Take the 2-minute tour ×

I wrote a huge post first but thought I shouldn't drop a wall of text here. Here's a summary of a problem that I'm hoping you all can provide some insight in:

  • I have a web app for a client which uses Flash text engine api (not TLF) to layout some text in a report.

  • The text requirements are specific so we like using FTE for typography.

  • Now that the text is looking perfect to the client, how do I make what I'm seeing on screen into a pdf that looks identical?

Here's the real problem:

  • Tried purepdf or alivepdf sprite->bitmap->pdf approach... terrible results - we need resolution independence

  • Looked at purepdf api - doesn't seem to be a way of converting the final sprite output directly to the pdf.... seems like it'll require me to use their own API for typesetting / layout... which defeats the purpose of using FTE to do this (we'd lose kerning / ligatures etc that way?)

  • Finally using the flash -> print -> using postscript driver like pdfconverter or cutepdf -> pdf ........ this is great because the pdf looks exactly like display and is vector-output (res-independent), BUT

  • Using FTE, the pdf created this way doesn't have selectable text in pdf! flash TextFields -> pdf do retain selectability. Basically pdfconverter doesn't embed the fonts in the pdf when FTE is used... it DOES embed the fonts in a pdf made the same way with same fonts in MS Word or something

So any of these solutions would be of immense help (in order)

1- How do I get the text to be selectable in the PDF created from FTE > postscript method

2- (If not that) - How can I create a PDF from flash where the PDF is identical to what I'm seeing on screen - basically doing a direct final-rendered-Sprite to PDF .... if there's a way to make that PDF manually, then maybe I can embed the fonts manually...

Some context:

  • How we're using fonts - they're SWF's created from teh fonts using [embed] and embedAsCFF=true for use in FTE

  • I thought of using FTE only for typesetting / layout - and when we get the TextLines, using the good old flash...TextField (which does become selectable in final pdf) .... but I cant do that because some of our textlines have several variations of font styles and inline (GraphicElement) images on the same line.... I think its impossible to detect all of those variation can create the appropriate number of textfields, or maybe there is a way?

share|improve this question

1 Answer 1

did you find a solution, at least to #2?

From what I've read, to export resolution-independent PDFs on the server-side you would need a license for Adobe's LiveCycle Data Services ES , which according to the service rep. with whom I just spoke, starts at around US$250K.

Needless to say, that's a bit out of my client's budget...

share|improve this answer

Your Answer


