evince shows a mostly blank pdf

[hdante]

The current libcairo has a bug which makes several document being displayed as mostly blank, the bug is new in gutsy and an annoying one, the suggest fix comes from upstream, is part of the new libcairo 1.4.12 stable update and has been uploaded to hardy

TESTCASE

* open http://launchpadlibrarian.net/9927494/QuickStartGuide_240907.pdf
* notice that most of the document is blank
* open it using an another viewer, notice it's correctly displayed

There is several other example attached to the bug. The patch fixes the issue on gutsy and hardy

[Frédéric Crozat (fcrozat)]

Created an attachment (id=7121)
colored text not displayed

[Freedesktop-pragmata (freedesktop-pragmata)]

poppler 0.5.4 (plus cairo-1.3.12) are not able to properly display http://www.abm.uu.se/evahw/coupon.pdf.

xpdf and Adobe 7 display it fine.

[hdante (hdante)]

Binary package hint: evince

Evince doesn't correctly opens LeCroy's Camac-to-GPIB interface pdf manual at LeCroy website, while xpdf does.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 22 14:17:20 2007
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 7.04
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/evince
Package: evince 0.8.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcCmdline: evince file:///home/hdante/Desktop/8901aman.pdf
ProcCwd: /home/hdante
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=pt_BR:pt:pt_PT
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games
 LANG=pt_BR.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: evince
Uname: Linux stoneoftears 2.6.20-15-generic #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 06:17:24 UTC 2007 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug. Could you attach an example to the bug or give an URL to download one?

[hdante (hdante)]

 www.*lecroy*
.com/tm/library/manuals/Old_LRS_Manuals/OperatorsManual/8901aman.pdf

2007/5/22, Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden>:
>
> Thank you for your bug. Could you attach an example to the bug or give
> an URL to download one?
>
> ** Changed in: evince (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Low
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop Bugs
> Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info
>
> --
> evince shows a mostly blank pdf
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/116236
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Further understanding of the implicit or hidden meanings in this message is
left as an exercise to the reader. Hint: read again.

Henrique Dante de Almeida
<email address hidden>

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The text is displayed when selected. I've sent the bug upstream, http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=440697

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

poppler bug according to upstream

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

What's wrong? It seems to work for me with poppler cvs head. I can see an error message in stdout though

Error: Unknown character collection Adobe-Identity

[Jeff Muizelaar (jeff-infidigm)]

*** Bug 11046 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Jeff Muizelaar (jeff-infidigm)]

Caused by poppler sending bad glyph id's to cairo.
It looks like the embedded fonts do not contain a glyph for the 'space' character.

[Jeff Muizelaar (jeff-infidigm)]

I'm thinking the best place to fix this might be in cairo. i.e. it should handle the error from FT_Load_Glyph more gracefully.

[Jeff Muizelaar (jeff-infidigm)]

Indeed some work has already been done to solve similar problems with cairo.

See this tree:
http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=users/brianewins/cairo;a=shortlog;h=return-status

and the discussion surrounding it:
http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/cairo/2007-July/010942.html

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

Here is another test file:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463034

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

Another one:

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/07/ambidextrous_article.pdf

from http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=463439

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

somewhat similar ubuntu bug on https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/130105

[Freedesktop-pragmata (freedesktop-pragmata)]

The problem is that no text is displayed unless selected (using poppler-0.5.91).

[Freedesktop (freedesktop)]

*** Bug 10401 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Freedesktop (freedesktop)]

*** Bug 11298 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Freedesktop (freedesktop)]

See analysis here:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=472087

[Freedesktop-pragmata (freedesktop-pragmata)]

Behdad,

thanks for your analysis.

As far as I can understand, this is not a poppler bug. The issue is caused by cairo.

In that case, the question is whether there will be a cairo release in the 1.4 series that fixes this problem.

Thanks for your excellent work,

Pablo

[Freedesktop (freedesktop)]

(In reply to comment #7)
> Behdad,
>
> thanks for your analysis.
>
> As far as I can understand, this is not a poppler bug. The issue is caused by
> cairo.
>
> In that case, the question is whether there will be a cairo release in the 1.4
> series that fixes this problem.

Working on it:

http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/cairo/2007-September/011395.html

> Thanks for your excellent work,
>
>
> Pablo
>

[Freedesktop (freedesktop)]

commit 79d975f84bcc32e91db517d71a7312e2e1d653d4
Author: Behdad Esfahbod <email address hidden>
Date: Wed Sep 12 17:45:11 2007 -0400

    [cairo-ft-font] Ignore FT_Load_Glyph errors other than out-of-memory
    Same for FT_Render_Glyph.

    When the user asks us to render a glyph that is not available in the font,
    it's mostly an unavoidable kind of error for them, as in, they can't
    avoid such a call. So it's not nice to put cairo_t in an error state and
    refuse any further drawying.

