[gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[thelma]

I have a pdf file that has a check-mark symbol in it.  On one computer the evince is display the "check-mark".  On my other computer the check mark is displayed as a "square box"

Both computer run save ver. of evince.

pdffonts Km_Ysa.pdf (shows same output on both computers):

name                                 type              encoding         emb sub uni object ID
------------------------------------ ----------------- ---------------- --- --- --- ---------
ZOTMNE+Verdana,Bold                  TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes no      23  0
SEJYXC+Verdana                       TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes no      24  0
WUNKEP+Verdana,Italic                TrueType          WinAnsi          yes yes no      25  0
Verdana,Bold                         TrueType          WinAnsi          yes no  no       2  0
Verdana                              TrueType          WinAnsi          yes no  no       4  0
ZapfDingbats                         Type 1            ZapfDingbats     no  no  no      60  0

It would seems I'm missing "ZapfDingbats" but both computers show same result "pdffonts Km_Ysa.pdf"
so why one display check-mark symbol correctly and the other one is missing the symbol, I only see a "square box"

Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[Ashley Dixon]

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On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 05:31:32PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
> I have a pdf file that has a check-mark symbol in it.  On one computer the
> evince is display the "check-mark".  On my other computer the check mark is
> displayed as a "square box"
> 
> Both computer run save ver. of evince.
> 
> pdffonts Km_Ysa.pdf (shows same output on both computers):
> 
> name                  type     encoding     emb sub uni object ID
> --------------------- -------- ------------ --- --- --- ---------
> ZOTMNE+Verdana,Bold   TrueType WinAnsi      yes yes no      23  0
> SEJYXC+Verdana        TrueType WinAnsi      yes yes no      24  0
> WUNKEP+Verdana,Italic TrueType WinAnsi      yes yes no      25  0
> Verdana,Bold          TrueType WinAnsi      yes no  no       2  0
> Verdana               TrueType WinAnsi      yes no  no       4  0
> ZapfDingbats          Type 1   ZapfDingbats no  no  no      60  0
> 
> It would seems I'm missing "ZapfDingbats" but both computers show same result
> "pdffonts Km_Ysa.pdf" so why one display check-mark symbol correctly and the
> other one is missing the symbol, I only see a "square box"

The `emb` column just indicates whether the font is embedded in the file.  If it
isn't, you should still be able to view it, provided you have the font installed
elsewhere; it's probably irrelevant in your case.

Anyway, do you know to which font the check-mark symbol belongs ? If you do, use
`fc-list` from FontConfig to check if you have the appropriate one installed. If
you don't, you will have  to  diff  the  `fc-list`  with  that  of  the  working
machine and narrow down the list of plausible contenders.

There shouldn't be that many.  I have all  Chinese  (Traditional)  and  Japanese
fonts installed and `fc-list : file | sed 's/: $//g'` only gives 83 lines.

-- 

Ashley Dixon
suugaku.co.uk

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Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[thelma]

Thelma
On 05/20/2020 07:05 PM, Ashley Dixon wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 05:31:32PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
>> I have a pdf file that has a check-mark symbol in it.  On one computer the
>> evince is display the "check-mark".  On my other computer the check mark is
>> displayed as a "square box"
>>
>> Both computer run save ver. of evince.
>>
>> pdffonts Km_Ysa.pdf (shows same output on both computers):
>>
>> name                  type     encoding     emb sub uni object ID
>> --------------------- -------- ------------ --- --- --- ---------
>> ZOTMNE+Verdana,Bold   TrueType WinAnsi      yes yes no      23  0
>> SEJYXC+Verdana        TrueType WinAnsi      yes yes no      24  0
>> WUNKEP+Verdana,Italic TrueType WinAnsi      yes yes no      25  0
>> Verdana,Bold          TrueType WinAnsi      yes no  no       2  0
>> Verdana               TrueType WinAnsi      yes no  no       4  0
>> ZapfDingbats          Type 1   ZapfDingbats no  no  no      60  0
>>
>> It would seems I'm missing "ZapfDingbats" but both computers show same result
>> "pdffonts Km_Ysa.pdf" so why one display check-mark symbol correctly and the
>> other one is missing the symbol, I only see a "square box"
> 
> The `emb` column just indicates whether the font is embedded in the file.  If it
> isn't, you should still be able to view it, provided you have the font installed
> elsewhere; it's probably irrelevant in your case.
> 
> Anyway, do you know to which font the check-mark symbol belongs ? If you do, use
> `fc-list` from FontConfig to check if you have the appropriate one installed. If
> you don't, you will have  to  diff  the  `fc-list`  with  that  of  the  working
> machine and narrow down the list of plausible contenders.
> 
> There shouldn't be that many.  I have all  Chinese  (Traditional)  and  Japanese
> fonts installed and `fc-list : file | sed 's/: $//g'` only gives 83 lines.

