MATLAB: Are Russian characters published as “####” in PDF Format in MATLAB 7.13 (R2011b)

charactersMATLABpublishrussian

I have a MATLAB file that I want to publish as a PDF using the PUBLISH command. The file contains Russian characters. For example, the contents of the file are as follows:

disp('Привет')

Executing this displays the string 'Привет' on the command window. However, when I use the PUBLISH command with the PDF option, the characters Russian characters show as "####". The publishing works fine for other formats, for example the Russian characters display properly, in other formats like HTML or PPT.

Best Answer

For Release 2012a (R2012a) and newer, this bug has been fixed. In order to correctly display any non-ASCII characters, the undocumented font option must be used:

publish('myScript.m','format','pdf','font','fontName');

This line will publish 'myScript' into a PDF file using the 'fontName' font. The font used must have the non-ASCII characters used in 'myScript'. For Russian characters, for example, using the 'Candara' font available in Windows 7. If this font is not available, a font with the necessary non-ASCII characters must be installed first.

For product releases prior to R2012a, read below for any possible bug workarounds:

There is a bug in MATLAB 7.13 (R2011b) in the way that PUBLISH handles foreign fonts for publishing PDFs. To work around this issue:

1) Edit the “fop_config.xml” files in the following two locations:

 $MATLABROOT\toolbox\shared\rptgen\@rpt_xml\@db_output
 $MATLABROOT\toolbox\matlab\codetools\private

Here $MATLABROOT is the MATLAB installation directory that can be found by executing the command MATLABROOT inside the MATLAB command window.

Locate the line that reads "</fonts>" within the “fop_config.xml” files and add the following line just before the "</fonts>" line.

 <auto-detect/>

2) From your MATLAB command window, open the “publish.m” file by using the following command:

edit publish.m

In this file, locate the line that reads the following:

addAttribute(styleDom,attributeSet,'color','blue')

Add the following lines after the above line in the “publish.m” file:

fontName = '''Arial''';
addVariable(styleDom,de,'body.font.family',fontName)
addVariable(styleDom,de,'dingbat.font.family',fontName)
addVariable(styleDom,de,'monospace.font.family',fontName)
addVariable(styleDom,de,'symbol.font.family',fontName)
addVariable(styleDom,de,'title.font.family',fontName)
addVariable(styleDom,de,'sans.font.family',fontName)

Publishing to PDF files should now work fine after restarting MATLAB.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to apply font options when using the LaTeX interpreter in MATLAB

Note that the LaTeX processor included in MATLAB is primarily designed for creating mathematical expressions, meaning that some functionality related to fonts or document processing is not supported. However, some LaTeX commands can still be used to provide a great deal of customization, as shown in the example below.

Executing the following code will generate the figure shown below:

>> figure
>> strx = ['$t$'];
>> stry = ['$\dot{x}(t)$'];
>> xlabel(strx,'FontSize',30,'Interpreter','LaTeX','Color','r') % Font size/color is set using 'FontSize' and 'Color' name-value pairs
>> ylabel(stry,'FontSize',30,'Interpreter','LaTeX','Color','b')

The font style of the labels can be changed by applying certain LaTeX commands to "strx" and "stry". Note that some commands cannot be applied to the whole string, as the '\dot' character is not compatible. The following code shows how to implement a portion of the available options in MATLAB:

% 1) Serif (default), no italics
strx = ['$\textrm{t}$'];
stry = ['$\dot{\textrm{x}}(\textrm{t})$'];
% 2) Sans-serif, no italics
strx = ['$\textsf{t}$'];
stry = ['$\dot{\textsf{x}}(\textsf{t})$'];
% 3) Bold, no italics 
strx = ['$\textbf{t}$']; 
stry = ['$\dot{\textbf{x}}(\textbf{t})$'];
% 4) Bold and italic
strx = ['$\textbf{\textit{t}}$'];
stry = ['$\dot{\textbf{\textit{x}}}(\textbf{\textit{t}})$'];
% 5) Underlined, italic
strx = ['$\underline{t}$'];
stry = ['$\underline{\dot{x}(t)}$'];
% 6) Underlined, sans-serif (removes italic)
strx = ['$\underline{\textsf{t}}$'];
stry = ['$\underline{\dot{\textsf{x}}(\textsf{t})}$'];

Note that the following warning (or similar) may be generated when using the sans-serif options:

Warning: Error updating Text.
    Font cmss10 is not supported.

This occurs when using the LaTeX interpreter for sans-serif fonts and should not be of any concern. If you wish to suppress the display of this warning, please visit the link below:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/95334-how-do-i-turn-off-a-particular-warning-in-matlab

MATLAB: How to change the chapter title font in Report Generator

To change the full chapter title including the "Chapter X" and the Title:

1. Save a default Chapter template by executing the following line of code:

>> template = mlreportgen.report.Chapter.createTemplate('customChapterStyle.pdftx','pdf')

2. Unzip the PDFTX-file to make edits:

>> unzipTemplate('customChapterStyle.pdftx')

3. In the unzipped "customChapterStyle" folder, open the stylesheet "root.css":

4. Make edits as desired and then save the css file. For example:

h1.SectionTitle1, p.SectionTitle1 {
    font-family: 'Times New Roman';
    font-size: 40pt;
    margin-top: 25pt;
    font-weight:bold;
    margin-bottom: 10pt;
    color: red;
    white-space: pre;
    -fo-keep-with-next.within-page: always;
}

5. Rezip the PDFTX by executing the following code:

>> zipTemplate('customChapterStyle.pdftx')

6. Go to the script creating the Report and find where the chapter is being created. Set the chapter property of TemplateSrc to the proper file path:

>> ch1 = Chapter
>> ch1.TemplateSrc = 'customChapterStyle.pdftx'

The above changes the style of the full title: Chapter X. Title Text

To remove the component "Chapter X." and just include the Title Text:

>> ch1. Numbered = false;

To include the "Chapter X", but give the Title Text a different font:

1. Make the chapter title a mlreportgen.dom.Text object:

>> ch1title = Text('Change Chapter Title Font');

2. Define the properties of the Text object:

>> fontFamily = FontFamily('Arial');
>> fontSizeObj = FontSize('25px');
>> ch1title.Style = {fontFamily, fontSizeObj};
>> ch1title.Color = 'blue';

Attached is an example that generates a PDF report with the Chapter X. and Title Text reformatted.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to apply font options when using the LaTeX interpreter in MATLAB

MATLAB: How to change the chapter title font in Report Generator

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