    Many PDF files are created using buggy software and cause such glpyh-not-found
    errors for CID 0 for example.

    Eventually we should propagate these kind of errors up and return it from
    the function call causing it, but that needs API change to add return value
    to all text functions, so for now we just ignore these errors.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The patch fixes the rendering of several pdf but the bug description example is still buggy, reopening

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Looks like a libcairo issue, https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9846

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

libcairo (1.4.10-1ubuntu4) gutsy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/90_from_git_fix_not_available_glyph_handling.dpatch:
    - patch from git, fix rendering issue when some glyphs are not available
      (LP: #116236)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:49:31 +0200

[sam tygier (samtygier)]

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=479245 has a pdf file http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/climate/howtosavetheclimatepers.pdf

the evince team says it was caused by https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9846

the pdf still does not render with 1.4.10-1ubuntu4

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

Also the attached PDF is mostly blank, whereas Adobe Acrobat shows it correctly. Is it also due to this problem, or due to transparency? Can anyone check?

[sam tygier (samtygier)]

this is still happening.

it is possible that two bugs have become muddled here
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=8399
http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9846

but both of those are open upstream.

there are many pdfs that still do not display after libcairo (1.4.10-1ubuntu4)
http://www.studentenwerk-dresden.de/docs/wohnen/gaestehaus_flyer200611.pdf
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/climate/howtosavetheclimatepers.pdf
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/9611234/nytimes-firefox-final.pdf

i think its right to raise the importance. this breaks rendering of many pdfs in a core app.

[James Troup (elmo)]

I'm also seeing this on gutsy with the attached PDF. The PDF renders fine with feisty evince and also with acroread.

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

*** Bug 12823 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Runar-mopo (runar-mopo)]

Background color also renders in white, apparently. See the attachment to bug 12823.

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

*** Bug 10484 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Onno Leerink (onno-leerink-bode)]

I can confirm the last comment. On feisty evince this document rendered fine but on gutsy the text and some pictures are missing. Rendering with xpdf is fine. When I select the text I can see it, the pictures do not show. Other PDF files do not show this problem.

[refdoc (refdoc)]

Ok, I have some comment which might be related.

I found yesteday when I upgraded via commandline from feisty to gutsy PDFs opened but appeared totally blank with evince. They were fine with acroread and they were fine with epdfview which also relies on the poppler libraries.

But then I noticed that evince was set to a zoom of 400% (not sure whether this was my fault or not) and I set it to 100% - immediately the pdf appeared fine. When I then went back to 400% zoom it zoomed fine and had no display problem. When I left evince and then reopened the file with 400% it was fine too as if the problem never existed.

[refdoc (refdoc)]

Further to above, the document posted by Onno (Dutch Laguna pricelist) is rendering incomplete both in epdfview and in evince.

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

I've just compiled cairo snapshot 1.5.2 and tried again with all of the test cases reported here (and its duplicates). All of them are rendered correctly now :-)

Thank you all for your help (and cairo team for fixing it, of course)

[Frédéric Crozat (fcrozat)]

This bug is in fact a duplicate of cairo bug #9846

[Frédéric Crozat (fcrozat)]

correction, to get all PDF rendered correctly, you need fixes for bugs #12284 AND #9846, ie git commit d62f8861689d8b9a9a837043fb78813f0407abd4 and 79d975f84bcc32e91db517d71a7312e2e1d653d4 against cairo 1.4.10

[The Walrus and the Carpenter (nikolai-bourbaki)]

I've found some another example of this on the current evince 2.20.0 that comes with gusty 7.10 - When download PDF from "Physics Review", I find most files render correctly in KPDF but not in evince - The thumbnails are rendered in evince but not the full page view? I cannot repost copyrighted PDFs here but attach a screenshot.

[sam tygier (samtygier)]

another testcase
http://launchpadlibrarian.net/10546403/EXPRESS_11212007.pdf

[Stephan7 (sshsteph007)]

Comparing xpdf with Evince for the last (http://launchpadlibrarian.net/10546403/EXPRESS_11212007.pdf)
shows indeed that Evince is missing some parts.

Ubuntu gutsy 7.10 (updated upto 26 nov 2007)
xpdf --> 3.02-1.2ubuntu1.1
evince --> 2.20.1-0ubuntu1
libpango1.0-0 --> 1.18.3-0ubuntu1
libcairo2 --> 1.4.10-1ubuntu4

[Jeff Muizelaar (jeff-infidigm)]

Are you sure? coupon.pdf shows text fine for me.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

what libcairo version do you use?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

That's fixed using the new libcairo

[Jeff Muizelaar (jeff-infidigm)]

*** Bug 11462 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Fixed upstream, thanks.

[Stephan7 (sshsteph007)]

Just updated ubuntu (5 dec 2007) and got libcairo2 1.4.10-1ubuntu4.1

However above document (http://launchpadlibrarian.net/10546403/EXPRESS_11212007.pdf) still fails.
And also http://launchpadlibrarian.net/10124030/35_prijslijst_nieuwe_laguna.pdf fails.