I used: 'eselect fontconfig list' which showed me which fonts are
enable, and the compared them between the computers.  They seem to be
consistent, both the same.

When I used different pdf viewer "MuPDF" the 'check-mark' is rendered
correctly.  But for some reason the 'evince' is not showing correctly
the 'check-mark'.  But on my other computer it does.

Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[Ashley Dixon]

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On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 07:58:35PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
> I used: 'eselect fontconfig list' which showed me which fonts are
> enable, and the compared them between the computers.  They seem to be
> consistent, both the same.
> 
> When I used different pdf viewer "MuPDF" the 'check-mark' is rendered
> correctly.  But for some reason the 'evince' is not showing correctly
> the 'check-mark'.  But on my other computer it does.

In that case, it is not a problem of fonts---embedded or otherwise---but  rather
a problem with Evince in particular.  Could  you  provide  a  _minimal_  working
example  of  a  P.D.F.\  containing  a  check-mark  which  causes  this  strange
behaviour ?

-- 

Ashley Dixon
suugaku.co.uk

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Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[thelma]

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On 05/20/2020 08:07 PM, Ashley Dixon wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 07:58:35PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
>> I used: 'eselect fontconfig list' which showed me which fonts are
>> enable, and the compared them between the computers.  They seem to be
>> consistent, both the same.
>>
>> When I used different pdf viewer "MuPDF" the 'check-mark' is rendered
>> correctly.  But for some reason the 'evince' is not showing correctly
>> the 'check-mark'.  But on my other computer it does.
> 
> In that case, it is not a problem of fonts---embedded or otherwise---but  rather
> a problem with Evince in particular.  Could  you  provide  a  _minimal_  working
> example  of  a  P.D.F.\  containing  a  check-mark  which  causes  this  strange
> behaviour ?

I think so too, that that is why I'm puzzled.
Here is the form.


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Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[Ashley Dixon]

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On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 08:12:54PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
> I think so too, that that is why I'm puzzled.
> Here is the form.

Thanks for attaching the document, but it's huge !  I  placed  the  emphasis  on
_minimal_ for a reason. ;-)

Anyway, I'm able to replicate this, and I'd say it's  likely  to  be  a  bug  in
Evince.  Using GhostScript [1] to  retroactively  embed  all  the  fonts  allows
Evince to render it without issue, pointing to an  issue  causing  it  to  avoid
loading external fonts.

        gs \
           -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
           -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen \
           -dCompressFonts=true \
           -dSubsetFonts=true \
           -dNOPAUSE \
           -dBATCH \
           -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
           -sOutputFile=form-fixed.pdf \
           -c ".setpdfwrite <</NeverEmbed [ ]>> setdistillerparams" \
           -f form-original.pdf

Although, having to do this on all your documents is obviously  suboptimal,  and
also can make them quite a bit larger.  Strangely, after testing on  my  Manjaro
QEMU virtual machine, everything behaves correctly; the P.D.F.\ without embedded
Dingbats renders correctly.

[Solution]

Evince is substituting ZapfDingbats with another font.  On my  system,  this  is
Liberation Sans  Regular  (Properties->Fonts->ZapfDingbats).   This  means  that
Evince cannot find the font "ZapfDingbats".  To rectify this, download "ITC Zapf
Dingbats" from  [2]  and  unzip  the  two  files  into  ~/.local/share/fonts  or
/usr/share/fonts.

However, "ZapfDingbats" and "ITC Zapf Dingbats" have  a  slight  name  mismatch,
which will still cause Evince to substitute it with an  unsuitable  alternative.
Fontconfig allows you to  alias  fonts  using  its  standard  XML  configuration
method.  Add the following to /etc/fonts/local.conf (create the file if it  does
not exist):

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
        <alias>
                <family>ZapfDingbats</family>
                <prefer><family>ITC Zapf Dingbats</family></prefer>
                <default><family>fixed</family></default>
        </alias>
</fontconfig>

This will cause Evince to load the document correctly.  You might  have  to  run
`fc-cache` after you've created the <alias> stanza, although I doubt it.

