Converting Excel files to PDF - variety of Style and Format Issues

Aspose.Cells Product Family
7

Right, I have run that test already. I still have the symbol rendering issues. I’ve attached the resulting pdf

8

Hi again,


Thank you for your quick response.

Please provide us your environment details such as Operating System version & architecture (32bit/64bit) and JDK version & type. Moreover, if the spreadsheet was created locally, and if it is feasible for you to provide the fonts used in the spreadsheet, please share them in an archive. You can upload the archive to any free file hosting services such as Dropbox or Google Drive, and share the link here.
9

I am operating on RedHat version 4.1.2-46 64bit. My JDK version is 1.7. I cannot provide the font files, but I have attached a list of the fonts we have available.

10

Hi Kelly,


Thank you for the information.

We will try to arrange all the fonts provided in your list to simulate your environment on our side. Please spare us little time for it. In the meanwhile, we will keep you posted with updates in this regard.
11

Hi Kelly,


We have re-evaluated the problem related to the missing symbols on the rendered PDF file against the spreadsheet “AnimalExample.xlsx”. We have confirmed that the problem is related to the missing font (Ariel) as we were unable to find it in your provided list of fonts, nor the PDF shared by you contains this in the embedded font list. However, when we have generated the PDF on our side (on Ubuntu), the PDF has the complete list of embedded fonts, and the symbols have rendered fine.

In order to avoid this situation, please install the Arial TrueType font(s) at your platform. If you just want to confirm our claim, please follow the steps provided below.

  1. Download the aforesaid fonts from this link.
  2. Place them in any accessible directory.
  3. Specify the font location using the statement CellsHelper.setFontDir(location to the fonts) at the start of your application.
  4. Load the spreadsheet in an instance of Workbook & save it back in the PDF format.
  5. Check the PDF properties for embedded font list.

Please note, the provided fonts have been taken from a Windows 7 platform, and shared for testing purposes only. In case you wish to use the same font files in a production environment other than Windows, we strongly recommend you to check the vendor’s licensing information.

Let us know of your feedback.

12

Hi,

Thanks for using Aspose.Cells for Java.

We have fixed the following issues

(CELLSJAVA-40962 - Aspose.Cells renders the #N/A value differently than MS Excel)
(CELLSJAVA-40965 - Cells run into each other in the PDF)

Please download and try this fix: Aspose.Cells for Java v8.2.0.2 and let us know your feedback.

13

Thank you.


I have tested the changes and I no longer have the #NA issue. However, I still have the cells merging together in the title tabs - the fruit example pdf still looks the same where the column titles with black backgrounds look the same. Additionally, I have tried your fix for the special characters (adding the ariel font set path) and my issues still persist.
14

This is the screenshot of my fonts

15

Hi Kelly,


Thank you for your feedback.

We have tested the case CELLSJAVA-40965 against the latest version of Aspose.Cells for Java 8.2.0.2 on Windows 7 & Ubuntu 12 LTS 64-bit. Unfortunately, we are unable to replicate the issue for the sample “FruitExample.xlsx”. Please check the attached resultant PDF file for your reference. If the result is different on your end, the probable reason is again the missing fonts that are also required to correctly calculate the cell width & height. We have also tested the problem of missing symbols on Ubuntu environment and we are unable to replicate this issue after placing the font (Arial) and pointing the API to use those fonts. In order to further investigate the issues, please provide us the resultant PDF files generated with Aspose.Cells for Java 8.2.0.2 on your end as well as the source code snippet to set the font directory.

Please note, we are unable to get the exact version of Red Hat Linux that you are currently using, so we are testing the cases on Ubuntu for now. We will be keep searching for the exact RHEL version for thorough investigation.
16

I was mistaken about the CELLSJAVA-40965 issue, my pdf looks the same as yours.


I have attached the resulting PDF for the Animal Example that displays the missing symbols.

This is my full program to generate the pdfs. allFiles.txt has the names of the existing xlsx files and the font files are located in a folder within the project folders. I am running RHEL 5


import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.FileReader;
import com.aspose.cells.*;


public class AsposeTesting {

AsposeTesting(){
}
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception{
AsposeTesting at = new AsposeTesting();
at.processFiles(“allFiles.txt”);
}
private Workbook openWB(String inName) throws Exception{
Workbook wb = new Workbook(inName+".xlsx");
System.out.println(“Opened “+inName+”.xlsx”);
return wb;
}
private void processFiles(String allF) throws Exception{
String inName;
BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(allF));
while((inName=br.readLine())!=null){
saveAsPDF(openWB(inName), inName);
}
br.close();
}
private void saveAsPDF(Workbook wb, String outFile) throws Exception{
PdfSaveOptions opt = new PdfSaveOptions(SaveFormat.PDF);
CellsHelper.setFontDir("/ariel.zip_FILES/");
System.out.println("\t\t fonts in: “+CellsHelper.getFontDir());
opt.setAllColumnsInOnePagePerSheet(true); //makes each worksheet a page in the pdf
String fname = outFile+”.pdf";
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(fname);

wb.save(fos, opt);
System.out.println("\tSaved “+outFile+”.pdf");
fos.close();
}
}
17

Hi Kelly,


It’s good to know that we may now close the CELLSJAVA-40965.

