Special Characters in FPDF with PHP

Question

I have a web form that users can fill out and that content fills up a PDF with FPDF and PHP. When a user enters a word with an apostrophe, a slash appears before it on the PDF.

Similarly, special characters like trademark symbols are encoded wrong.

The FPDF FAQs say to use:

$str = utf8_decode($str);

But I'm just not sure how to apply that to the whole PDF. I'm trying to think about it as if it was an HTML page but that isn't helping.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Figured this out by doing the following (pagesubtitle is the name of the text field in the form):

$reportSubtitle = stripslashes($_POST['pagesubtitle']);
$reportSubtitle = iconv('UTF-8', 'windows-1252', $reportSubtitle);

Then print it out:

$pdf->Write (6, $reportSubtitle);

This will remove any unwanted slashes following apostrophes, as well as use the 'iconv' function to print special characters such as ™

Answer 2

All of the above did not work for me, but I did get it to work.

I managed to do it "the barbarian way" by just translating every weird character to its url value. Then simply decode the url and voila!

function em($word) {

    $word = str_replace("@","%40",$word);
    $word = str_replace("`","%60",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¢","%A2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("£","%A3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¥","%A5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("|","%A6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("«","%AB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¬","%AC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¯","%AD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("º","%B0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("±","%B1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ª","%B2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("µ","%B5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("»","%BB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¼","%BC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("½","%BD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¿","%BF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("À","%C0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Á","%C1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Â","%C2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ã","%C3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ä","%C4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Å","%C5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Æ","%C6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ç","%C7",$word);
    $word = str_replace("È","%C8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("É","%C9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ê","%CA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ë","%CB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ì","%CC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Í","%CD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Î","%CE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ï","%CF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ð","%D0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ñ","%D1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ò","%D2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ó","%D3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ô","%D4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Õ","%D5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ö","%D6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ø","%D8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ù","%D9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ú","%DA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Û","%DB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ü","%DC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ý","%DD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Þ","%DE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ß","%DF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("à","%E0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("á","%E1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("â","%E2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ã","%E3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ä","%E4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("å","%E5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("æ","%E6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ç","%E7",$word);
    $word = str_replace("è","%E8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("é","%E9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ê","%EA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ë","%EB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ì","%EC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("í","%ED",$word);
    $word = str_replace("î","%EE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ï","%EF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ð","%F0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ñ","%F1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ò","%F2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ó","%F3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ô","%F4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("õ","%F5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ö","%F6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("÷","%F7",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ø","%F8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ù","%F9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ú","%FA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("û","%FB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ü","%FC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ý","%FD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("þ","%FE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ÿ","%FF",$word);
    return $word;
}

And of course me calling the function

$weirdword = "Días, Miércoles, Sábado,miércoles"; //Some spanish days
$weirdword = em($weirdword);
$weirdword = urldecode($weirdword);
echo $weirdword;

Giving output:

Días, Miércoles, Sábado,miércoles

Answer 3

None of above had solved my problem. I had solved it by the following way:

setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'en_US');

$value = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $value);
$fpdf->Cell(140, 6, $value, 1);

Hope you will be helpful.

Reference: Link

Answer 4

none of above solutions worked for me, so I solved the problem like this:

$this->AddFont('Arial','','arial.php');
$this->SetFont('Arial','',12);
$this->Cell(0,5,iconv("UTF-8", "CP1250//TRANSLIT", $string),0,1,'L');

Before trying the above lines, do the following:

Copy from c:/Windows/Fonts/Arial.ttf to the /tutorial folder of FPDF.

Edit the content of makefont.php

require('../makefont/makefont.php');
MakeFont('arial.ttf','cp1250');

Execute makefont.php

Copy the following files to the /font folder of FPDF: arial.php arial.ttf arial.z

Finally, define the "font folder". Open fpdf.php (main library file) and add:

define('FPDF_FONTPATH','font');

The PDF works for me with all special characters, I believe it was the problem in the Arial font itself, which FPDF originally uses. It should work with other fonts aswell, if they support your characters. Good luck!

