RTL not working in pdf generation with itext 5.5 for Arabic text

Question

RTL not working in pdf generation with itext 5.5 for Arabic text

6.4k Views Asked by sheena At 08 April 2025 at 11:27

I have java code that writes arabic characters with the help of itext 5.5 and xmlworker jars, but its writing left to right even after writer.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL) is used.

Code used is:

public class CreateArabic extends DefaultHandler {
    /** Paths to and encodings of fonts we're going to use in this example */
    public static String[][] FONTS = {
        {"C:/arialuni.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H},
        {"C:/abserif4_5.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H},
        {"C:/damase.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H},
        {"C:/fsex2p00_public.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H}

    };



    /** Holds he fonts that can be used for the peace message. */
    public FontSelector fs;

     public CreateArabic() {
            fs = new FontSelector();
            for (int i = 0; i < FONTS.length; i++) {
                fs.addFont(FontFactory.getFont(FONTS[i][0], FONTS[i][1], BaseFont.EMBEDDED));
            }
        }



    public static void main(String args[]) {

        try {

            // step 1
            Rectangle pagesize = new Rectangle(8.5f * 72, 11 * 72);

            Document document = new Document();//pagesize, 72, 72, 72, 72);// step1

            PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document,
                    new FileOutputStream("c:\\report.pdf"));
            writer.setInitialLeading(200.5f);

            //writer.getAcroForm().setNeedAppearances(true);
            //writer.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);
            document.open();

            FontFactory.registerDirectories();
            Font font = FontFactory.getFont("C:\\damase.ttf",
                    BaseFont.IDENTITY_H, true, 22, Font.BOLD);



            // step 3
            document.open();

            // step 4

             XMLWorkerHelper helper = XMLWorkerHelper.getInstance();

             // CSS
             CSSResolver cssResolver = new StyleAttrCSSResolver();
             CssFile cssFile = helper.getCSS(new FileInputStream(
             "D:\\Itext_Test\\Test\\src\\test.css"));
             cssResolver.addCss(cssFile);

             // HTML
             XMLWorkerFontProvider fontProvider = new XMLWorkerFontProvider();


             // fontProvider.addFontSubstitute("lowagie", "garamond");
             CssAppliers cssAppliers = new CssAppliersImpl(fontProvider);

             HtmlPipelineContext htmlContext = new HtmlPipelineContext(
             cssAppliers);

             htmlContext.setTagFactory(Tags.getHtmlTagProcessorFactory());

//           // Pipelines
             PdfWriterPipeline pdf = new PdfWriterPipeline(document, writer);
             HtmlPipeline html = new HtmlPipeline(htmlContext, pdf);
             CssResolverPipeline css = new CssResolverPipeline(cssResolver,
             html);


             writer.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);

             System.out.println("RUN DIRECTION --> "+writer.getRunDirection());

             XMLWorker worker = new XMLWorker(css, true);

             XMLParser p = new XMLParser(worker,Charset.forName("UTF-8"));


             String htmlString2 = "<html><body style=\"color:red;\">Hello"+"??"+"</body></html>";
             String htmlString = "<body  style='font-family:arial;'>h"+"??"+"<p  style='font-family:arial;' > ????? </p></body>";
             String html1 ="<html><head></head><body>Hello <p style=\"color:red\" >oo  ??</p>   World! \u062a\u0639\u0637\u064a \u064a\u0648\u0646\u064a\u0643\u0648\u062f \u0631\u0642\u0645\u0627 \u0641\u0631\u064a\u062f\u0627 \u0644\u0643\u0644 \u062d\u0631\u0641 "+htmlString+"Testing</body></html>";



             ByteArrayInputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(htmlString.getBytes("UTF-8"));

             p.detectEncoding(is);


             p.parse(is, Charset.forName("UTF-8"));//.parse(is, "UTF-8");//parse(is);//ASMO-708


            // step 5

             document.close();
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();

        }

    }
}

Output file is also attached. PDF Output

Original Q&A

There are 3 best solutions below

Saeed Zhiany On 10 July 2017 at 16:54

For developers that need an straightforward solution

I used this trick and output is very clean and nice!

