# Problem with text\_width and UTF-8 characters in PDF-writer

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-text-width-and-utf-8-characters-in-pdf-writer/138948>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [May 29, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-text-width-and-utf-8-characters-in-pdf-writer/138948 "2008-05-29T09:23:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![abir84](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@abir84](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/abir84)\
**Post date:** [May 29, 2008, 9:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-text-width-and-utf-8-characters-in-pdf-writer/138948/1 "2008-05-29T09:23:28Z")

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Hi  
I’ve many problems with the method text\_width in PDF-writer. It doesn’t  
give the true values for text with UTF-8 characters.  
(I used iconv to diplay this text.)  
Any idea??  
thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![abir84](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@abir84](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/abir84)\
**Post date:** [May 30, 2008, 5:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-text-width-and-utf-8-characters-in-pdf-writer/138948/2 "2008-05-30T17:51:08Z")

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On May 29, 2:23 am, “Abir B.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> ## Hi I’ve many problems with the method text\_width in PDF-writer. It doesn’t give the true values for text with UTF-8 characters. (I used iconv to diplay this text.) Any idea?? thanks
> 
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

In my understanding, PDF::Writer does not fully support UTF-8  
characters (despite some older documentation that suggests that it  
does). There is a google group that maintains it, Doesn’t look like  
it’s a feature that is going to be added any time soon either. Sorry

-Otto