Discrepancy in PDF rendering between browser and Acrobat PDF viewer

Question

I am encountering a situation where I open a PDF both in a web browser and in the Acrobat PDF viewer. In the browser, the PDF is displayed correctly, but in the PDF viewer, I get a different output file. I'm trying to identify whether this discrepancy is related to an issue with the PDF file itself or if there are inherent differences between the PDF viewer and the browser rendering.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue, and could you provide insights or suggestions on how to troubleshoot and resolve this? Additionally, are there known differences in how PDFs are rendered between web browsers and dedicated PDF viewers that might explain this behavior?

Edge output:

Adobe Acrobat Reader output:

I am modifying pdf with pdftron and java 1.8 Code for adding element and text in pdf:

Element tabElement = builder.createRect(x, y - 36, tabWidth, tabHeight);
            tabElement.setPathFill(true);
            GState gstate = tabElement.getGState();
            gstate.setFillColorSpace(ColorSpace.createDeviceRGB());
            gstate.setFillColor(new ColorPt(0.9, 0.9, 0.9));
            elementWriterLine1.writeElement(tabElement);

            Element tabTextElementLine1 = builder.createTextBegin(Font.createTrueTypeFont(outputPdfDoc, ARIAL, true), 8);
            Element textLine1 = builder.createTextRun("TEXT LINE 1");
            if(isLandscape) {
                tabPosition = 4 - tabPosition;
                tabTextElementLine1.getGState().setTransform(1, 0, 0, 1, pageWidth - gap - (tabPosition * tabWidth) - (tabWidth/2 + textLine1.getTextLength()/2) ,  tabHeight-13 );
            } else {
                tabTextElementLine1.getGState().setTransform(0, -1, 1, 0, pageWidth - 13 , pageHeight - gap  - (tabPosition * tabHeight) - (tabHeight/2 - textLine1.getTextLength()/2) );
            }
            tabTextElementLine1.getGState().setFillColorSpace(ColorSpace.createDeviceRGB());
            tabTextElementLine1.getGState().setFillColor(new ColorPt(0, 0, 0));
            tabTextElementLine1.setPathFill(true);
            elementWriterLine1.writeElement(tabTextElementLine1);

I shared pdf file among my colleagues, they are also facing same problem.

Answer 1

The issue is that there is a relationship between ElementBuilder and the Element object it last created.

every call to ElementBuilder.Create method destroys the Element currently associated with the builder and all previous Element pointers are invalidated.

https://docs.apryse.com/api/PDFTronSDK/java/com/pdftron/pdf/ElementBuilder.html#createTextBegin()

So you can only be "working" on one Element at a time, while in your code you are trying to operate on two at the same time.

The fix is to write out the beginText before building the textRun itself, and operate on the textRun GState object.

Below is your updated code

Element tabElement = builder.createRect(x, y - 36, tabWidth, tabHeight);
tabElement.setPathFill(true);
GState gstate = tabElement.getGState();
gstate.setFillColorSpace(ColorSpace.createDeviceRGB());
gstate.setFillColor(new ColorPt(0.9, 0.9, 0.9));
elementWriterLine1.writeElement(tabElement);

Element tabTextElementLine1 = builder.createTextBegin(Font.createTrueTypeFont(outputPdfDoc, ARIAL, true), 8);
elementWriterLine1.writeElement(tabTextElementLine1);

Element textLine1 = builder.createTextRun("TEXT LINE 1");
if(isLandscape) {
    tabPosition = 4 - tabPosition;
    textLine1.getGState().setTransform(1, 0, 0, 1, pageWidth - gap - (tabPosition * tabWidth) - (tabWidth/2 + textLine1.getTextLength()/2) ,  tabHeight-13 );
} else {
    textLine1.getGState().setTransform(0, -1, 1, 0, pageWidth - 13 , pageHeight - gap  - (tabPosition * tabHeight) - (tabHeight/2 - textLine1.getTextLength()/2) );
}
textLine1.getGState().setFillColorSpace(ColorSpace.createDeviceRGB());
textLine1.getGState().setFillColor(new ColorPt(0, 0, 0));
textLine1.setPathFill(true);

elementWriterLine1.writeElement(textLine1);
elementWriterLine1.writeElement(builder.createTextEnd()); // write out `ET` element

Answer 2

Your text is not drawn inside a text object. Text drawing instructions may only be used in text objects.

For drawing the first line you have

    0.9 0.9 0.9 rg
    36 0 144 36 re
    f*
    1 0 0 1 67.104 23 cm
    0 0 0 rg
    /F0 8 Tf
    q
        (TEST LINE1 OF TAB1) Tj
        1 0 0 1 67.104 23 cm
    Q
    (TEST LINE1 OF TAB1) Tj

but you probably should have

    0.9 0.9 0.9 rg
    36 0 144 36 re
    f*
    1 0 0 1 67.104 23 cm
    0 0 0 rg
    /F0 8 Tf
    q
        BT
        (TEST LINE1 OF TAB1) Tj
        ET
        1 0 0 1 67.104 23 cm
    Q
    BT
    (TEST LINE1 OF TAB1) Tj
    ET

It's the same issue for the second line.

I don't know, though, how you can make pdftron add the BeginText and EndText operators.

By the way, there is quite a lot of unnecessary stuff in here, like drawing the text line twice or manipulating the transformation matrix right before a Q (RestoreState) operation...