SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

1220516 - Font size decreases when exporting a report to PDF format from Crystal Reports or SAP BI LaunchPad

Symptom

  • Font size decrease.
  • Size of the font changed after exporting.
  • Font size reduced when exporting a report to PDF format.
  • Text misaligned, and fonts shrink by approximately 10%, when a report is exported to PDF from Crystal Reports.
  • Text alignment not preserved and font decreased when exporting or scheduling a report to PDF format from SAP BI LaunchPad, or the Central Management Console, or from an application using Crystal Reports SDK.

Environment

  • SAP Crystal Reports 2011
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2013
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2016
          
  • SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.0
  • SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.1
  • SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.2
         
  • SAP Crystal Reports, developer for Visual Studio ( OEM build for B1 )

Reproducing the Issue

  1. In Crystal Reports, create a report based on any data source.
  2. Add a database fields or text object to the report.
  3. Set the font to the desired size. For example: 11
  4. Export the report to PDF format.
  5. When opening the PDF document, notice the font size is smaller by about 10%

Cause

  • This behavior is due to the way Windows and UNIX, and therefore Crystal Reports, handles low point size fonts on a low-resolution screen. Text layout in the absence of a printer driver will consistently be rendered differently than in PDF.
        
  • By default, older versions of Crystal Reports shrinks the font by 10% to prevent any truncation this difference may cause, but newer version does not, unless the option to shrink font is turned on.       

Resolution

  • To avoid shrinking the font when exporting to PDF format, add the registry key: ForceLargerFonts, and set the value to one (1):
           
    WARNING The following resolution involves editing the Microsoft Registry. Using the MS Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious problems. Use the MS Registry Editor at your own risk. For more information see the SAP Knowledge Base Article 1323322
           
    1. Open the Microsoft Registry Editor.
      ( In MS Windows, under the menu Start, select Run, and type: regedit )
            
    2. In the Microsoft Registry Editor, navigate to the path corresponding to the version of the product used:
                                 
      • Crystal Reports 2011, 2013, 2016:
           
        • For 32bit version of MS Windows:
          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SAP Business Objects\Suite XI 4.0\Crystal Reports\Export\PDF
              
        • For 64bit version of MS Windows:
          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SAP BusinessObjects\Suite XI 4.0\Crystal Reports\Export\PDF 
                 
              
      • SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.0, 4.1, 4.2:**      
        • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SAP BusinessObjects\Suite XI 4.0\Crystal Reports\Export\PDF 
              
              
      • For Crystal Reports for Visual Studio:  
           
        • For 32bit version of MS Windows:
          HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Export\PDF
              
        • For 64bit version of MS Windows:
          HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SAP BusinessObjects\Crystal Reports for .NET Framework 4.0\Export\PDF
              
              
      • Important Note: The last part of the path may not exist. If it is the case, simply add the missing keys.
             
    3. Right click on the PDF key, and select: "New - DWORD Value"    
        
    4. Set the DWORD value to: ForceLargerFonts
        
    5. Set the value to: 1
         
    6. For the change to take effect, restart the application.       
         
      • For Crystal Reports:  Close and re-open Crystal Reports.
      • For SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform:  Restart the Server Intelligent Agent (SIA)   
                   
  • Note:  If the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform is installed on an operating system other than MS Windows Server, use the appropriate path to access the UNIX regedit as follows:
      
    • For AIX:
      • BusinessObjects BI install directory>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/aix_rs6000/crpe/mw/bin-aix4_optimized/regedit
         
    • For Sun Solaris:
      • BusinessObjects BI install directory>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/solaris_sparc/crpe/mw/bin-sunos5_optimized/regedit
         
    • For Linux:
      • BusinessObjects BI install directory>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/linux_x86/crpe/mw/bin-linux_optimized/regedit

See Also

1201951 - How to edit the MainWin registry for BusinessObjects on UNIX

Keywords

Adobe Acrobat PDF Font Size Shrink Truncate Truncation Export , c2019491, barcode, IDAutomation, IDA, shrank, shrinked, small, smaller, decrease, lessen, reduce, narrow, , KBA , BI-RA-CR , Crystal Reports designer or Business View Manager , Problem

Product

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2013 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2016