To understand the root course of a problem it is helpful to create a minimum sample showing that bug. See my earlier post, and convert the attached Liberation.ods into pdf if you are interested in that
I don’t see the problem when I export. If I were you, I would be inclined to download the liberation font package from Releases · liberationfonts/liberation-fonts · GitHub , extract the folder and install Liberation Serif fonts again.
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Close LibreOffice before doing that. Consider removing the fonts before installing
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I did do that earlier and posted my response:
“I tried that - there were a couple of changes from the default settings on my version, but the italicized text at the bottom is still missing using all the settings you listed here.”
- This was in response to ms777… not sure why it is replying to me - the Ask LibreOffice replying seems to not work sometimes.
Earnest, wanted to let you know that I did as you asked and as of right now… I am not having issues with that font disappearing after test converting a few of the same files that I did have trouble with and used for examples in this thread.
I wanted to emphasize that the fonts I was using were the basic ones installed by LibreOffice… I didn’t get them from another source… I wonder if the program has an old version of them installed?
At any rate, if I don’t have any other problems, I may mark your post as a solution. I have some more boards to make for this weekend so I’ll have the chance to test a couple more times.
Probably the font got damaged somehow, it can happen.
If the font is already installed then I think LibreOffice won’t install it again.
Well… I don’t think that was the issue. I had the problem on a different work station so I tried that solution… not only did it not help, but it made the problem worse…
Here’s the document I was working on…
2024-25 ESU MBB @ FHSU.ods (209.9 KB)
Here is the PDF output for that same file…
2024-25 ESU MBB @ FHSU.pdf (224.2 KB)
As you can see, there is a TON of material missing now… and a bunch of random 1’s everywhere for no reason.
This was AFTER I did the suggested step of uninstalling and reinstalling the fonts. That procedure worked on the previous document I had posted… but it is definitely not working on this one for some reason.
When I export 2024-25 ESU MBB @ FHSU.ods to pdf I get an error about Liberation Serif showing in Adobe Reader but I don’t see any missing characters, unlike your exported pdf
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It might be the font cache in Windows is damaged on that computer, do an internet search for that term.
Tried that. and followed instructions to fix the font cache, but I’m getting the same result… not happening all the time but sometimes I do have missing characters and the random 1’s.
2024-25 ESU MBB vs UNK.ods (291.4 KB)
2024-25 ESU MBB vs UNK.pdf (309.0 KB)
Honestly the problem is worse now than when the thread started. As you can see, there’s now missing text all over the document and the random characters weren’t appearing before.
Edit: Wanted to point out that I’ve experienced this error on my home PC and my laptop at work so it’s happening on multiple installations of LibreOffice.
This might be helpful, you might need to experiment. In your exported pdfs, the text is still there, it is just in white text, this is important.
There is a difference in export between Merge and Centre and Merge. I copied merged cell AQ110:CX131 from your original sample to a new spreadsheet.
- If I select the merged cell, select Format > Merge and Unmerge Cells > Unmerge Cells then click Format > Merge and Unmerge Cells > Merge and Centre Cells then select only the cell (highlighted) and export only the selection to pdf then the pdf has white text.
- If I unmerge the cell and then with the selection still highlighted, I click Format > Merge and Unmerge Cells > Merge Cells then the exported pdf has black text
FontAttributesExportToPDF-2.ods (31.1 KB)
You could post a bug report, How to Report Bugs in LibreOffice - The Document Foundation Wiki
Remember that you usage is a bit unusual, most people would use Writer or Draw for your document
I’m still not sure how that would explain the random '1’s that are appearing in the document whereever they appear.
Also, maybe the text is white in some of the boxes, but it is NOT there is several boxes - if the text is truly white and not missing, then it should show up in cells that have a non-white background and nothing does - just random '1’s (this can be seen in several exmples in the 2024-25 ESU MBB vs UNK.pdf). In fact, the rogue '1’s that are appearing (when they do) are almost exclusively NOT white - they are normally of the appropriate (correct) color for that cell (For example, see the merged cell that starts at CY102 labeled ‘Last Game - Thursday’ - the 1’s are NOT white… they are black. Also see the merged cell that begins with the top left corner at CP76 - the 1 is red, not white).
I will also say that in fooling around with it, I have gotten it to export correctly, but only when I have changed something in the document. (For example, in the merged cell labeled Last Game - Saturday on the right in the merged cell that begins in the top left corner at JC102, I changed ‘9-for-11’ to ‘9 of 11’, then tried to export again, and it exported correctly - it doesn’t seem to matter what gets changed or whether the cell that has the change is one that was incorrect before… only that a change was made).
