Iceman1 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi,
I am trying to use an external font (FreeMono.ttf) with PDF::API2::Simple but get the following error:

cannot find font '' ... at /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1/PDF/API2/Resource/CIDFont/TrueType/FontFile.pm line 424. 

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict "vars";
use PDF::API2::Simple;

# Start new PDF
    my $page_number = 1;
    my $pdf = PDF::API2::Simple->new(
        file => 'test.pdf',
        header => \&header,
        footer => \&footer
        );
# Set a custom font
    my $font_obj = $pdf->pdf->ttfont($pdf,'FreeMono.ttf');
    $pdf->add_font('MonoFont',$font_obj);
    $pdf->set_font('MonoFont');
# Add a page to the PDF
    $pdf->add_page();
# Insert some text
    # Set text color
        $pdf->fill_color( '#000000' );
    for (my $i = 0; $i < 35; $i++) {
        my $text = "$i - Example text";
        $pdf->text(
        $text,
        x => $pdf->margin_left,
        autoflow => 'on'
        );
    }
# Save PDF to disk
    $pdf->save();

[download]

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: External font with PDF::API2::Simple
by zentara (Cardinal) on Sep 19, 2011 at 12:03 UTC
    This is untested, but the same thing happens with adding custom fonts to graphics modules. You need to put a copy of the font into the cwd and refer to it as './FreeMono.ttf', or give the complete full system path to the font, such as '/usr/local/share/fonts/ttf/FreeMono.ttf' ( depends on where your system puts them)
    I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
    Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh
[reply]
      Thanks zentara, I have tried both of those but it is still giving the same error message :-(
[reply]
Re: External font with PDF::API2::Simple
by keszler (Priest) on Sep 19, 2011 at 22:58 UTC

    PDF::API2::Simple documents the ttfont method as having only one parameter. I suggest trying:

    s{$pdf->pdf->ttfont($pdf,'FreeMono.ttf');}
 {$pdf->pdf->ttfont('FreeMono.ttf');}

    [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
      Thank you keszler, I have changed that but now I get a different error message:
      Can't call method "text" without a package or object reference at /usr/share/perl5/PDF/API2/Simple.pm line 435.
      I have included adjusted test code below. 
      #!/usr/bin/perl
use strict "vars";
use PDF::API2::Simple;

# Start new PDF
    my $page_number = 1;
    my $pdf = PDF::API2::Simple->new(
        file => 'test.pdf',
        header => \&header,
        footer => \&footer
        );
# Set a custom font
    my $font_obj = $pdf->pdf->ttfont('FreeMono.ttf');
    $pdf->add_font('MonoFont',$font_obj);
# Add a page to the PDF
    $pdf->add_page();
# Insert some text
    # Set text color
        $pdf->fill_color( '#000000' );
    for (my $i = 0; $i < 35; $i++) {
        my $text = "$i - Example text";
        $pdf->text(
        $text,
        x => $pdf->margin_left,
        autoflow => 'on'
        );
    }
# Save PDF to disk
    $pdf->save();

      [download]
[reply]
[d/l]
        Have you read closely the perldoc for the module? 
         You can optionally pass a font object and font size if you have loade
+d an external font.

         my $font_obj = $pdf->pdf->ttfont('new_font.ttf');
         $pdf->add_font('NewFont', $font_obj, '12');

       Refer to PDF::API2 for the various font methods, like "ttfont",
+ available.

        [download]

        Just from that, it appears that your $pdf->add_font('MonoFont',$font_obj); needs a font size specification added.

        Furthermore, looking through the examples in PDF::API2, there are code constructs like 

        # from examples/*02_truetype_fonts-pl 

        foreach $fe (qw(
                adobe-standard  cp437   cp850   latin1
        )) {
                print STDERR "$fn ($fe)\n";
                $font=$pdf->ttfont($fn , -encode =>$fe);



# from examples/*02_synthetic_fonts-pl 

use PDF::API2;
use PDF::API2::SynFont;

$pdf=PDF::API2->new;

$f1=$pdf->corefont('Arial',-encode=>'latin1');
$f2=$pdf->corefont('Helvetica-Bold',-encode=>'latin1');
$f3=$pdf->corefont('Helvetica-Oblique',-encode=>'latin1');
$f4=$pdf->corefont('Helvetica-BoldOblique',-encode=>'latin1');

my $font=PDF::API2::SynFont->new_api($pdf,$f1,-bold=>4);

        [download]

        so you may need to specify an encoding, or at least run some simple examples to see how to get your font code right.

        I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth.
        Old Perl Programmer Haiku ................... flash japh
[reply]
[d/l]
[select]

Back to Seekers of Perl Wisdom