create a PDFPTable with 1 column
for every paragraph of your content, create a Paragraph object and set its alignment to Paragraph.ALIGN_JUSTIFIED (I don't know why but it causes to paragraph align to right of page!!!)
create a PDFPCell and remove its borders using setBorder(Rectangle.NO_BORDER) and add the paragraph to cell
add the cell to the table

here is a code sample to your convenience.

public void main(){
    /*
    * create and initiate document
    * */
    // repeat this for all your paragraphs
    PdfPTable pTable = new PdfPTable(1);
    Paragraph paragraph = getCellParagraph();
    paragraph.add("your RTL content");
    PdfPCell cell = getPdfPCellNoBorder(paragraph);
    pTable.addCell(cell);

    // after add all your content
    document.add(pTable);
}

private Paragraph getCellParagraph() {
    Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
    paragraph.setAlignment(Paragraph.ALIGN_JUSTIFIED);
    // set other styles you need like custom font
    return paragraph;
}

private PdfPCell getPdfPCellNoBorder(Paragraph paragraph) {
    PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell();
    cell.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);
    cell.setPaddingBottom(8);
    cell.setBorder(Rectangle.NO_BORDER);
    cell.addElement(paragraph);
    return cell;
}

Ibrahim Bakhsh On 07 November 2014 at 18:48

//This solution works for me: :)

// document
        Document document = new Document(PageSize.LEGAL);

        //fonts
        XMLWorkerFontProvider fontProvider = new XMLWorkerFontProvider(XMLWorkerFontProvider.DONTLOOKFORFONTS);
        fontProvider.register("/Users/ibrahimbakhsh/Library/Fonts/tradbdo.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H);
        fontProvider.register("/Users/ibrahimbakhsh/Library/Fonts/trado.otf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H);
        fontProvider.register("/Users/ibrahimbakhsh/Library/Fonts/tahoma.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H);
        CssAppliers cssAppliers = new CssAppliersImpl(fontProvider);
        HtmlPipelineContext htmlContext = new HtmlPipelineContext(cssAppliers);
        htmlContext.setTagFactory(Tags.getHtmlTagProcessorFactory());

        // CSS
        CSSResolver cssResolver =
                XMLWorkerHelper.getInstance().getDefaultCssResolver(true);



        // Pipelines
        ElementList elements = new ElementList();
        ElementHandlerPipeline end = new ElementHandlerPipeline(elements, null);
        HtmlPipeline html = new HtmlPipeline(htmlContext, end);
        CssResolverPipeline css = new CssResolverPipeline(cssResolver, html);

        // HTML
        htmlContext.setTagFactory(Tags.getHtmlTagProcessorFactory());
        htmlContext.autoBookmark(false);


        // XML Worker
        XMLWorker worker = new XMLWorker(css, true);
        XMLParser p = new XMLParser(worker);
        p.parse(new FileInputStream(HTML));


        //writer
        PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(file));
        writer.setInitialLeading(12.5f);
        writer.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);


        // step 4
        document.open();


        // step 5

        for (Element e : elements) {
            //out.println(e.toString());
            if(e instanceof PdfPTable){
                PdfPTable t = (PdfPTable) e;
                t.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);
                ArrayList<PdfPRow> rows = t.getRows();
                for(PdfPRow row:rows){
                    PdfPCell[] cells = row.getCells();
                    for(PdfPCell cell:cells){
                        cell.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);
                    }
                }
                e = t;
            }
            document.add(e);
        }


        //try adding new table 

        PdfPTable table = new PdfPTable(1);
        table.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);
        Font f = new Font(BaseFont.createFont("/Users/ibrahimbakhsh/Library/Fonts/trado.otf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H, BaseFont.EMBEDDED));
        PdfPCell cell = new PdfPCell(new Paragraph("تجربة نص عربي",f));
        table.addCell(cell);
        document.add(table);

        // step 6
        document.close();

**Bruno Lowagie** · Accepted Answer

As documented, this is not supposed to work:

writer.setRunDirection(PdfWriter.RUN_DIRECTION_RTL);

Arabic (and Hebrew) can only be rendered correctly in the context of ColumnText and PdfPCell. In other words: if you want to use Arabic from XML Worker, you need to create an ElementList and then add the elments to a ColumnText object as is done here.

You need to set the run direction at the level of the ColumnText object.

RTL not working in pdf generation with itext 5.5 for Arabic text

There are 3 best solutions below

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