[Python] UTF-8 support in reportlab (Python)

Problem

I can't create a PDF from UTF-8 encoded text using reportlab. What I get is a document full of black squares.

See the screenshot below:



Prerequisites

pip install faker reportlab


Code


import tempfile

from faker import Faker

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet
from reportlab.lib.units import inch
from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph

# FAKER = Faker() # Latin based text generator

FAKER = Faker(locale="hy-AM") # UTF-8 text generator
text = FAKER.text(max_nb_chars=1_000)

filename = tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".pdf").name

styles = getSampleStyleSheet()
style_paragraph = styles["Normal"]
story = []

doc = SimpleDocTemplate(
filename,
pagesize=letter,
bottomMargin=.4 * inch,
topMargin=.6 * inch,
rightMargin=.8 * inch,
leftMargin=.8 * inch,
)

paragraph = Paragraph(text, style_paragraph)
story.append(paragraph)
doc.build(story)


Also tried

I also tried TTF font (Vera) but it didn't work either:

# ...

from reportlab.pdfbase import pdfmetrics

# ...

pdfmetrics.registerFont(TTFont("Vera", "Vera.ttf"))
pdfmetrics.registerFont(TTFont("VeraBd", "VeraBd.ttf"))
pdfmetrics.registerFont(TTFont("VeraIt", "VeraIt.ttf"))
pdfmetrics.registerFont(TTFont("VeraBI", "VeraBI.ttf"))

# ...

doc = SimpleDocTemplate(
filename,
pagesize=letter,
bottomMargin=.4 * inch,
topMargin=.6 * inch,
rightMargin=.8 * inch,
leftMargin=.8 * inch,
)

# ...

Continue reading...