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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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<html>
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<head>
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<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
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<title>Adding new fonts and encoding support</title>
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<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../fpdf.css">
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<style type="text/css">
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table {border-collapse:collapse; border-style:solid; border-width:2px; border-color:#A0A0A0 #000000 #000000 #A0A0A0}
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table {margin:1.4em 0 1.4em 1em}
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th {background-color:#E0EBFF; color:#900000; text-align:left}
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th, td {border:1px solid #808080; padding:2px 10px}
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tr.alt0 {background-color:#FFFFEE}
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tr.alt1 {background-color:#FFFFE0}
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</style>
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</head>
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<body>
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<h1>Adding new fonts and encoding support</h1>
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This tutorial explains how to use TrueType or Type1 fonts so that you are not limited to the standard
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fonts any more. The other interest is that you can choose the font encoding, which allows you to
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use other languages than the Western ones (the standard fonts having too few available characters).
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<br>
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<br>
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There are two ways to use a new font: embedding it in the PDF or not. When a font is not
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embedded, it is searched in the system. The advantage is that the PDF file is lighter; on the other
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hand, if it is not available, a substitution font is used. So it is preferable to ensure that the
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needed font is installed on the client systems. If the file is to be viewed by a large audience,
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it is recommended to embed.
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<br>
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<br>
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Adding a new font requires three steps for TrueTypes:
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<ul>
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<li>Generation of the metric file (.afm)</li>
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<li>Generation of the font definition file (.php)</li>
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<li>Declaration of the font in the script</li>
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</ul>
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For Type1, the first one is theoretically not necessary because the AFM file is usually shipped
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with the font. In case you have only a metric file in PFM format, use the convertor available
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<a href="http://www.fpdf.org/fr/dl.php?id=34">here</a>.
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<h2>Generation of the metric file</h2>
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The first step for a TrueType consists in generating the AFM file. A utility exists to do this
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task: <a href="http://ttf2pt1.sourceforge.net" target="_blank">ttf2pt1</a>. The Windows binary
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is available <a href="http://www.fpdf.org/fr/dl.php?id=22">here</a>. The command line to use is
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the following:
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<br>
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<br>
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<kbd>ttf2pt1 -a font.ttf font</kbd>
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<br>
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<br>
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For example, for Comic Sans MS Regular:
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<br>
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<br>
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<kbd>ttf2pt1 -a c:\windows\fonts\comic.ttf comic</kbd>
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<br>
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<br>
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Two files are created; the one we are interested in is comic.afm.
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<h2>Generation of the font definition file</h2>
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The second step consists in generating a PHP file containing all the information needed by FPDF;
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in addition, the font file is compressed. To do this, a helper script is provided in the font/makefont/
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directory of the package: makefont.php. It contains the following function:
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<br>
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<br>
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<code>MakeFont(<b>string</b> fontfile, <b>string</b> afmfile [, <b>string</b> enc [, <b>array</b> patch [, <b>string</b> type]]])</code>
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<dl class="param" style="margin-bottom:2em">
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<dt><code>fontfile</code></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Path to the .ttf or .pfb file.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><code>afmfile</code></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Path to the .afm file.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><code>enc</code></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Name of the encoding to use. Default value: <code>cp1252</code>.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><code>patch</code></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Optional modification of the encoding. Empty by default.</p>
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</dd>
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<dt><code>type</code></dt>
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<dd>
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<p>Type of the font (<code>TrueType</code> or <code>Type1</code>). Default value: <code>TrueType</code>.</p>
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</dd>
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</dl>
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The first parameter is the name of the font file. The extension must be either .ttf or .pfb and
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determines the font type. If you own a Type1 font in ASCII format (.pfa), you can convert it to
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binary format with <a href="http://www.lcdf.org/~eddietwo/type/#t1utils" target="_blank">t1utils</a>.
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<br>
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If you don't want to embed the font, pass an empty string. In this case, type is given by the
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<code>type</code> parameter.
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<br>
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Note: in the case of a font with the same name as a standard one, for instance arial.ttf, it is
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recommended to embed. If you don't, some versions of Acrobat will use their own fonts.
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<br>
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<br>
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The AFM file is the one previously generated.