Trying the original first reported PDF document reads OK, so probably the others is another bug.

[Mathijs (mdenburger)]

Here's another PDF that is still not rendered correctly.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

libcairo (1.4.10-1ubuntu5) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/90_from_git_fix_zero_sized_bitmap_handling.dpatch:
    - patch from git, "Under rare circumstances we may need to extract a
      surface that represents a bitmap with width==0 and rows==0.
      Detect this case at the start and simply return a zero-sized surface."
      This fix some pdf being displayed as mostly blank when using evince
      (LP: #116236)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:40:12 +0100

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I'm working on backporting to fix the gutsy

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The corresponding upstream commit is http://gitweb.freedesktop.org/?p=cairo;a=commitdiff;h=709292419564ad14025b8b718324d79dd1b7255a

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

I've tested the patched version on gutsy and verified it fixes the issue using several of the example attached to the bug and uploaded to gutsy-proposed now

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

Another pdf file that shows ok in Adobe Reader but looks almost blank in evince:

http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/portal/com/bin/Contenidos/RRHH/concursos_traslados_2008/Cuerpos_de_Secundaria/ORD251007/1194856560044_soliictud.pdf

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

Presumably this is why the GNUPDF project has started: http://gnupdf.org/Goals_and_Motivations

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

For the record, patch approved. Previous upload has been superseded by -security, so needs to be redone.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

gnupdf has been started to workaround libcairo bugs which are not yet fixed? doesn't look like the right way to do things

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

reuploaded as 1.4.10-1ubuntu4.3

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted into gutsy-proposed, please test.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Verification done:

Test with libcairo2 1.4.10-1ubuntu4.2 it only show the text if you select it.
Test with libcairo2 1.4.10-1ubuntu4.3 it display the text and the images of the attached pdfs on the report, the bug is fixed, thanks.

[Michael R. Head (burner)]

Sweet. I had to restart X (quitting evince wasn't enough) after getting the new libcairo2 to see the change.

[Kees Cook (kees)]

This update will likely be going in as a security fix -- this bug was uncovered on all previous libcairo releases due to the recent memory allocation fixes.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

libcairo (1.4.10-1ubuntu4.4) gutsy-security; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/90_from_git_fix_zero_sized_bitmap_handling.dpatch:
    - patch from git, "Under rare circumstances we may need to extract a
      surface that represents a bitmap with width==0 and rows==0.
      Detect this case at the start and simply return a zero-sized surface."
      This fix some pdf being displayed as mostly blank when using evince
      (LP: #116236)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:24:49 +0100

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

libcairo (1.4.2-0ubuntu1.3) feisty-security; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/90_from_git_fix_zero_sized_bitmap_handling.dpatch:
    - patch from git, "Under rare circumstances we may need to extract a
      surface that represents a bitmap with width==0 and rows==0.
      Detect this case at the start and simply return a zero-sized surface."
      This fix some pdf being displayed as mostly blank when using evince
      (LP: #116236)

 -- Sebastien Bacher <email address hidden> Tue, 11 Dec 2007 10:24:49 +0100

[yvan (yvan-strahm)]

Thank you,

The new libcairo fixed the bug for me

[Matteo Settenvini (tchernobog)]

Fixes the rendering of the first page of the Firefox ad (http://launchpadlibrarian.net/9611234/nytimes-firefox-final.pdf) -- thanks!
However, the firefox logo on the second page isn't showed, whereas it should be present. So I guess either that is a different problem, or it requires a different solution.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

There's a minor problem:

1. Download http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/educacion/portal/com/bin/Contenidos/RRHH/concursos_traslados_2008/Cuerpos_de_Secundaria/ORD251007/1194856560044_soliictud.pdf

2. Put the PDF file into your desktop (for instance).

3. If you open the file, it looks ok (great!).

4. BUT... the preview that Nautilus shows is mostly blank.

[Ricardo Pérez López (ricardo)]

OK, forget my last comment: it was a cache problem. The bug is fixed for me. Thanks a lot!

[Carlos Garcia Campos (carlosgc)]

Here is a document where the problem is still reproducible witht current poppler and cairo 1.6.5:

http://www.physco.com/evince/SP07_National_Satellite_P12.pdf

"The missing text in the attached PDF starts at the table on page 4, and runs to
the end of the document on page 11."

Originally reported here: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=502806

I don't know whether it's the same problem or not.