PdfProcessing: Wrong text appearance when editing field because of the wrong FieldFlag ("Ff") exported

ADMIN

Dimitar

Posted on: 14 Mar 2023 06:33

Hi Vincent,

Thank you for the detailed feedback. I am glad that some of the issues are resolved.

Do not hesitate to contact us if you have other questions.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

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Vincent

Posted on: 08 Mar 2023 20:51

Thanks for getting back to me.

One issue was font related. The scanline i mentioned is created using a special font. Because I was utilizing a font override for all stamps, the scanline came out incorrect.

My issues 3 and 4 appear to be user error. The merge process we used was pulling from a directory that was not getting reset between attempts; as a result bad files kept popping up in the merged results even after fixing the underlying problem. (See above)

We still do see a slight difference in the spacing of text within our text fields. Since none of these cases are using rich text and only one is using multiline, it's not perfectly clear what's going on. And to be fair, it's entirely possible that the old library is wrong and your library is rendering the correct spacing/padding.

i.e. you acknowledge there is a problem, but because the conditions don't quite align, it's possible we're not actually seeing a problem.

If I get more information I will update this ticket. Thanks for your support!

ADMIN

Dimitar

Posted on: 08 Mar 2023 09:41

Hello Vincent,

You are correct the issues are only when rich text is used. This depends on how your template is created. I do think that text outside of the form fields should be changed in any way during the export.

1. This is the current issue

2.3.4 I have tested this and I cannot reproduce it (I do not want to attach screenshots of your template here since this is a public post). I want to ask you to post a new ticket for this and include the file and a small proof of concept project that shows the export of the result document. This way we can compare the documents and properly investigate this issue.

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

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Vincent

Posted on: 06 Mar 2023 13:20

This is the feedback I received across a batch of documents I generated using the Telerik Document Processing library vs. our current production system that uses a different vendor.

1. The name/address section at the top of page 1 has extra space/padding between the first and second lines (Name vs. Address)

2. All the variable data fields throughout the document have a slight shift up and over to the left. This includes a scanline (embedded graphic)

3. Headers/Headlines have shifted text

4. The italicized text has shifted text.

I have verified this behavior, although I freely admit as a casual observer its difficult for me to notice the effect, but it exists.

Vincent

Posted on: 06 Mar 2023 13:08

Is it expected behavior for this multiline field problem to shift text of fields / layout that are not part of the field itself? Looking at the feedback from the marketing folks, headers, scanlines, all sorts of parts of the document are disrupted visually.

Vincent

Posted on: 06 Mar 2023 13:03

I hear you, but our marketing department noted that the movement/formatting isn't only on our multiline text fields but ALL of the fields we use for stamping. Based on what you are saying, this issue should only be occurring if the field supports multiline, correct? (I don't know offhand if all textfields support this or not).

I went through your docs and found this field in Acroform:

ViewersShouldRecalculateWidgetAppearances

I don't know if it will make a difference (running process now), but if I'm seeing this issue on all fields not just multiline fields, I'm willing to believe user error is at work, but I honestly don't know what to look for at this point.

ADMIN

Dimitar

Posted on: 06 Mar 2023 08:51

Hi Vincent,

The rich text support indeed includes Bold, Italics, and other text styles. The issue depends on this functionality. Unfortunately, this means that it will take a longer time for its resolution. A lot of people are using the form fields, however, the multiline fields are not so common. So far you are the only one that has reported this. I think I am missing something in this case. Is only the line spacing different on your side or are there other issues? If yes which is the crucial part that is not working?

I am looking forward to your reply.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

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Vincent

Posted on: 03 Mar 2023 22:57

Hi, we're revisiting this and one thing that stands out is the notion of "Rich Text Support". What does that include?

In some cases we input streams of text that include a hyperlink and the pdf automatically turns something that looks like http://foo.com into an actual hyperlink in the electronic document.

There MIGHT be cases where we would prefer/need to use bold face or italics, but maybe we can get around that.

But the vast majority of cases we don't use rich text, we're trying to just stamp a name or a number somewhere. Is this something that can be tweaked at the template level?

I've filed another support ticket as I feel either I'm just doing something "wrong" or noone uses this library to stamp data into PDF templates because this alignment issue breaks the whole WYSIWIG promise of PDFs in general.

Any thoughts to share? Thanks for your support.

ADMIN

Dimitar

Posted on: 27 Jan 2023 10:24

Hello Vincent,

I agree with you indeed this is not a feature. However, after our developers have reviewed it and it appears that the issue depends on another unsupported feature. The feature is PdfProcessing: Add support for rich text strings in text fields. Implementing such a feature is not trivial (we must follow the PDF specification) and will take time, this is why just editing the code would not help in this case.

As the CFF flags at hand, indeed this functionality is internal, and there is no access to it. I want to ask you to provide more information about what is your case and how you want to use this. Perhaps it would be better to open a new ticket for this and describe your case there.

Thank you for your understanding. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

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Vincent

Posted on: 26 Jan 2023 14:38

The source code package is quite large. My concern is this.
This bug is a fundamental issue with the nature of PDFs which are supposed to represent a portable reproducible representation of the original document. This is a bug, not a feature, and while I grant for some folks the appearance shouldn't be a show stopper, based on the description it seems like the actual issue is known. Is the dev familiar with that section of the code not available?

What is the nature of your CFF Flag support in general in the code base? In other libraries, I can get direct access to the various CFF flags; is there anything equivalent in your library or is that entire mechanism not exposed?

ADMIN

Dimitar

Posted on: 24 Jan 2023 07:36

Hi Vincent,

The source code is available and you can get it from the download section when logged in with your account (depending on the product you are currently using).

I cannot say when we will be able to schedule this item for implementation. We have a complex prioritization system that takes into account many factors.

Our company maintains this library and it has been actively developed.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

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Vincent

Posted on: 20 Jan 2023 20:14

Any opportunity to expose source code or encourage anyone on the team to take this on? Is the library still maintained at your company or is it third party?

ADMIN

Dimitar

Posted on: 20 Jan 2023 11:36

Hello Vincent,

I am sorry to hear that this issue is a show-stopper for you. I have discussed this with the team and I am afraid we cannot provide a workaround since the issue depends on a missing functionality in our library.

Thank you for your understanding.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

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Vincent

Posted on: 18 Jan 2023 14:50

Hoping that this is low hanging fruit because this creates a breaking change that will prevent us from using the PdfProcessing library. I'll settle for a programmatic workaround, but I'm not aware of any.