[R] unicode&pdf font problem

[David Winsemius]

On Jan 13, 2011, at 7:01 AM, tdenes at cogpsyphy.hu wrote:

>
> Hi!
>
> Sorry for the missing specs, here they are:
>> version
>               _
> platform       i386-pc-mingw32
> arch           i386
> os             mingw32
> system         i386, mingw32
> status
> major          2
> minor          12.1
> year           2010
> month          12
> day            16
> svn rev        53855
> language       R
> version.string R version 2.12.1 (2010-12-16)
>
> OS: Windows 7 (English version, 32 bit)
>
>

You are after what Adobe calls: udblacute; 0171.  It is recognized in  
the list of adobe glyphs:
 >  str(tools::Adobe_glyphs[371, ])
'data.frame':	1 obs. of  2 variables:
  $ adobe  : chr "udblacute"
  $ unicode: chr "0171"

Consulted the help pages
points {graphics}
postscript {grDevices}
pdf {grDevices}
charsets {tools}
postscriptFonts {grDevices}

I have tried a variety of the pdfFonts installed on my Mac without  
success. You can perhaps make a list of fonts on your machines with  
names(pdfFonts()). Perhaps the range of fonts and the glyphs they  
contain is different on your machines. I get consistently warning  
messages saying there is a conversion failure:

 > pdf("trial.pdf", family="Helvetica")
# also tried with font="Helvetica" but I think that is erroneous
 > plot(1,type="n")
 > text(1,1,"print \U0170\U0171")
Warning messages:
1: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <c5>
2: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <b0>
3: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <c5>
4: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <b1>
5: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   font metrics unknown for Unicode character U+0170
6: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   font metrics unknown for Unicode character U+0171
7: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <c5>
8: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <b0>
9: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <c5>
10: In text.default(1, 1, "print Űű") :
   conversion failure on 'print Űű' in 'mbcsToSbcs': dot substituted  
for <b1>

And this is despite my system saying the \U0170 and \U0171 are present  
in the Helvetica font. Also tried family=URWHelvetica and  
family=NimbusSanand and a bunch of others without success, but my last  
best hope after reading the material in help(postscript) in the  
"Families" section had been NimbusSan.  There is also information on  
that page regarding encodings that appears to be very machine specific.

>
> Note that \U0171 != ü. See
> http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/171/index.htm
> Anyway, I have no problem with ű (~u") and other special  
> Hungarian
> characters in my R-Gui. It is correctly displayed in the console, in
> plots, etc. The problem is with the pdf conversion.
>
> The same holds for my Ubuntu Hardy Heron system*, with exactly the  
> same
> error messages as reported in an earlier thread
> http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help@r-project.org/msg89792.html
> As far as I know, Hershey fonts do not contain \U0171.
>
>
> Regards,
> Denes
>
> * The specs of Ubuntu:
>> version
>               _
> platform       x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
> arch           x86_64
> os             linux-gnu
> system         x86_64, linux-gnu
> status
> major          2
> minor          12.0
> year           2010
> month          10
> day            15
> svn rev        53317
> language       R
> version.string R version 2.12.0 (2010-10-15)
>
>
>>
>> On Jan 12, 2011, at 11:11 PM, tdenes at cogpsyphy.hu wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Dear List,
>>>
>>> I would like to print a plot into pdf. The problem is that the
>>> character
>>> \U0171 is replaced by a simple 'u' (i.e. without accents) in the pdf
>>> file.
>>>
>>> Example:
>>> # this works fine
>>> plot(1,type="n")
>>> text(1,1,"print \U0171")
>>>
>>> # this fails
>>> pdf("trial.pdf")
>>> plot(1,type="n")
>>> text(1,1,"print \U0171")
>>> dev.off()
>>
>> Have you tried:
>>
>> pdf("trial.pdf")
>> plot(1,type="n")
>> text(1,1,"print ü")
>> dev.off()
>>
>> Your default screen fonts may not be the same as your default pdf
>> fonts. A lot depends on system specifics, none of which have you
>> provided.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> I found an earlier post at
>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/r-help@r-project.org/msg65541.html, but
>>> it is
>>> too hard to understand at my R-level. Any help is appreciated.
>>
>>
>>
>> David Winsemius, MD
>> West Hartford, CT
>>
>>
>
>
>
>
>

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT