manager_path())
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\site-packages\ezdxf\fonts\fonts.py", line 326, in build_font_manager_cache
    font_manager.build()
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\site-packages\ezdxf\fonts\font_manager.py", line 409, in build
    self.scan_all(dirs + list(options.support_dirs))
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\site-packages\ezdxf\fonts\font_manager.py", line 417, in scan_all
    self.scan_folder(Path(folder).expanduser())
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\site-packages\ezdxf\fonts\font_manager.py", line 431, in scan_folder
    font_face = get_ttf_font_face(file)
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\site-packages\ezdxf\fonts\font_manager.py", line 463, in get_ttf_font_face
    style = record.string.decode(record.getEncoding())
  File "G:\freecad\git\build\bin\lib\encodings\utf_16_be.py", line 16, in decode
    return codecs.utf_16_be_decode(input, errors, True)
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-16-be' codec can't decode byte 0x72 in position 6: truncated data

It created a json file in C:\Users\{username}\.cache\ezdxf\font_manager_cache.json with this content:

{
  "version": 1,
  "font-faces": [
    [
      "C:\\Users\\ebrahim\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Fonts\\2ASEMAN.TTF",
      "2  Aseman",
      "Regular",
      400,
      5
    ],
    [
      "C:\\Users\\ebrahim\\AppData\\Local\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Fonts\\2ASEMANI.TTF",
      "2  Aseman",
      "Italic",
      400,
      5
    ],
....

Then I created pdf again and it only shows the rectangle around the text:

my configuration:

cfg = config.Configuration(
        background_policy=config.BackgroundPolicy.CUSTOM,
        custom_bg_color="#ffffff00",
        min_lineweight=.1,
        lineweight_scaling=0,
        color_policy=config.ColorPolicy.BLACK,
    )

Thanks again.

[mozman]

"Your" fonts are encoded in way that they throw an exception. There is nothing you can do until you install the next version of ezdxf that contains a fix for this specific bug. However, this does not mean that the next version will be able to render your file.

I'm wondering why this error didn't occur before, since the error is caused by a TTF font. And the first build of the font cache didn't throw an exception. After starting ezdxf for the first time, new TTF fonts must have been installed.

[mozman]

I released the next beta version v1.1.3b1 so you can test the fix.

[ebrahimraeyat]

Wow! Thanks.
I examined it with new version, But nothing happened. I run the rebuild font cache command again and this is output:

name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 222; Actual: 224
'name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 294; Actual: 210
skipping malformed name record #17
skipping malformed name record #18
skipping malformed name record #19
skipping malformed name record #20
skipping malformed name record #21
skipping malformed name record #22
skipping malformed name record #23
'name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 294; Actual: 210
...
skipping malformed name record #23
cannot open font 'G:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2020\Fonts\OldGlory.otf': 'utf-16-be' codec can't decode byte 0x72 in position 6: truncated data
'name' table stringOffset incorrect. Expected: 294; Actual: 210
skipping malformed name record #17
...
skipping malformed name record #23
cannot open font 'G:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2020\Fonts\ZWAdobeF.TTF': Not a TrueType or OpenType font (bad sfntVersion)

Then when I export dxf file to pdf this error appears:

DirectWrite: CreateFontFaceFromHDC() failed (Indicates an error in an input file such as a font file.) for QFontDef(Family="8514oem", pointsize=10, pixelsize=20, styleHint=5, weight=75, stretch=100, hintingPreference=0) LOGFONT("8514oem", lfWidth=0, lfHeight=-20) dpi=120
20:01:32  DirectWrite: CreateFontFaceFromHDC() failed (Indicates an error in an input file such as a font file.) for QFontDef(Family="8514oem", pointsize=10, pixelsize=20, styleHint=5, weight=50, stretch=100, hintingPreference=0) LOGFONT("8514oem", lfWidth=0, lfHeight=-20) dpi=120

BTW, this time the English text don't appear in most cases:

before:

with new version:

Thanks a lot.

[mozman]

I can't help you because I can't replicate your system and your installed fonts. You have many fonts with issues that I don't understand and cannot fix. Sorry.

[mozman]

You can upload the drawing as a zip-archive and I will look into it to find the problematic fonts and see if the drawing will be rendered with replacement fonts on my system.

[ebrahimraeyat]

Yes, you are right. I attached my dxf file with naskhd.shx persian font:

persian_unicode_text.zip

Thanks again.

[mozman]

The missing text has the text style SAZE_STYLE and uses the romansp.shx font which I don't have (I have collected a lot) and yours seems to be incompatible to ezdxf or broken - maybe you can send me your romansp.shx font to [email protected]

You can replace the romansp.shx by romans.shx:

import ezdxf

doc = ezdxf.readfile("persian_text.dxf")
style = doc.styles.get("SAZE_STYLE")
style.dxf.font = "romans.shx"
doc.saveas("fixed_persian_text.dxf ")

There is another error without an easy fix. When I add the NASKHD.SHX font to my fonts, ezdxf can't use the font and doesn't even find a replacement font - this is an error in ezdxf.

[ebrahimraeyat]

My Persian font style is civillir with font name naskhd.shx. The concrete column font is in Latin.
BTW i will send the fonts. Thanks.

[mozman]

It was a terrible beginner error 😁, but as expected the rendering is bad: