THotPDF.SetFormUnicodeFontDict Method

Registers a caller-supplied Unicode font in the AcroForm default-resources dict so HotPDF's auto-appearance-stream generator (PDF 1.7 ISO 32000-1 12.7.4.3) can render non-ASCII Tx widget initial values directly into /AP, rather than emitting the v2.46.0 empty-AP placeholder. Pair with CreateIndirectFontDict to allocate the indirect font dict to populate.

procedure SetFormUnicodeFontDict(const LogicalName: AnsiString; FontDict: THPDFDictionaryObject);

void SetFormUnicodeFontDict(const AnsiString& LogicalName, THPDFDictionaryObject* FontDict);

Once both LogicalName and FontDict are populated, three things change in subsequent emission: (a) the AcroForm-level /DA string switches from '/Helv 12 Tf 0 0 0 rg' to '/<LogicalName> 12 Tf 0 0 0 rg'; (b) the AcroForm /DR /Font sub-dict gains an entry /<LogicalName> <FontDict-indirect-ref> alongside the existing /Helv + /ZaDb; (c) every Tx widget added through AddTextField or AddRichTextField gets its per-field /DA set the same way. When AutoFormAppearances is on and the widget's initial value contains any byte >= 0x80, GenerateTextFieldAP emits a real /AP /N Form XObject whose content stream selects the registered font via Tf and renders the text as a CID hex-string Tj operator; the Form's /Resources/Font sub-dict references the same indirect font so the AP is self-contained.

When the registered font comes from RegisterUnicodeTTF, supplementary-plane Unicode characters (for example U+1F600) are emitted through a single internally allocated CID instead of splitting the UTF-16 surrogate pair into two Identity-H CIDs. HotPDF refreshes the generated /CIDToGIDMap, /W, and /ToUnicode streams at finalization time so the internal CID maps to the real font glyph and text extraction maps back to the original UTF-16BE surrogate pair.

ASCII Tx fields continue to use /Helv and emit byte-identical /AP output to v2.46.0 callers. Pass empty LogicalName + nil FontDict to clear the registration and revert to /Helv-only behavior. Typical workflow: call SetFormUnicodeFontDict once immediately after BeginDoc, before any AddTextField - widgets created earlier are not retroactively updated.

LogicalName - the PDF Name used as the key in /DR/Font and as the operand to Tf inside the /DA string. Typical: 'F0'. Must not be empty when registering; an empty name with a non-nil FontDict raises.

FontDict - an indirect THPDFDictionaryObject holding a valid PDF Font resource. The caller is responsible for building the font dict correctly - typically a Type 0 / CIDFontType2 + Identity-H + ToUnicode CMap composite font; for stroked-only or simple display use a Type 1 / TrueType subset works too. HotPDF does not validate the contents; it just serializes the reference.

Scope - v2.56.0 covers single-line Tx widgets only. Multi-line (ffMultiline) and comb (ffComb) Tx widgets with non-ASCII initial values still emit the v2.46.0 empty-AP placeholder; the Unicode-AP extension for those branches is scheduled for v2.57.0+. RTL bidi shaping (Arabic / Hebrew) requires Unicode Bidi Algorithm (UAX #9) + Arabic contextual joining; also v2.57.0+ scope.

Code Example

// Register a Type 0 / CIDFontType2 + Identity-H composite font for
// AcroForm Tx widget AP rendering. (Real production code adds a
// /FontFile2 stream and a ToUnicode CMap so the glyphs actually
// render - omitted here for brevity.)
var
  F0, Descendant, FontDescriptor, CIDSysInfo: THPDFDictionaryObject;
  Descendants: THPDFArrayObject;
  R: TRect;
begin
  HPDF.BeginDoc;
  HPDF.AutoFormAppearances := True;

  F0 := HPDF.CreateIndirectFontDict;          // empty indirect dict
  F0.AddNameValue('Type', 'Font');
  F0.AddNameValue('Subtype', 'Type0');
  F0.AddNameValue('BaseFont', 'MyCJK');
  F0.AddNameValue('Encoding', 'Identity-H');

  CIDSysInfo := THPDFDictionaryObject.Create(nil);
  CIDSysInfo.AddStringValue('Registry', 'Adobe');
  CIDSysInfo.AddStringValue('Ordering', 'Identity');
  CIDSysInfo.AddNumericValue('Supplement', 0);

  FontDescriptor := THPDFDictionaryObject.Create(nil);
  FontDescriptor.AddNameValue('Type', 'FontDescriptor');
  // ... fill required Ascent / Descent / FontBBox / etc. ...

  Descendant := THPDFDictionaryObject.Create(nil);
  Descendant.AddNameValue('Type', 'Font');
  Descendant.AddNameValue('Subtype', 'CIDFontType2');
  Descendant.AddNameValue('BaseFont', 'MyCJK');
  Descendant.AddValue('CIDSystemInfo', CIDSysInfo);
  Descendant.AddValue('FontDescriptor', FontDescriptor);
  Descendant.AddNumericValue('DW', 1000);

  Descendants := THPDFArrayObject.Create(nil);
  Descendants.AddObject(Descendant);
  F0.AddValue('DescendantFonts', Descendants);

  HPDF.SetFormUnicodeFontDict('F0', F0);

  R.Left := 60; R.Top := 60; R.Right := 280; R.Bottom := 100;
  HPDF.CurrentPage.AddTextField('Greeting', '你好世界', R);

  HPDF.EndDoc;
end;