Re: Problem with Arial Unicode MS font for BOLD/ITALICS in PDF

From: Jim Melton (jim.melton@acm.org)
Date: Sat Jun 21 2003 - 15:41:23 EDT

  • Next message: Allen Haaheim: "Re: Problem with Arial Unicode MS font for BOLD/ITALICS in PDF"

    I hate to disagree, but...

    At 11:41 2003-06-21 +0930 Saturday, Kevin Brown wrote:
    >Jain, Pankaj (MED, TCS) wrote:
    >
    > >I am generating the PDF using XSLFO/FOP and Arial Unicode MS font
    > >for Global languages.And during Implementation I found that Bold/Italics
    > >character are not appearing in bold/Italic in PDF which was coming
    > >there is any Issue with Arial Unicode Font for Bold/Italic or I need to
    > >make some other configuration to fix it.
    >
    >Unlike the standard Arial family, Arial Unicode MS only comes with a
    >single weight (regular) and style (roman).
    >
    >You can create synthetic (or faux) weights and styles using your
    >application's style buttons and these will work perfectly well on screen
    >and even with some printers (mainly inkjet). But these faux weights and
    >styles will hardly ever work in desktop postscript printers, and never in
    >pdfs or imagesetters.

    I just tested the use of boldface and italics with Arial Unicode MS and got
    different results than those asserted by Kevin (see above). I created a
    small Word document in which I wrote several words in Arial Unicode MS,
    some in "normal" (no bold, no italics), some in boldface, some in italics,
    and some in boldface italics. I created a PDF file that clearly showed
    heavier weight for the boldface and clearly showed slanted text for the
    italics (and both heavier and slanted for boldface italics). I then
    printed both the original Word file and the PDF file onto an HP 4100
    PostScript printer and am able to see on the hardcopy those exact same
    results.

    I thus conclude that the use of absolute words like "never" is risky at
    best, and that some applications are capable of using Arial Unicode MS in
    boldface and italics by forcing heavier lines and by slanting the lines.

    Hope this helps,
        Jim
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