Here's a strange one...
When we produce a pdf report from a PC, all fields show 100% of the time - never a problem. But some mac users are reporting SOME fields as 'invisible' (ie not showing) on a PDF report. <scratching head>
We'll try to narrow down as to what Macs/versions/browsers are doing this, but has the Telerik Reporting team ever heard of such a strange thing? I thought PDF's were supposed to be 'universal' documents. Note: they can see other fields no problem when they open the PDF usign a Mac -- it's just SOME fields are missing for them on Macs (the SAME fields that ALWAYS appear then pulling the same report form a PC)
Are you guys aware of any Mac/PDF bugs/limitations in Reporting?
Thanks,
Mike
When we produce a pdf report from a PC, all fields show 100% of the time - never a problem. But some mac users are reporting SOME fields as 'invisible' (ie not showing) on a PDF report. <scratching head>
We'll try to narrow down as to what Macs/versions/browsers are doing this, but has the Telerik Reporting team ever heard of such a strange thing? I thought PDF's were supposed to be 'universal' documents. Note: they can see other fields no problem when they open the PDF usign a Mac -- it's just SOME fields are missing for them on Macs (the SAME fields that ALWAYS appear then pulling the same report form a PC)
Are you guys aware of any Mac/PDF bugs/limitations in Reporting?
Thanks,
Mike
3 Answers, 1 is accepted
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Hello M,
You're the first person to report such a weird problem. The PDF Rendering Extension of Telerik Reporting produces a version 1.6 PDF file and it can be opened with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 or later. The extension itself does not require you to have a PDF software installed on the machine from which you're exporting i.e. the exported file is not machine specific. The PDF rendering extension embeds the fonts used by default and those fonts must be installed on the machine where the application is running, so the PDF rendering can embed them. If you disable font embedding, the fonts used in the report must be installed on the client computers used to view the report.
Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
You're the first person to report such a weird problem. The PDF Rendering Extension of Telerik Reporting produces a version 1.6 PDF file and it can be opened with Adobe Acrobat 7.0 or later. The extension itself does not require you to have a PDF software installed on the machine from which you're exporting i.e. the exported file is not machine specific. The PDF rendering extension embeds the fonts used by default and those fonts must be installed on the machine where the application is running, so the PDF rendering can embed them. If you disable font embedding, the fonts used in the report must be installed on the client computers used to view the report.
Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
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M
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answered on 05 Oct 2010, 06:43 PM
Thank you for the reply. We'll keep researching further - and if we find any answers, we'll post it back here.
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M
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answered on 11 Oct 2010, 04:13 PM
Solution:
Ok, I think we've found a solution and am posting this in case others have this issue.
Bottom line: Mac users need to install Adobe Reader, and then set it as the default PDF viewer (when fonts are not imbedded in the PDF)
The problem seems to originate with the Apple Preview loading the PDF. After you mentioned that Telerik Reporting is fully PDF standards compliant, we were able to narrow down our search by assuming that Apple Preview might be 'interpreting' the PDF code differently. After our Mac users downloaded Adobe Reader, and set it as the default, all Mac users had a 100% success rate in reading the report-generated PDFs.
Quote from Adobe site:
"Although the default viewer for PDF documents in Mac OS X is Preview, Preview can't display dynamic/interactive content embedded into PDF forms such as drop down menus and calendar features."
Also, an FYI regarding your comment about imbedded fonts:
Yes, we removed the imbedded fonts when generating the PDF reports since it allowed us to to take a 1.5Mb pdf file (with imbedded fonts) to become a 42kb file (without fonts), so that could have triggered the original Mac issue -- although logically, ALL of the pdf should not have been viewable by the Mac if this was the only issue. Note to Telerik Reporting testers: The fields that were invisible to Macs, used the same font as the rest of the report, but did use a larger point size.
Solution quick-links below for ref:
Ok, I think we've found a solution and am posting this in case others have this issue.
Bottom line: Mac users need to install Adobe Reader, and then set it as the default PDF viewer (when fonts are not imbedded in the PDF)
The problem seems to originate with the Apple Preview loading the PDF. After you mentioned that Telerik Reporting is fully PDF standards compliant, we were able to narrow down our search by assuming that Apple Preview might be 'interpreting' the PDF code differently. After our Mac users downloaded Adobe Reader, and set it as the default, all Mac users had a 100% success rate in reading the report-generated PDFs.
Quote from Adobe site:
"Although the default viewer for PDF documents in Mac OS X is Preview, Preview can't display dynamic/interactive content embedded into PDF forms such as drop down menus and calendar features."
Also, an FYI regarding your comment about imbedded fonts:
Yes, we removed the imbedded fonts when generating the PDF reports since it allowed us to to take a 1.5Mb pdf file (with imbedded fonts) to become a 42kb file (without fonts), so that could have triggered the original Mac issue -- although logically, ALL of the pdf should not have been viewable by the Mac if this was the only issue. Note to Telerik Reporting testers: The fields that were invisible to Macs, used the same font as the rest of the report, but did use a larger point size.
Solution quick-links below for ref:
Please download and install the Adobe Reader for the Mac using the following link:
http://get.adobe.com/reader/otherversions/
And then, here are the instructions on how to set Adobe Reader as the DEFAULT app for PDF files on Mac:
http://www.downloadatoz.net/download/adobe-reader-for-mac/set-adobe-reader-as-the-default-app-for-pdf-files-on-mac_g.html
(If someone has a better link, post it below)
Cheers,
Mike