Does this fix it ?

[1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/2981689
[2] https://freefontsfamily.com/download/itc-zapf-dingbats

-- 

Ashley Dixon
suugaku.co.uk

2A9A 4117
DA96 D18A
8A7B B0D2
A30E BF25
F290 A8AA


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Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[thelma]

On 05/20/2020 09:08 PM, Ashley Dixon wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 08:12:54PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
>> I think so too, that that is why I'm puzzled.
>> Here is the form.
> 
> Thanks for attaching the document, but it's huge !  I  placed  the  emphasis  on
> _minimal_ for a reason. ;-)
> 
> Anyway, I'm able to replicate this, and I'd say it's  likely  to  be  a  bug  in
> Evince.  Using GhostScript [1] to  retroactively  embed  all  the  fonts  allows
> Evince to render it without issue, pointing to an  issue  causing  it  to  avoid
> loading external fonts.
> 
>         gs \
>            -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
>            -dPDFSETTINGS=/screen \
>            -dCompressFonts=true \
>            -dSubsetFonts=true \
>            -dNOPAUSE \
>            -dBATCH \
>            -sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
>            -sOutputFile=form-fixed.pdf \
>            -c ".setpdfwrite <</NeverEmbed [ ]>> setdistillerparams" \
>            -f form-original.pdf
> 
> Although, having to do this on all your documents is obviously  suboptimal,  and
> also can make them quite a bit larger.  Strangely, after testing on  my  Manjaro
> QEMU virtual machine, everything behaves correctly; the P.D.F.\ without embedded
> Dingbats renders correctly.
> 
> [Solution]
> 
> Evince is substituting ZapfDingbats with another font.  On my  system,  this  is

> Liberation Sans  Regular  (Properties->Fonts->ZapfDingbats).   This  means  that
> Evince cannot find the font "ZapfDingbats".  To rectify this, download "ITC Zapf
> Dingbats" from  [2]  and  unzip  the  two  files  into  ~/.local/share/fonts  or
> /usr/share/fonts.
> 
> However, "ZapfDingbats" and "ITC Zapf Dingbats" have  a  slight  name  mismatch,
> which will still cause Evince to substitute it with an  unsuitable  alternative.
> Fontconfig allows you to  alias  fonts  using  its  standard  XML  configuration
> method.  Add the following to /etc/fonts/local.conf (create the file if it  does
> not exist):
> 
> <?xml version="1.0"?>
> <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
> <fontconfig>
>         <alias>
>                 <family>ZapfDingbats</family>
>                 <prefer><family>ITC Zapf Dingbats</family></prefer>
>                 <default><family>fixed</family></default>
>         </alias>
> </fontconfig>
> 
> This will cause Evince to load the document correctly.  You might  have  to  run
> `fc-cache` after you've created the <alias> stanza, although I doubt it.
> 
> Does this fix it ?
> 
> [1] https://stackoverflow.com/a/2981689
> [2] https://freefontsfamily.com/download/itc-zapf-dingbats
> 

Hi Ashley,

Thank you for the hint. I unzip the "ITC Zapf Dingbats.zip" to
/usr/share/fonts/itc-zapf-dingbats

and created as you suggested: /etc/fonts/local.conf with the content
above and the "check-mark" is showing perfectly.

Thank you for the solution!

Regards,
Thelma

Re: [gentoo-user] evince doesn't display check-mark symbol

[Ashley Dixon]

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On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 04:21:33PM -0600, thelma@sys-concept.com wrote:
> Hi Ashley,
> 
> Thank you for the hint. I unzip the "ITC Zapf Dingbats.zip" to
> /usr/share/fonts/itc-zapf-dingbats
> 
> and created as you suggested: /etc/fonts/local.conf with the content
> above and the "check-mark" is showing perfectly.
> 
> Thank you for the solution!

Cheers, I'm very glad to hear it works.  My first thought was that `t1lib` might
fix the error, as ZapfDingbats is a type-one font, however it  seems  like  that
USE-flag only applies to the in-built  D.V.I.-viewer.   I  still  can't  imagine
why Evince fails to  find  type-one  fonts  for  P.D.F.s  without  the  explicit
direction of FontConfig.

Anyway, this font-aliasing fix seems to be a fine work-around for now.
Have a nice day.

-- 

Ashley Dixon
suugaku.co.uk

2A9A 4117
DA96 D18A
8A7B B0D2
A30E BF25
F290 A8AA


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