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1 of 1- Ghul
- Dread Necromancer
Offline 
- From: Isle of Ghul
- Registered: 3/01/2014
- Posts: 2,607
PDF Rendering
Fellows,
Perhaps someone more tech-savvy than me can help this gentleman with his problem:
++++++++++++++The pdf I bought from rpgnow doesn't quite render properly on my ebook reader (Icarus Excel). Some (but not all) of the ligatures, long dashes, and other special characters do not appear. For instance, the dashes on the xp tables are blank, and the bold "dog, hy[ae]na" on p54.
They do show up on my laptop, but not the other device. Is there some pdf
witchery than can accommodate this?++++++++++++
Any assistance would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Jeff T.
HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
- Handy Haversack
- The Monster of the Prophecy
Offline
- From: beyond the nighted gulfs
- Registered: 3/07/2014
- Posts: 1,799
Re: PDF Rendering
Jeff, either you don'r have the latest version of Acrobat Reader on that device or it requires fonts that you have not installed. If you look at the PDF properties, you can see which fonts it uses.
- Ghul
- Dread Necromancer
Offline
- From: Isle of Ghul
- Registered: 3/01/2014
- Posts: 2,607
Re: PDF Rendering
I thought that once a doc is saved in PDF format, all fonts (whether on the external user's computer or not) are embedded in the PDF. I think maybe his reader is converting the PDFs and not recognizing ligatures, em dashes, and so forth. I don't know.
HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
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Thread Starter- nDervish
- Ruffian
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- Registered: 3/24/2014
- Posts: 63
Re: PDF Rendering
FWIW, I have the same font issue on my Android tablet, although I couldn't tell you offhand which reader I'm using. (It installs itself as simply "PDF Reader", which seems a bit too generic of a name to be useful.) I agree that it's probably just a font that's not installed, but haven't ever bothered to actually look into it.
- Ghul
- Dread Necromancer
Offline
- From: Isle of Ghul
- Registered: 3/01/2014
- Posts: 2,607
Re: PDF Rendering
I examined the PDFs and confirmed that all the fonts are embedded. So why would they not render correctly for certain readers? I googled it and found this answer:
Font embedding is an essential feature of PDF, any PDF reader that doesn't support embedded fonts is seriously broken. So yes, you can assume that all ebook readers will display the embedded fonts. Even all ligatures and kerning created by LaTeX will be displayed, as they are "hard-coded" in the PDF (the case is different with ePub, where it is the reading software that must apply these typographic features, and often does not).
HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
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Thread Starter- Sue Dunham
- Vagabond
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- Registered: 5/27/2014
- Posts: 2
Re: PDF Rendering
I'm the person who wrote in with the trouble. I've, um, taken the liberty of poking a bit under the hood (I promise that I don't use my powers for ill!) and tried extracting the Helvetica Bold font from the pdf. the "ae" ligature is not a part of the embedded character set, which would seem to be needed for "dog, hyaena" on p54.
Are there, perhaps, some occaisional font substitutions in the source document? I know Word on Windows will grab the odd character from Arial to stick into another sans-serif font I'm using that lacks that character. That was how I discovered that I had bought the wrong Futura family, grumble grumble.
- Ghul
- Dread Necromancer
Offline
- From: Isle of Ghul
- Registered: 3/01/2014
- Posts: 2,607
Re: PDF Rendering
Hello Sue, and welcome to the board! So, I didn't recall having to make any font substitutions for Helvetica or Futura, so I took a look at those fonts, including the boldface versions, and they all include ligatures. With these fonts embedded in the document, or "hard coded" as I quoted in my above post, I'm wondering if your non-Adobe reader is at the root of the issue. I'm imagining that your PDF reader can translate the documents, but struggles with ligatures and other special characters. What is the reader your device is using, Sue? Again, welcome aboard!
Cheers,
Jeff T.
HYPERBOREA- A Role-Playing Game of Swords, Sorcery, and Weird Science-Fantasy
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Thread Starter- Maezar
- Rogue
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- Registered: 3/10/2014
- Posts: 125
Re: PDF Rendering
I've used the PDFs in Adobe and non Adobe readers with no trouble.
The only thing I wish is that they had been saved with "PAGE DISPLAY: ENABLE SCROLLING" set to YES.
- Sue Dunham
- Vagabond
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- Registered: 5/27/2014
- Posts: 2
Re: PDF Rendering
I'm using the default app on the Icarus Excel, whatever that may be. Not sure if I can install another from anywhere. The reader also goes by the name Onyx M92. Not too powerful or linked to a readily-found app universe, but a lovely screen.
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