Regarding the missing symbols problem, I would like to confirm that the folder “/ariel.zip_FILES/” from your source code contains the .ttf files. Please make sure that conversion takes place only after setting the required .ttf file as follow.

Java

java.io.File f = new java.io.File(fontLocation + “arial.ttf”);
if(f.exists())
{
ArrayList fonts = new ArrayList();
fonts.add(fontLocation + “arial.ttf”);
CellsHelper.setFontFiles(fonts);

Workbook book = new Workbook(input);
book.save(outputPdf, SaveFormat.PDF);
}

Let us know your feedback on this.
18

Hi Kelly,


We are wondering if you are able to resolve the problem with code snippet provided in the previous post. Please keep us posted with updates so we may close this issue as well.
19

I was not. I am not sure how to demonstrate my problems to you since I have followed all the steps you have sent me, but the issue still persists.

20

Hi Kelly,


First of all, thank you for your continues support and help in sorting out this problem, We really appreciate your input.

We are sorry to know that the presented solution didn’t work, however, the behavior is strange to us. If the fonts are available on the specified location the PDF file should embed the correct fonts while rendering all the symbols correctly. Please note, only arial.ttf file is required to render the symbols in question. The previously provided code snippet first makes sure the availability of the arial.ttf file on the machine then converts the spreadsheet to PDF. If you are still not getting the desired results then you must either have the Arial Unicode font installed on your Linux distribution and pointing the application towards it as per Aspose.Cells’ default behavior to first check the system’s font directory.

Another important note, when Aspose.Cells API does not find the appropriate fonts or any font, it simulates the Arial font for rendering purposes. In this case, the Arial font isn’t embedded in the PDF, and the PDF properties will look like as attached proprieties.png. This is the indication that the specified path either does not exist or it does not contain the required fonts.

Please try the following code that restricts the API to ignore the system fonts and render the text using only the fonts available on specified location.

Java

System.setProperty(“Aspose.Cells.FontDirExc”, “C:/Users/Babar Raza/Desktop/ariel/”);
Workbook book = new Workbook(“D:/temp/AnimalExample.xlsx”);
book.save(“D:/temp/output.pdf”, SaveFormat.PDF);


The above code does not require setting the fonts location using CellsHelper.setFontDir method. However, you have to extract the ariel.zip on your machine and pass the path to the setProperty method as second parameter. It's best to extract the TTFs in some folder that is accessible to the application/user. My suggestion is to place them in the Downloads folder.

Following results are required for further investigation.
  1. PDF generated with this code.
  2. PDF generated with code recently provided.
21

I wanted to check on the status of the filed issues:


  • CELLSJAVA-40960: Chart formatting - grid lines
  • CELLSJAVA-40961: Chart formatting - graph lines
  • CELLSJAVA-40963: Unwanted values on the chart bottom axis
  • CELLSJAVA-40964: Changed Chart Axis value


    • Please let me know if these are being handled and when we can expect the changes.

    Thank you
    22

    Hi Kelly,


    Thank you for writing back.

    I am afraid, your referenced tickets are not resolved yet. We have recorded notes for the concerned development team members to share the insight of these tickets, and most preferably an estimated release schedule for the fix. As soon as we receive more updates in this regard, we will post here for your kind reference.
    23

    The issues you have found earlier (filed as CELLSJAVA-40965;CELLSJAVA-40962) have been fixed in this update.

    This message was posted using Notification2Forum from Downloads module by Aspose Notifier.
    24

    Hi,

    Thanks for using Aspose.Cells for Java.

    Please download and try this fix: Aspose.Cells for Java v8.2.1.4 and let us know your feedback.

    Please try the new fix for CELLSJAVA-40963 - Unwanted Chart Axis values rendered in the PDF of CheeseExample.xlsx.

    Also, for CELLSJAVA-40964 issue. We can’t fix it. We can read the original value is “0.73900000000000166”. We don’t know why the excel cut it to “0.739”.

    25

    Hi Kelly,


    Please also try the following code snippet against the latest version of Aspose.Cells for Java 8.1.2.4 for the ticket CELLSJAVA-40961 (Graph lines for chart data points are not connected in rendered PDF).

    Java

    Workbook wb = new Workbook(myDir + fname);
    PdfSaveOptions options = new PdfSaveOptions();
    options.setImageType(ImageFormat.getPng());
    options.setAllColumnsInOnePagePerSheet(true);
    wb.save(myDir + fname + “.pdf”, options);

    Please feel free to write back in case you need our further assistance.
    26

    Thank you for continuing to work on these issues. The issue CELLSJAVA-40963 has been resolved from my end as well. For the other issue CELLSJAVA-40963, it should match the source cell formatting, which is to truncate the number to 2 decimal places. Why is it not following this behavior?


    Thanks again. I look forward to all of these issues being resolved,
    Kelly Reynolds