Bold simulation

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DIV
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Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:47 am

Bold simulation

Post by DIV »

Hi, all.

I was surprised to find bold text seemed to be 'not working' for the fonts Batang and Dotum (included with Windows, AFAIK) in version 9.0 of Editor.
See attachment: I had previously learned, in forum post
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=35828&p=148854#p148809 ,
that when fonts are not provided with explicit definition of italics, then it is simulated by Editor (with some exceptions).

I have seen bold successfully 'applied' with these fonts in Microsoft Word, so I assumed that a bold version of the font had been explicitly defined in a dedicated font file.
Actually from a quick inspection with High-Logic's FontCreator there seems to be only one "font collection" file for each, respectively "batang.ttc" (containing Batang, BatangChe, Gungsuh, and GungsuhChe, all regular weight) and "gulim.ttc" (containing Dotum, DotumChe, Gulim, and GulimChe, all regular weight).
So does that imply that Word is doing bold simulation? I can create a PDF (PDF/A) in Word 2013 using Word's built-in functionality (see attachment
VariousFontsWithFormatting_fromWord_RevB.pdf
(485 KiB) Downloaded 49 times
), and I don't really understand the font embedding: there are separate fonts embedded for regular, bold and italic versions of Calibri and Times New Roman, yet for Batang and Dotum there is only one reported font embedded for each, even though both appear to have bold and italic formatting applied in the PDF file. ...not that I need to understand the embedding, I am just curious.

I also found this post
https://forum.pdf-xchange.com/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=31175&p=125913&hilit=bold+simulation#p125913
from 2018 that indicated the SDK supports neither italic nor bold simulation.
But maybe that doesn't exactly relate to Editor 9.0, given that Editor 9.0 does (mostly) do italic simulation.

It's not something I'm desperately hanging out for, but I didn't see it covered elsewhere on the forum, so I thought it might be worth documenting the behaviour and confirming the official status.

—DIV
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Bold simulation

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hi, DIV

To be entirely honest, even italics simulation is a brand new feature that I do not fully understand, I checked with the developers present in my office at the moment (it is the end of the day), and they unfortunately are not aware of any "bold simulation" that may or may not be present at the moment. So for this topic I cannot offer much of a reply on this front.

I have created a ticket for the Developer in charge of our font simulation functions, and so when he has time in his busy schedule, he should come along and post here with some details, or contact me with the needed information so I can followup.

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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DIV
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Posts: 252
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:47 am

Re: Bold simulation

Post by DIV »

All good.
As I say, I wouldn't imagine it's necessarily the highest priority, but if the italics simulation is also relatively new then perhaps bold simulation might be on the cards sometime in future.
—DIV
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Bold simulation

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, DIV

I have just spoken with the Dev team again, and If you were not already using the latest build (9.2.358.0), I am happy to confirm that font simulation (both Bold and Italics) should be present and functional for you!

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

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DIV
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Posts: 252
Joined: Fri Jun 23, 2017 1:47 am

Re: Bold simulation

Post by DIV »

Bold simulation confirmed working for regular text for version 9.2 build 358.0, as reported. :-)

However, there is a bug when combined with (simulated) italic text. The text looks correct when editing, but the simulation is lost when the annotation is no longer being edited. :-(

Sample while editing:
image2.png
Sample when not editing:
image1.png
Given that the bold simulation seems to look correct even with italic text while editing the annotation, I'm optimistic that this might be an easy thing for your developers to remedy.

—DIV
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TrackerSupp-Daniel
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Re: Bold simulation

Post by TrackerSupp-Daniel »

Hello, DIV

I do not have that font handy, unless it is not actually the "batang" font, but Could I ask you to please check in the windows "fonts" menu for me, and see what options are present under the "metadata" for that font on your PC? for example, here is the " Agency FB" font, which only has regular and "bold", no italic is present:
image.png
Also, if possible, could I ask you to send us a copy of the font you have there, so that we can test with it locally, and use that to hopefully resolve this issue?

Kind regards,
Dan McIntyre - Support Technician
Tracker Software Products (Canada) LTD

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Our Web site domain and email address has changed as of 26/10/2023.
https://www.pdf-xchange.com
Support@pdf-xchange.com
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