PPT loses font formatting on Mac

Aspose.Slides Product Family
1

When we use Aspose.Slides to convert a PPT presentation to images, the fonts used in the original Powerpoint presentation are lost and everything gets reverted to something that looks like Calibri. This only occurs on Mac OS X (10.6, 10.7.4, and 10.8), not on Windows. Some of the custom fonts I tried were Herculanum, Chalkboard, Baskerville Old Face, Copperplate Gothic Bold, and Bookman Old Style.


We are using Aspose Slides 6.6, with Mono. The function we are using is Slide.GetThumbnail.
2

Hi Ann,


Thanks for your interest in Aspose.Slides.

I have observed the issue shared by you and like to share that probably you are missing the fonts used in your PowerPoint presentation in your Mac OS. Can you please confirm the availability of installed fonts in your operating system. If the fonts are still installed then please share the used fonts along with the source presentation and generated thumbnails for further investigations on our end.

Many Thanks,
3

The fonts I used are all installed and viewable in FontBook on my Mac, and include Chalkboard, Comic Sans MS, Herculanum, and American Typewriter.


Attached is the presentation I used and the thumbnails generated. I’m a bit leery of attaching the fonts themselves in a public forum due to potential copyright issues.
4

Hi Ann,


I have setup Mono 3.5 environment on my MAC OS X Server 10.6 x64 on VmWare and have worked over the presentation file shared by you. I have not been able to observe the issue specified and thumbnails generated are fine. I also like to add that all the used fonts were already installed in my MAC OS instance. For your convenience, I have also shared the generated thumbnails.

Many Thanks,
5

Hi Mudassir,
We have a system where the fonts are used correctly, and one where they aren’t. The difference seems to be where Aspose is looking for the font files. The fonts used by the PPT file are installed in /Library/Fonts on both systems.

On the system where the fonts are used correctly, the logs show that /Library/Fonts is being searched (“Scanning dir /Library/Fonts”). On the system where the font formatting is lost, the logs show that /System/Library/Fonts is being searched (“Scanning dir /System/Library/Fonts”).

Is there a way to have Aspose search both locations?

Thanks,
Ish

6

Hi Ish,


Thanks for highlighting the issue on your end. I like to share that Aspose.Slides looks for font location at /Library/Fonts. That is why you are getting improper rendering of fonts for one of your system. I regret to share that presently there is no other solution available then to copying font in mentioned folder. However, an issue with ID SLIDESNET-33251 has already been created as new feature request in our issue tracking system to provide the feature for loading the fonts from any custom location. This thread has been linked with the issue so that you may be automatically notified once the feature will be available.

Many Thanks,
7

Hi Mudassir,

Thanks for the quick response. Our problem is that Aspose doesn’t seem to always look in /Library/Fonts. On the system that’s failing, Aspose is looking in /System/Library/Fonts instead of /Library/Fonts. If we copy the font files to /System/Library/Fonts, then Aspose will find and use the correct fonts.

Ideally, all of the local font directories would be scanned (/System/Library/Fonts, /Library/Fonts, and ~/Library/Fonts). Otherwise we have to ask users to keep a copy of their fonts in all three locations, which isn’t practical.

8

Hi Ish,


Thanks for sharing the further information. I agree with you point of view in totality. I have created an issue with ID SLIDESNET-33715 in our issue tracking system to resolve the issue. This thread has been linked with the issue so that you may be automatically notified once the issue will be resolved.

Many Thanks,
9

The issues you have found earlier (filed as SLIDESNET-33251) have been fixed in this update.

This message was posted using Notification2Forum from Downloads module by aspose.notifier.
10

Hi Mudassir,
With the 7.2.0 update, I can’t seem to get any font to render correctly when creating thumbnails from a .ppt file on the same setup as before (OS X 10.7.5). Whereas before any fonts located in the directory searched by Aspose rendered correctly, now no fonts render correctly (all text is rendered using the default font).

When I use the new FontsLoader, I can see from the logs that Aspose is searching in the directories I specified in the LoadExternalFonts call, but even though the fonts are found in those directories (I even see the font names printed in the log), they are not used when rendering the thumbnails.

Am I missing something? I’m making a call to:

FontsLoader.LoadExternalFonts(new String[] { “/Library/Fonts”, “/System/Library/Fonts/”, … });

prior to my new Presentation(path) call.

Thanks,
Ish

11

Hi Ish,


I like to share that the issue SLIDESNET-33715 has been created on the basis of your query stated over this link. The issue SLIDESNET-33715 is currently not resolved. If you are reproducing the same issue as stated in the mentioned link then it will be resolved once the above mentioned issue will be resolved. Otherwise, please share the sample presentation and faulty output with us so that I may observe and investigate it further on my end. The FontsLoader actually sets the position of directory from where font can be loaded. As per my understanding, I have observed that you are having issue while loading the font directories in FontLoader. Please share the desired missing fonts with us as well so that I may look in to them further.

Many Thanks,

12

Hi Mudassir,
The issue occurs with any presentation and any font.
I’ve attached a simple presentation that uses Chalkboard, Futura, and
American Typewrite (all included with OS X in the
/Library/Fonts directory).

From the Aspose logging, I can see that the font directories I specify in LoadExternalFonts are being searched and that the font files are there (they’re printed in the log). When the thumbnails are generated, however, everything reverts to some default font. This occurs for both PPT and PPTX files on 7.3.0. It also happens whether I use the LoadExternalFonts method (as described in my previous post), or omit the method (which I thought might work since /Library/Fonts was searched by default previously).

I’ve attached the presentation and the generated thumbnail.

13

Hi Ish,


I am sorry for the delayed response but I have been working over your issue. I have been able to observe the issue using Aspose.Slides for .NET 7.3.0 and have created an issue with ID SLIDESNET-34175 in our issue tracking system to further investigate and resolve the issue. This thread has been linked with the issue so that you may be accordingly notified once the issue will be resolved.

We are sorry for your inconvenience.
14

Hi Mudassir,
Do you have any info on an ETA for when this might be fixed? It makes Aspose practically unusable on the Mac.

Thanks,
Ish

15

Hi Ish,

We are sorry for your inconvenience. I have verified the issues status from our issue tracking system and like to share that the issue SLIDESNET-33715 is in progress. The issue SLIDESNET-34175 has still not been scheduled for investigation and I have raised the issue priority to High and have requested our development team to kindly schedule it for investigation. I will share the feedback with you as soon as it will be shared by our development team.

Many Thanks,