Hello Anonymous Monk,

Read this previously answered question PDF::API2 / unicode characters it is considered solved.

Update: Also read this question PDF::API2 printing non ascii characters.

Update2: Running this sample of code from PDF::API2 / unicode characters using your sample of unicode characters is producing:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;
use PDF::API2;

# Create a blank PDF file
my $pdf = PDF::API2->new();

# Add a blank page
my $page = $pdf->page();

my $font = $pdf->ttfont('DejaVuSans.ttf');

my $ustring = "Sample: \x{0052}\x{0044}\x{0024}";

# Add some text to the page
my $text = $page->text();

$text->font($font, 20);
$text->translate(80, 710);
$text->text($ustring);

# Save the PDF
$pdf->saveas('test.pdf');

__END__

Sample: RD$

Update3: I verified that the output is correct from this unicode table (Unicode-Table).

Hope this helps, BR.

In the case that thanos1983's reply is not what you're looking for, maybe showing us some code would help us understand the situation better.

I think that you currently have code like the following:

#!perl -w
use strict;

my $hardcoded_string_in_perl     = "\x{0052}\x{0044}\x{0024}";
my $string_as_read_from_database = '\x{0052}\x{0044}\x{0024}';

 
print $hardcoded_string_in_perl;     # RDS
print $string_as_read_from_database; # \x{0052}\x{0044}\x{0024}

print_to_pdf( $hardcoded_string_in_perl ); # works and shows the corre
+ct characters in the PDF
print_to_pdf( $string_as_read_from_database ); # works and shows the c
+orrect characters in the PDF
[download]

If that is true, you will likely just need to convert the backslashed escape sequences to Perl characters. For example using something like the following subroutine:

sub unescape {
    my( $str ) = @_;
    $str =~ s!\\x\{([0-9a-f]{4})\}!chr(hex $1)!ge;
    $str
};

print unescape('\x{0052}\x{0044}\x{0024}');
[download]

Hello Corion,

With your unescaping it works! :) Thank you so much.

This is what I see when I do mysql SELECT:

+-----+------+-----------------------+
| 1 | \x{043b}\x{0432}               |
| 2 | \x{0042}\x{0073}               |
| 3 | \x{005a}\x{0024}               |
+-----+------+-----------------------+
[download]

How should I save the unicode strings in the database so that the unescaping is not necessary?

You haven't told us what database you are talking to and what you are using to load data into the database. Also, we will need to know what the column type is you're inserting into.

When loading the data from Perl, you will need to use Encode to decode the data from its source representation to Unicode.

You will likely need to tell the database driver when loading data into the database and when reading data out of the database that it should consider the column as UTF-8 encoded Unicode (if that's what your original data is).

Alternatively, encode the data to UTF-8 encoded octets and then write those raw octets into the database. You will lose the ability to query the data from within the database in a nice way. LIKE queries and UPPER() will likely not work in the way you expect them.

When reading from the database, set up your database so it decodes the data from your database format to Unicode in Perl.

If you are using MySQL, read DBD::mysql for some UTF-8 options.

Time to get my coffee, and my glasses.