Overlapping characters in text field iText PDF

Question

I have PDF with text field which contains some characters. But the language specific characters are overlapping. When it gains focus, text changes and displays correctly. When lost focus, displays incorrectly. When text is edited displays also correctly.

File test_extended_filled.pdf see bellow

How I created PDF:

1. Created odg template in OpenOffice Draw 4.0.1 -> test.odg
2. Exported as PDF -> test.pdf
3. Edited test.pdf with Adobe Acrobat X Pro 10.0.0 and resaved with extended functions (needed to save on local PC) -> test_extended.pdf
4. Filled form by java (pdfstamper) -> test_extended_filled.pdf

Bonus: when i change font by pdfstamper in java it looks like changes are applied only on focused text too. -> test_extended_filled_font_size.pdf

Note: When I fill test.pdf from 2. it's displayed correctly -> text_filled.pdf

Attached files (go to download section): https://rapidshare.com/share/ACC0D81E9235A6DA2CC2353BD21A4C37

After I added

stamper.getAcroFields().addSubstitutionFont

it's better, but some characters still overlap. -> test_extended_filled_font_size_with_substitution_font.pdf http://rapidshare.com/share/0EE3238F37E9115C36A7A74706B09826

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Please take a look at the FillFormSpecialChars example and the resulting PDF.

Open Office doesn't really create nice forms. As mkl already indicates, the NeedAppearances flag can cause problems, the border of the fields is drawn onto the page content instead of being part of the widget annotation, etc...

In your case, you've defined a font that isn't optimal for special characters. Using a substitution font isn't ideal, because you can clearly see that drawing the glyphs isn't that much of a problem. The problem is that the metrics are all wrong. It's as if the special characters have an advance of 0 glyph units. In this case, you should change the font using the setFieldProperty() method.