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<br>
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<br>
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The encoding defines the association between a code (from 0 to 255) and a character. The first
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128 are fixed and correspond to ASCII; the following are variable. The encodings are stored in
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.map files. Those available are:
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<ul>
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<li>cp1250 (Central Europe)</li>
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<li>cp1251 (Cyrillic)</li>
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<li>cp1252 (Western Europe)</li>
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<li>cp1253 (Greek)</li>
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<li>cp1254 (Turkish)</li>
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<li>cp1255 (Hebrew)</li>
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<li>cp1257 (Baltic)</li>
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<li>cp1258 (Vietnamese)</li>
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<li>cp874 (Thai)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-1 (Western Europe)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-2 (Central Europe)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-4 (Baltic)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-5 (Cyrillic)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-7 (Greek)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-9 (Turkish)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-11 (Thai)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-15 (Western Europe)</li>
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<li>ISO-8859-16 (Central Europe)</li>
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<li>KOI8-R (Russian)</li>
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<li>KOI8-U (Ukrainian)</li>
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</ul>
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Of course, the font must contain the characters corresponding to the chosen encoding.
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<br>
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In the particular case of a symbolic font (that is to say which does not contain letters, such
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as Symbol or ZapfDingbats), pass an empty string.
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<br>
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The encodings which begin with cp are those used by Windows; Linux systems usually use ISO.
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<br>
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Remark: the standard fonts use cp1252.
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<br>
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<br>
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The fourth parameter gives the possibility to alter the encoding. Sometimes you may want to add
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some characters. For instance, ISO-8859-1 does not contain the euro symbol. To add it at position
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164, pass <code>array(164=>'Euro')</code>.
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<br>
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<br>
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The last parameter is used to give the type of the font in case it is not embedded (that is to
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say the first parameter is empty).
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<br>
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<br>
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After you have called the function (create a new file for this and include makefont.php, or
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simply add the call directly inside), a .php file is created, with the same name as the .afm one.
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You may rename it if you wish. If the case of embedding, the font file is compressed and gives a
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second file with .z as extension (except if the compression function is not available, it
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requires zlib). You may rename it too, but in this case you have to alter the variable <code>$file</code>
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in the .php file accordingly.
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<br>
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<br>
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Example:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>MakeFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'c:\\windows\\fonts\\comic.ttf'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'comic.afm'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'cp1252'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span></code></pre>
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</div>
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which gives the files comic.php and comic.z.
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<br>
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<br>
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Then you have to copy the generated file(s) to the font directory. If the font file
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could not be compressed, copy the .ttf or .pfb instead of the .z.
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<br>
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<br>
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Remark: for TTF fonts, you can generate the files online <a href="http://fpdf.fruit-lab.de" target="_blank">here</a>
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instead of doing it manually.
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<h2>Declaration of the font in the script</h2>
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The last step is the most simple. You just need to call the <a href='../doc/addfont.htm'>AddFont()</a> method. For instance:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>AddFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'Comic'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">''</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'comic.php'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span></code></pre>
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</div>
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or simply:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>AddFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'Comic'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span></code></pre>
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</div>
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And the font is now available (in regular and underlined styles), usable like the others. If we
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had worked with Comic Sans MS Bold (comicbd.ttf), we would have put:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>AddFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'Comic'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'B'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'comicbd.php'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span></code></pre>
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</div>
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<h2>Example</h2>
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Let's now see a small complete example. The font used is Calligrapher, available at
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<a href="http://www.abstractfonts.com/fonts/" target="_blank">www.abstractfonts.com</a> (a site
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offering numerous free TrueType fonts). The first step is the generation of the AFM file:
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<br>
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<br>
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<kbd>ttf2pt1 -a calligra.ttf calligra</kbd>
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<br>
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<br>
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which gives calligra.afm (and calligra.t1a that we can delete). Then we generate the definition
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file:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>&lt;?php
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<span class="kw">require(</span><span class="str">'font/makefont/makefont.php'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span>MakeFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'calligra.ttf'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'calligra.afm'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span>?&gt;</code></pre>
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</div>
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The function call gives the following report:
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<br>
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<br>
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<b>Warning:</b> character Euro is missing<br>
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<b>Warning:</b> character Zcaron is missing<br>
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<b>Warning:</b> character zcaron is missing<br>
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<b>Warning:</b> character eth is missing<br>
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Font file compressed (calligra.z)<br>
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Font definition file generated (calligra.php)<br>
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<br>
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The euro character is not present in the font (it is too old). Three other characters are missing
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too, but we are not interested in them anyway.
