Special Characters in FPDF with PHP

Question

I have a web form that users can fill out and that content fills up a PDF with FPDF and PHP. When a user enters a word with an apostrophe, a slash appears before it on the PDF.

Similarly, special characters like trademark symbols are encoded wrong.

The FPDF FAQs say to use:

$str = utf8_decode($str);

But I'm just not sure how to apply that to the whole PDF. I'm trying to think about it as if it was an HTML page but that isn't helping.

Any ideas?

score 82 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 25 '10 at 18:54

Figured this out by doing the following (pagesubtitle is the name of the text field in the form):

$reportSubtitle = stripslashes($_POST['pagesubtitle']);
$reportSubtitle = iconv('UTF-8', 'windows-1252', $reportSubtitle);

Then print it out:

$pdf->Write (6, $reportSubtitle);

This will remove any unwanted slashes following apostrophes, as well as use the 'iconv' function to print special characters such as ™

score 25 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 02 '12 at 09:58

All of the above did not work for me, but I did get it to work.

I managed to do it "the barbarian way" by just translating every weird character to its url value. Then simply decode the url and voila!

function em($word) {

    $word = str_replace("@","%40",$word);
    $word = str_replace("`","%60",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¢","%A2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("£","%A3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¥","%A5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("|","%A6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("«","%AB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¬","%AC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¯","%AD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("º","%B0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("±","%B1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ª","%B2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("µ","%B5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("»","%BB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¼","%BC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("½","%BD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("¿","%BF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("À","%C0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Á","%C1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Â","%C2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ã","%C3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ä","%C4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Å","%C5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Æ","%C6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ç","%C7",$word);
    $word = str_replace("È","%C8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("É","%C9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ê","%CA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ë","%CB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ì","%CC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Í","%CD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Î","%CE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ï","%CF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ð","%D0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ñ","%D1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ò","%D2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ó","%D3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ô","%D4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Õ","%D5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ö","%D6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ø","%D8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ù","%D9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ú","%DA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Û","%DB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ü","%DC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Ý","%DD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("Þ","%DE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ß","%DF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("à","%E0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("á","%E1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("â","%E2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ã","%E3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ä","%E4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("å","%E5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("æ","%E6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ç","%E7",$word);
    $word = str_replace("è","%E8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("é","%E9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ê","%EA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ë","%EB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ì","%EC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("í","%ED",$word);
    $word = str_replace("î","%EE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ï","%EF",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ð","%F0",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ñ","%F1",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ò","%F2",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ó","%F3",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ô","%F4",$word);
    $word = str_replace("õ","%F5",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ö","%F6",$word);
    $word = str_replace("÷","%F7",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ø","%F8",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ù","%F9",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ú","%FA",$word);
    $word = str_replace("û","%FB",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ü","%FC",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ý","%FD",$word);
    $word = str_replace("þ","%FE",$word);
    $word = str_replace("ÿ","%FF",$word);
    return $word;
}

And of course me calling the function

$weirdword = "Días, Miércoles, Sábado,miércoles"; //Some spanish days
$weirdword = em($weirdword);
$weirdword = urldecode($weirdword);
echo $weirdword;

Giving output:

Días, Miércoles, Sábado,miércoles

I realise this is a massive hack anyway, but might be cleaner to at least `return urldecode($word);` at the end of your `em` function. Anyway, this worked when nothing else would, so a million thanks! :) — John, Apr 18 '16 at 12:13
cool, it works :).. Also return urldecode($word) in em function could be worth :).. Many thanks ! — Andrei Todorut, Jun 22 '17 at 10:38

score 9 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 15 '13 at 10:43

none of above solutions worked for me, so I solved the problem like this:

$this->AddFont('Arial','','arial.php');
$this->SetFont('Arial','',12);
$this->Cell(0,5,iconv("UTF-8", "CP1250//TRANSLIT", $string),0,1,'L');

Before trying the above lines, do the following:

Copy from c:/Windows/Fonts/Arial.ttf to the /tutorial folder of FPDF.

