illustrate utf8 pitfalls

contrib/utf8-special-characters.pl

@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
+
+use strict;
+use warnings;
+
+# use Carp 'verbose'; local $SIG{__DIE__} = sub { Carp::confess(@_) }; # use Data::Dumper;
+
+use PDF::API2;
+
+print qq{Usage: perl $0 ; xdg-open utf8-special-characters.pdf 
+
+Prints a sample string using a number of fonts to illustrate some traps of pdf fonts.
+Assumes /usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf exists to provide UTF8 characters. 
+};
+
+my ( $pdf, $page, $text, $font, $ttfont, $font_file, $top, $down );
+
+$pdf = PDF::API2->new();
+
+# Add a blank page
+$page = $pdf->page();
+$top  = 600;
+$down = 40;
+$text = $page->text();
+$font = $pdf->corefont( 'Helvetica-Bold', -encode => 'utf8' )
+  ;    # but core fonts don't really have much utf8 !
+$text->font( $font, 12 );
+$text->translate( 10, $top );
+$text->text("In core font: US: a b c; accents: á é í; ES: ñ Ñ ¿;");
+$top = $top - .5 * $down;
+$text->translate( 10, $top );
+$text->text("  DE: ä ö; RU: ѐ Ѡ; GR: α β ; Mono: iI lL zero=0 one=1");
+
+$top       = $top - $down;
+$font_file = '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf';
+if ( -e $font_file ) {
+    $ttfont = $pdf->ttfont($font_file);
+    $text->font( $ttfont, 12 );
+    $text->translate( 10, $top );
+    $text->text(
+"In true type font Dejavu Sans: US: a b c; accents: á é í; ES: ñ Ñ ¿;"
+    );
+    $top = $top - .5 * $down;
+    $text->translate( 10, $top );
+    $text->text(
+        "  DE: ä ö; RU: ѐ Ѡ; GR: α β ; Mono: iI lL zero=0 one=1'");
+}
+
+$top       = $top - $down;
+$font_file = '/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu/DejaVuSansMono.ttf';
+if ( -e $font_file ) {
+    use utf8;
+    $ttfont = $pdf->ttfont($font_file);
+    $text->font( $ttfont, 12 );
+    $text->translate( 10, $top );
+    $text->text(
+"In true type font with 'use utf8;': US: a b c; accents: á é í; ES: ñ Ñ ¿;"
+    );
+    $top = $top - .5 * $down;
+    $text->translate( 10, $top );
+    $text->text(
+        "  DE: ä ö; RU: ѐ Ѡ; GR: α β ; Mono: iI lL zero=0 one=1'");
+}
+
+# Save the PDF
+$pdf->saveas('utf8-special-characters.pdf');
+
+exit;