In terms of most people using Writer or Draw, as someone who has been in the business for 16 years (and I know a lot of guys and have seen a lot of spotting boards), I can tell you that nobody uses a problem like Draw for these boards - the overwhelming majority use Excel or a spreadsheet program. There are guys who use MS Word for sure.
I can definitely try to unmerge every cell in the document and then remerge them (but NOT Merge & Center) but, as you can imagine, this will be pretty time-consuming in the middle of a busy season to attempt… I may save it for the offseason and try to limp along until then and post my results afterwards. It doesn’t seem like this would be the answer though as all of the cells that are using the Impact font are ALSO merged and centered - it would stand to reason that if PDF export didn’t work for merged and centered cells, ALL of my cells in the PDF would be blank or missing characters.
It seems to be a problem with Liberation Serif text that is colored or formatted in some way - plain black text seems to always export fine, but any text that has a color, bolding, italicized, or anything else is what gets left out.
I guess it is possible that Liberation Serif is just a bad font and I could try a different one…
If I have time, I will try those two things and report back… might be a while though as those charts unfortunately are not automated and they don’t build themselves!
EDIT: Really apologize for the text size - I tried to paragraph using “enter” like a sane person and Ask LIbreoffice just made it into a wall of text. Tried to insert a hyphen in between paragraphs to separate them for ease of reading and it made the text big and bolded… even though the bold is not selected in the edit window… perplexing to say the least.
You will have to excuse me, I am working blind because your .ods exports to pdf fine for me.
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See if exporting to pdf from Safe Mode works OK, click Help > Restart in Safe Mode > Continue in Safe Mode. See this page for more information LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki
Or try with a temporary profile further down the page.
Wanted to report back that I tried this and it didn’t help. There were some cells that were merged and centered missing text and there were others that I did ONLY used Merge Cells for and there was still italicized text missing.
2024-25 ESU WBB @ WU.ods (415.1 KB)
2024-25 ESU WBB @ WU.pdf (323.6 KB)
Note the cell labeled Notes & Superlatives on the left & bottom of the sheet that starts with the upper left corner at AQ110. That cell is NOT merged & centered. Conversely the one on the right I purposely left as merged and centered to experiment. As you can see there italicized text missing in both. You can find this cell in the bottom right of the sheet labeled as Notes & Superlatives and starts with the upper left corner at GU110.
I tried this - no difference in my sample from today.
Same affected cells as previous post with similar output… I can add the file if you want but it looks identical to the 2024-25 ESU WBB @ WU.pdf I just posted…
Unless anybody has other ideas, I will likely report as a bug as you suggested earlier or hope that an new version fixes the issue. This didn’t start until this most recent update of LibreOffice.
Did you try in LibreOffice Safe Mode?
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Until yesterday when LO automatically updated itself, my system was very similar to yours except that I had refused the optional update to Windows 11.
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That gives two possibilities, you have a corrupted user profile, or Windows 11 24H2 has some effect.
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You could
- download a portable version of LibreOffice which shouldn’t conflict with your installed version and see if that exports correctly. Or
- Install a parallel version, Installing in parallel on Windows - The Document Foundation Wiki and see if that exports correctly.
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If it doesn’t then a bug report is needed. You can install an older version of LibreOffice by uninstalling LO and installing an earlier version that worked.
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Version: 24.8.4.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: bb3cfa12c7b1bf994ecc5649a80400d06cd71002
CPU threads: 8; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 22631); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-NZ (en_NZ); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded
Yes I did… there was still text missing.
I just got the new update.
Well, it has been happening on two different machines… outside of this issue with LibreOffice I don’t have any other issues with my Windows account that would be indicative of that as far as I’m aware (I’ve got quite a few things attached to it including OneDrive & Xbox so it isn’t something I am wanting to screw around with too much).
As far as Windows 11 24H2 goes, I’ve been on that build for a while without any LibreOffice issue. As I mentioned, this started popping up with the last LibreOffice release.
I am now on the new release (as of today) so I’ll give that a look when I do my next charts and see if that makes a difference. If not, probably off to a bug report as you previously suggested.
I wanted to follow up here. After a while of using the latest version of the program (which got updated while this was occurring), I have not had these PDF conversion errors.
In fact on my computer at home, I converted and it formatted incorrectly but I remembered that I was on the old version still.
After updating and converting, it worked perfectly so it would appear that this issue does NOT occur with the current version of LibreOffice as of 1/31/2025. As I had never had the problem until the last build, it definitely feels like something bad got in there that wasn’t there before and it seems to have been fixed now.
Appreciate people who tried to help in the meantime.