Edit the content of makefont.php

require('../makefont/makefont.php');
MakeFont('arial.ttf','cp1250');

Execute makefont.php

Copy the following files to the /font folder of FPDF: arial.php arial.ttf arial.z

Finally, define the "font folder". Open fpdf.php (main library file) and add:

define('FPDF_FONTPATH','font');

The PDF works for me with all special characters, I believe it was the problem in the Arial font itself, which FPDF originally uses. It should work with other fonts aswell, if they support your characters. Good luck!

I know this is very old, but still - thank you very much! This seems to be the correct solution to this problem. I am also creating (or converting) a `ttf` font for FPDF with `cp1250` and now every character is displayed correctly. Nice! — beeef, Aug 05 '20 at 10:36

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 03 '17 at 07:10

7

None of above had solved my problem. I had solved it by the following way:

setlocale(LC_CTYPE, 'en_US');

$value = iconv('UTF-8', 'ASCII//TRANSLIT', $value);
$fpdf->Cell(140, 6, $value, 1);

Hope you will be helpful.

Reference: Link

answered Jun 03 '17 at 07:10

MH2K9

11,951
7
32
49

3

Really, great. That is what I was searching for 3 hours. – Vipul Hadiya Dec 24 '17 at 15:36

score 3 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 16 '21 at 13:18

3

This did it for me: iconv("UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1//TRANSLIT//IGNORE", your-text-var-here)

answered Mar 16 '21 at 13:18

jdisla

139
6

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 07 '18 at 14:09

Below works for me (Using FPDF):

function em_jaz($word) {
$word = str_replace('+', ' ', $word);
$word = str_replace("%C3%A9","%E9",$word);          /* é */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A8","%E8",$word);          /* è */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AE","%EE",$word);          /* î */
$word = str_replace("%26rsquo%3B","%27",$word);     /* ' */
$word = str_replace("%C3%89","%C9",$word);          /* É */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8A","%CA",$word);          /* Ê */ 
$word = str_replace("%C3%8B","%CB",$word);          /* Ë */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8C","%CC",$word);          /* Ì */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8D","%CD",$word);          /* Í */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8E","%CE",$word);          /* Î */
$word = str_replace("%C3%8F","%CF",$word);          /* Ï */
$word = str_replace("%C3%90","%D0",$word);          /* Ð */
$word = str_replace("%C3%91","%D1",$word);          /* Ñ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%92","%D2",$word);          /* Ò */
$word = str_replace("%C3%93","%D3",$word);          /* Ó */
$word = str_replace("%C3%94","%D4",$word);          /* Ô */
$word = str_replace("%C3%95","%D5",$word);          /* Õ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%96","%D6",$word);          /* Ö */
$word = str_replace("%C3%98","%D8",$word);          /* Ø */                 
$word = str_replace("%C3%99","%D9",$word);          /* Ù */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9A","%DA",$word);          /* Ú */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9B","%DB",$word);          /* Û */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9C","%DC",$word);          /* Ü */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9D","%DD",$word);          /* Ý */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9E","%DE",$word);          /* Þ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%9F","%DF",$word);          /* ß */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A0","%E0",$word);          /* à */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A1","%E1",$word);          /* á */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A2","%E2",$word);          /* â */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A3","%E3",$word);          /* ã */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A4","%E4",$word);          /* ä */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A5","%E5",$word);          /* å */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A6","%E6",$word);          /* æ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%A7","%E7",$word);          /* ç */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AA","%EA",$word);          /* ê */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AB","%EB",$word);          /* ë */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AC","%EC",$word);          /* ì */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AD","%ED",$word);          /* í */
$word = str_replace("%C3%AF","%EF",$word);          /* ï */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B0","%F0",$word);          /* ð */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B1","%F1",$word);          /* ñ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B2","%F2",$word);          /* ò */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B3","%F3",$word);          /* ó */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B4","%F4",$word);          /* ô */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B5","%F5",$word);          /* õ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B6","%F6",$word);          /* ö */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B7","%F7",$word);          /* ÷ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B8","%F8",$word);          /* ø */
$word = str_replace("%C3%B9","%F9",$word);          /* ù */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BA","%FA",$word);          /* ú */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BB","%FB",$word);          /* û */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BC","%FC",$word);          /* ü */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BD","%FD",$word);          /* ý */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BE","%FE",$word);          /* þ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%BF","%FF",$word);          /* ÿ */ 
$word = str_replace("%40","%40",$word);             /* @ */
$word = str_replace("%60","%60",$word);             /* ` */
$word = str_replace("%C2%A2","%A2",$word);          /* ¢ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%A3","%A3",$word);          /* £ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%A5","%A5",$word);          /* ¥ */
$word = str_replace("%7C","%A6",$word);             /* | */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AB","%AB",$word);          /* « */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AC","%AC",$word);          /* ¬ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AF","%AD",$word);          /* ¯ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BA","%B0",$word);          /* º */
$word = str_replace("%C2%B1","%B1",$word);          /* ± */
$word = str_replace("%C2%AA","%B2",$word);          /* ª */
$word = str_replace("%C2%B5","%B5",$word);          /* µ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BB","%BB",$word);          /* » */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BC","%BC",$word);          /* ¼ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BD","%BD",$word);          /* ½ */
$word = str_replace("%C2%BF","%BF",$word);          /* ¿ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%80","%C0",$word);          /* À */
$word = str_replace("%C3%81","%C1",$word);          /* Á */
$word = str_replace("%C3%82","%C2",$word);          /* Â */
$word = str_replace("%C3%83","%C3",$word);          /* Ã */
$word = str_replace("%C3%84","%C4",$word);          /* Ä */
$word = str_replace("%C3%85","%C5",$word);          /* Å */
$word = str_replace("%C3%86","%C6",$word);          /* Æ */
$word = str_replace("%C3%87","%C7",$word);          /* Ç */
$word = str_replace("%C3%88","%C8",$word);          `/`* È */
return $word;
}

