allow arabic text in pdf table using itext7 (xamarin android) - pdf

Question

I have to put my list data in a table in a pdf file. My data has some Arabic words. When my pdf is generated, the Arabic words don't appear. I searched and found that I need itext7.pdfcalligraph so I installed it in my app. I found this code too https://itextpdf.com/en/blog/technical-notes/displaying-text-different-languages-single-pdf-document and tried to do something similar to allow Arabic words in my table but I couldn't figure it out.
This is a trial code before I apply it to my real list:
var path2 = global::Android.OS.Environment.ExternalStorageDirectory.AbsolutePath;
filePath = System.IO.Path.Combine(path2.ToString(), "myfile2.pdf");
stream = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Create);
PdfWriter writer = new PdfWriter(stream);
PdfDocument pdf2 = new iText.Kernel.Pdf.PdfDocument(writer);
Document document = new Document(pdf2, PageSize.A4);
FontSet set = new FontSet();
set.AddFont("ARIAL.TTF");
document.SetFontProvider(new FontProvider(set));
document.SetProperty(Property.FONT, "Arial");
string[] sources = new string[] { "يوم","شهر 2020" };
iText.Layout.Element.Table table = new iText.Layout.Element.Table(2, false);
foreach (string source in sources)
{
Paragraph paragraph = new Paragraph();
Bidi bidi = new Bidi(source, Bidi.DirectionDefaultLeftToRight);
if (bidi.BaseLevel != 0)
{
paragraph.SetTextAlignment(iText.Layout.Properties.TextAlignment.RIGHT);
}
paragraph.Add(source);
table.AddCell(new Cell(1, 1).SetTextAlignment(iText.Layout.Properties.TextAlignment.CENTER).Add(paragraph));
}
document.Add(table);
document.Close();
I updated my code and added the arial.ttf to my assets folder . i'm getting the following exception:
System.InvalidOperationException: 'FontProvider and FontSet are empty. Cannot resolve font family name (see ElementPropertyContainer#setFontFamily) without initialized FontProvider (see RootElement#setFontProvider).'
and I still can't figure it out. any ideas?
thanks in advance

Answer 1

- C #
I have a similar situation for Turkish characters, and I've followed these
steps :
Create a folder under projects root folder which is : /wwwroot/Fonts
Add OpenSans-Regular.ttf under the Fonts folder
Path for font is => ../wwwroot/Fonts/OpenSans-Regular.ttf
Create font like below :
public static PdfFont CreateOpenSansRegularFont()
{
var path = "{Your absolute path for FONT}";
return PdfFontFactory.CreateFont(path, PdfEncodings.IDENTITY_H, true);
}
and use it like :
paragraph.Add(source)
.SetFont(FontFactory.CreateOpenSansRegularFont()); //set font in here
table.AddCell(new Cell(1, 1)
.SetTextAlignment(iText.Layout.Properties.TextAlignment.CENTER)
.Add(paragraph));
This is how I used font factory for Turkish characters ex: "ü,i,ç,ş,ö"
For Xamarin-Android, you could try
string documentsPath = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
var path = Path.Combine(documentsPath, "Fonts/Arial.ttf");

Answer 2

Look i fixed it in java,this may help you:
String font = "your Arabic font";
//the magic is in the next 4 lines:
PdfFontFactory.register(font);
FontProgram fontProgram = FontProgramFactory.createFont(font, true);
PdfFont f = PdfFontFactory.createFont(fontProgram, PdfEncodings.IDENTITY_H);
LanguageProcessor languageProcessor = new ArabicLigaturizer();
//and look here how i used setBaseDirection and don't use TextAlignment ,it will work without it
com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument tempPdfDoc = new com.itextpdf.kernel.pdf.PdfDocument(new PdfReader(pdfFile.getPath()), TempWriter);
com.itextpdf.layout.Document TempDoc = new com.itextpdf.layout.Document(tempPdfDoc);
com.itextpdf.layout.element.Paragraph paragraph0 = new com.itextpdf.layout.element.Paragraph(languageProcessor.process("الاستماره الالكترونية--الاستماره الالكترونية--الاستماره الالكترونية--الاستماره الالكترونية"))
.setFont(f).setBaseDirection(BaseDirection.RIGHT_TO_LEFT)
.setFontSize(15);