Print as PDF in Safari for Chinese content results in file with garbled text

Question

Level 1

8 points

Print as PDF in Safari for Chinese content results in file with garbled text

On a macOS Catalina Macbook Pro with updated Safari and system language set to UK English, but with Chinese keyboards enabled, there is a problem when printing a page as pdf in Safari if the page contains Chinese text.

Even though the pdf looks alright, the text is not saved properly. It seems that the machine-readable text behind the face of the page gets all garbled in the process. When you try to copy the Chinese text, it is all special character nonsense. As a result, you cannot search or copy the text in the pdf file.

Is there an encoding problem or another setting I can change to make this work? I need to create searchable and copy-able pdf files from webpages containing Chinese text, but like this I can only get human-legible, not machine-readable files.

Posted on Oct 12, 2019 11:04 AM

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Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Oct 12, 2019 11:25 AM in response to sehof

Have you tried Safari/File/Export as PDF and then try printing from Preview?

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Answer 2

sehof Author

Level 1

8 points

Oct 12, 2019 9:13 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

When I copy text from Preview, I get nothing. When I copy it from Mendeley or Adobe Reader, I get 􀜲􁕪􁌯􀬙􁐃􁵙􀓨􀥳􀷎.

It seems that something goes wrong with the encoding when Safari turns the website text into the machine-readable text behind what the face of the file.

In Adobe Reader, the Properties shows that the PingFang fonts are bundled with the file.

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