poppler: add dependency on a Zapf Dingbats typeface compatible font #7452
Description
Please confirm there isn't an open report for this package
- I have searched through packaging problem reports
Name
poppler
Version
25.10.0 r55
Summary of the problem
As mentioned on the kde-distros mailing list. This is so checkboxes render properly.
Please have poppler packages have a dependency on some Zapf Dingbats typeface compatible font, e.g. URW font D050000L
More information
Quoting from the email:
The PDF format assumes a set of 14 typefaces (or compatible ones) being
supported by PDF readers out-of-the-box. I.e. PDF documents do not have to
embed such fonts, instead they can expect them being provided by the
consumer. [0]
Poppler though does not come with a set of default fonts itself, relies on
distributions/system builders to have their set of system fonts also cover
those needs.
Those 14 typefaces include, next to variants of "Times", "Helvetica" &
"Courier" for normal text, also variants of "Symbol" and one "Zapf
Dingbats".
The latter is e.g. used for check mark symbols, i.e. documents with forms
can style the look of check boxes by setting a custom character from the
Dingbats typeface. Poppler itself uses as default the Dingbats glyph for
code 0x33 (check mark).
Just, if there is no Dingbats typeface installed, Okular will then show a
blank (currently), i.e. make checked check boxes look unchecked. Not ideal
when it comes to serious documents people decide real world things on 😉
Evince, as another poppler-based PDF reader, suffers the same issue, even
though at least recent versions seems to display some glyph-not-found symbol
instead now. [1] (find there also an example checkbox.pdf)
Ideally the poppler package (as basic engine of Okular, Evince, etc.) when
installed also ensures respective fonts for those typefaces are available.
Though right now there is only some info informally indirectly noted on the
Poppler wiki [2].
So dear packagers, as a one-time reminder, please ensure that installing a
poppler-based PDF reader also ensures that those typefaces, especially the
Dingbats compatible one, are provided on such system. The font D050000L from
the URW font set seems the commonly used font for this purpose [3].
If there are ideas how the poppler build system would best ensure that
(future) packagers are aware of the need for this set of typefaces on the
system, proposals are welcome.
Related info:
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF#Text
[1] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evince/-/issues/1903
[2] https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/poppler/Related info:
[3] https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/urw-base35-font