$content = urlencode($content);

$content = urldecode($pdf->em_jaz($content));

Welcome to SO! When providing code asan answer, it is helpful to explain how your code resolves the OP's problem :) — Joel, Sep 07 '18 at 14:34

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 17 '14 at 08:58

This class is a modified version of FPDF that adds UTF-8 support. Moreover, it embeds only the necessary parts of the fonts that are used in the document, making the file size much smaller than if the whole fonts were embedded. These features were originally developed for the mPDF project.

http://fpdf.org/en/script/script92.php

Uriel Reina Abadía · Answer 8 · 2020-09-24T15:43:36.153

1

I have used this as $str = preg_replace('/[^A-Za-z0-9_-]/','', $str); for me has been enough, I eliminate the not alphanumerical characters

edited Sep 24 '20 at 15:43

answered Sep 24 '20 at 15:28

Uriel Reina Abadía

11
2

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Mar 07 '22 at 07:42

1

Why not use the function PDF recommends?

$text = utf8_decode($text);

It works for me.

edited Mar 07 '22 at 07:42

Henry Ecker

34,399
18
41
57

answered Mar 07 '22 at 05:52

Neil Bisby

21
1

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 20 '21 at 02:59

0

you have to encode it this way assuming your special character is "°C"

> $pdf->Cell(X(int),Y(int),iconv("UTF-8", "CP1250//TRANSLIT", '°C'));

answered Dec 20 '21 at 02:59

Kingsley Anang

1

score -3 · Answer 11 · edited Jun 01 '16 at 04:30

-3

Try this simple function: utf8_encode($txt). It works for me.

edited Jun 01 '16 at 04:30

Cristik

30,989
25
91
127

answered May 31 '16 at 14:22

Sergio Lopez Loya

15
2

Special Characters in FPDF with PHP

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