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<br>
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We can now copy the two files to the font directory and write the script:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>&lt;?php
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<span class="kw">require(</span><span class="str">'fpdf.php'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span>$pdf<span class="kw">=new </span>FPDF<span class="kw">();
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</span>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>AddFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'Calligrapher'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">''</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'calligra.php'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>AddPage<span class="kw">();
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</span>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>SetFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'Calligrapher'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">''</span><span class="kw">,</span>35<span class="kw">);
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</span>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>Cell<span class="kw">(</span>0<span class="kw">,</span>10<span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'Enjoy new fonts with FPDF!'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>Output<span class="kw">();
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</span>?&gt;</code></pre>
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</div>
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<p class='demo'><a href='tuto7.php' target='_blank' class='demo'>[Demo]</a></p>
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<h2>About the euro symbol</h2>
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The euro character is not present in all encodings, and is not always placed at the same position:
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<table>
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<tr><th>Encoding</th><th>Position</th></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>cp1250</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>cp1251</td><td>136</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>cp1252</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>cp1253</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>cp1254</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>cp1255</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>cp1257</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>cp1258</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>cp874</td><td>128</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>ISO-8859-1</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>ISO-8859-2</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>ISO-8859-4</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>ISO-8859-5</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>ISO-8859-7</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>ISO-8859-9</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>ISO-8859-11</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>ISO-8859-15</td><td>164</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>ISO-8859-16</td><td>164</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt0"><td>KOI8-R</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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<tr class="alt1"><td>KOI8-U</td><td>absent</td></tr>
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</table>
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ISO-8859-1 is widespread but does not include the euro sign. If you need it, the simplest thing
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to do is using cp1252 or ISO-8859-15 instead, which are nearly identical but contain the precious
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symbol.
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<br>
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As for ISO-8859-2, it is possible to use ISO-8859-16 instead, but it contains many differences.
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It is therefore simpler to patch the encoding to add the symbol to it, as explained above. The
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same is true for the other encodings.
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<h2>Font synthesis under Windows</h2>
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When a TrueType font is not available in a given style, Windows is able to synthesize it from the
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regular version. For instance, there is no Comic Sans MS Italic, but it can be built from Comic
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Sans MS Regular. This feature can be used in a PDF file, but unfortunately requires that the
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regular font be present in the system (you must not embed it). Here is how to do it:
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<ul>
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<li>Generate the definition file for the regular font without embedding (you may rename it to
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reflect the desired style)</li>
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<li>Open it and append to the variable <code>$name</code> a comma followed by the desired style
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(<code>Italic</code>, <code>Bold</code> or <code>BoldItalic</code>)</li>
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</ul>
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For instance, for the file comici.php:
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<br>
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<br>
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<code>$name='ComicSansMS,Italic';</code>
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<br>
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<br>
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It can then be used normally:
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<div class="source">
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<pre><code>$pdf<span class="kw">-&gt;</span>AddFont<span class="kw">(</span><span class="str">'Comic'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'I'</span><span class="kw">,</span><span class="str">'comici.php'</span><span class="kw">);
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</span></code></pre>
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</div>
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<h2>Reducing the size of TrueType fonts</h2>
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Font files are often quite voluminous (more than 100, even 200KB); this is due to the fact that
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they contain the characters corresponding to many encodings. zlib compression reduces them but
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they remain fairly big. A technique exists to reduce them further. It consists in converting the
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font to the Type1 format with ttf2pt1 by specifying the encoding you are interested in; all other
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characters will be discarded.
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<br>
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For instance, the arial.ttf font shipped with Windows 98 is 267KB (it contains 1296 characters).
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After compression it gives 147. Let's convert it to Type1 by keeping only cp1250 characters:
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<br>
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<br>
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<kbd>ttf2pt1 -b -L cp1250.map c:\windows\fonts\arial.ttf arial</kbd>
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<br>
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<br>
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The .map files are located in the font/makefont/ directory of the package. The command produces
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arial.pfb and arial.afm. The arial.pfb file is only 35KB, and 30KB after compression.
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<br>
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<br>
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It is possible to go even further. If you are interested only by a subset of the encoding (you
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probably don't need all 217 characters), you can open the .map file and remove the lines you are
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not interested in. This will reduce the file size accordingly.
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</body>
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</html>