Glitch when editing vertical axis label of bar chart from PDF file exported by MS Excel

[username132]

When you make a bar chart with a label on the vertical (y) axis in MS Excel and export it as a PDF and then import it into Inkscape and try to edit the label on the vertical axis something peculiar happens. The location at which you start typing overlaps existing text and text typed thereafter disappears.

Windows 7, Inkscape 0.92.0, Excel 2013

[Hachmann (marenhachmann)]

Does 'remove manual kerns' help as a workaround?

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Please attach a test case (PDF file exported from MS Excel) to the bug report to allow further investigation.

Likely this report is a duplicate of
* Bug #188794 “Broken editing of text with absolute kerning”
  https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/188794

Text in PDF files is stored as sequences of glyphs which are positioned individually (or in small groups) in absolute coordinates relative to the current page (origin lower left). This ensures display quality of text layout (including kerning) independent of locally installed fonts on all output devices, while it basically prohibits further editing (even if the same font is installed on a local system) without breaking the text layout. The PDF file format was optimized for display/output (same appearance on all output devices), not as fully editable media container file format or universal data exchange format.

When Inkscape converts such PDF files to SVG, the individual characters of the text elements as converted from the PDF file are kept absolutely positioned based on the data from the PDF file. The content of such text elements cannot be meaningfully edited freely without first removing the individual positions for the characters (Text > Remove manual kerns). Removing the manual kerns however will inevitably change the text layout (individual character and possible also word and/or “line” spacing (y-position) of the original layout are lost).

The problem how to deal in Inkscpae with such texts which don't use font metrics to position the individual glyphs in a text run is tracked in mentioned bug #188794.

See earlier release notes for Inkscape 0.46 describing PDF/AI import:
 http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes046#PDF_and_AI_import
and the related text editing tips in the second half of the section.

[username132 (sean-van-der-smythe)]

I've attached a PDF for reproduction of the bug. The Text > Remove manual kerns solution is a viable workaround but it needs to be applied to each and every text box (they can all be selected at once using the find tool).

Also the bug affects horizontal text as well as vertical.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

You can select one text object (e.g. with 'Ctrl+LMB', since all texts are inside nested (and clipped) groups), and then use (either from the menu 'Edit' or from the context menu) 'Select Same > Object Type' to select all texts, and apply 'Text > Remove Manual Kerns' in a single step.

As described in earlier comment, the issue is with texts which use absolute positions for individual glyphs, and already tracked in bug #188794.