SSRS Export to PDF - Unicode problem

Question

I have to generate a invoice dummy image by reading EDI data. The invoices are coming from vendors in Europe - specifically Bulgaria.

In order to generate PDF files, I did the following

1. Created SSRS
2. Render it in Report Viewer (Version 10.0 - runtime version v2.0.50727)
3. Exporting the SSRS to PDF

The problem I am facing is -

Some unicode chars in PDF are getting converted to ? whereas some are coming properly. VERKTYGSSKÅP gets displayed as VERKTYGSSK?P

I read few places that there is some bug in Report Viewer export functionality when unicode content is there.

I have tried the following

• Used a unicode font. I tried using 3-4 fonts like "Lucida Sans Unicode", "MS UI Gothic", "DejaVu Sans" and "Gentium Plus"
• Change the report language to sv-SE
• Installed the language pack available in Windows XP media

I am viewing the PDF on same machine where it is being generated - I also verified in the PDF that the font being used has been embedded.

Thanks in advance for your time and effort.

Answer 1

This sounds like the problem is not with SSRS, but with the encoding of the EDI message and/or the code that processes it on the receiving end. You need to determine what the encoding of your source data is, and then make sure that it is decoded or stored that way. That said, I am not familiar with the bug that you mentioned, and it is certainly possible that one exists.