Answer 5

Below works for me (Using FPDF):

---

function em_jaz($word) {
$word = str_replace('+', ' ', $word);
$word = str_replace("%C3%A9","%E9",$word);          /* é */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A8","%E8",$word);          /* è */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AE","%EE",$word);          /* î */
$word = str_replace("%26rsquo%3B","%27",$word);     /* ' */
$word = str_replace("%C3%89","%C9",$word);          /* É */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8A","%CA",$word);          /* Ê */ 
$word = str_replace("%C3%8B","%CB",$word);          /* Ë */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8C","%CC",$word);          /* Ì */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8D","%CD",$word);          /* Í */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8E","%CE",$word);          /* Î */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8F","%CF",$word);          /* Ï */
$word = str_replace("%C3%90","%D0",$word);          /* Ð */
$word = str_replace("%C3%91","%D1",$word);          /* Ñ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%92","%D2",$word);          /* Ò */
$word = str_replace("%C3%93","%D3",$word);          /* Ó */
$word = str_replace("%C3%94","%D4",$word);          /* Ô */
$word = str_replace("%C3%95","%D5",$word);          /* Õ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%96","%D6",$word);          /* Ö */
$word = str_replace("%C3%98","%D8",$word);          /* Ø */                 
$word = str_replace("%C3%99","%D9",$word);          /* Ù */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9A","%DA",$word);          /* Ú */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9B","%DB",$word);          /* Û */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9C","%DC",$word);          /* Ü */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9D","%DD",$word);          /* Ý */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9E","%DE",$word);          /* Þ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9F","%DF",$word);          /* ß */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A0","%E0",$word);          /* à */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A1","%E1",$word);          /* á */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A2","%E2",$word);          /* â */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A3","%E3",$word);          /* ã */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A4","%E4",$word);          /* ä */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A5","%E5",$word);          /* å */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A6","%E6",$word);          /* æ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A7","%E7",$word);          /* ç */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AA","%EA",$word);          /* ê */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AB","%EB",$word);          /* ë */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AC","%EC",$word);          /* ì */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AD","%ED",$word);          /* í */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AF","%EF",$word);          /* ï */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B0","%F0",$word);          /* ð */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B1","%F1",$word);          /* ñ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B2","%F2",$word);          /* ò */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B3","%F3",$word);          /* ó */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B4","%F4",$word);          /* ô */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B5","%F5",$word);          /* õ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B6","%F6",$word);          /* ö */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B7","%F7",$word);          /* ÷ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B8","%F8",$word);          /* ø */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B9","%F9",$word);          /* ù */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BA","%FA",$word);          /* ú */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BB","%FB",$word);          /* û */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BC","%FC",$word);          /* ü */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BD","%FD",$word);          /* ý */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BE","%FE",$word);          /* þ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BF","%FF",$word);          /* ÿ */ 
$word = str_replace("%40","%40",$word);             /* @ */
$word = str_replace("%60","%60",$word);             /* ` */
$word = str_replace("%C2%A2","%A2",$word);          /* ¢ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%A3","%A3",$word);          /* £ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%A5","%A5",$word);          /* ¥ */
$word = str_replace("%7C","%A6",$word);             /* | */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AB","%AB",$word);          /* « */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AC","%AC",$word);          /* ¬ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AF","%AD",$word);          /* ¯ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BA","%B0",$word);          /* º */
$word = str_replace("%C2%B1","%B1",$word);          /* ± */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AA","%B2",$word);          /* ª */
$word = str_replace("%C2%B5","%B5",$word);          /* µ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BB","%BB",$word);          /* » */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BC","%BC",$word);          /* ¼ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BD","%BD",$word);          /* ½ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BF","%BF",$word);          /* ¿ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%80","%C0",$word);          /* À */
$word = str_replace("%C3%81","%C1",$word);          /* Á */
$word = str_replace("%C3%82","%C2",$word);          /* Â */
$word = str_replace("%C3%83","%C3",$word);          /* Ã */
$word = str_replace("%C3%84","%C4",$word);          /* Ä */
$word = str_replace("%C3%85","%C5",$word);          /* Å */
$word = str_replace("%C3%86","%C6",$word);          /* Æ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%87","%C7",$word);          /* Ç */
$word = str_replace("%C3%88","%C8",$word);          `/`* È */
return $word;
}

$content = urlencode($content);

$content = urldecode($pdf->em_jaz($content));

Answer 6

This class is a modified version of FPDF that adds UTF-8 support. Moreover, it embeds only the necessary parts of the fonts that are used in the document, making the file size much smaller than if the whole fonts were embedded. These features were originally developed for the mPDF project.

http://fpdf.org/en/script/script92.php

Answer 7

I have used this as $str = preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9_-]/','', $str); for me has been enough, I eliminate the not alphanumerical characters

Answer 8

This did it for me: iconv("UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1//TRANSLIT//IGNORE", your-text-var-here)

Answer 9

Why not use the function PDF recommends?

$text = utf8_decode($text);

It works for me.