Save as PDF from print menu, corrupted text

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1

Description of the issue:
On some websites, especially edx.org, when saving a website as PDF, I can’t select the text or it’s just some gibberish (reversed). I can select the top text in the picture, but not the text in the green box.
It works on Safari though. It’s probably a Chromium problem, bc it’s the same issue on Chrome.

save as pdf
save as pdf2338×1270 166 KB

How can this issue be reproduced?

  1. Go to edx.org, then to a course, then to a quizz or exam
  2. Go to the print menu (Cmd+P) & Save it as a PDF
  3. Open it in Preview & try highlighting some words

Expected result:
The text should be like text with OCR, not like an image.

Brave Version( check About Brave):
Version 1.49.132 Chromium: 111.0.5563.147 (Offizieller Build) (arm64)

Additional Information:

Apparently, this bug is around since 2012…
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=108937

2

@Hannover69,
I actually cannot get this site to load at all in Brave, Chrome or Firefox so I’m wondering if there’s an issue with the site going on right now in general. That said, I did try downloading some other PDF files with Brave and everything seems to work as expected. For example, here’s a PDF of the BAT Whitepaper I downloaded in Brave:

I tried this with some others as well with the same result so I’m not entirely convinced that the issue you linked to is what we’re seeing here in Brave.

3

It’s on more complex websites where the text isn’t continuous like in articles.

Like in https://www.facebook.com/messages/ & https://www.edx.org/ (my mistake, you have to go to that site, which redirects you to the other site when you go to courses).

Both have no problem on Safari.

Edit: is that download plugin built-in? If yes, is that in beta?

4

Once on edx.org, where can I go to download a PDF? Do I need to have an account? Are there sites other than edx that you’re seeing these issues with PDFs on?

The download button you’re seeing is not a plugin, its a built in feature that should be a few versions away from Release still but yes it will be available for everyone.

5

Yes, you need an account even for free courses, but I meant saving a website as a PDF from the print menu (cmd+P). If you go to the quizz/exams and save it as a PDF, the text is corrupted. I haven’t encountered it elsewhere bc most of the time, I download articles as PDF.

Downloading PDFs never was an issue.

Also nice about the new feature, I’ve been waiting years for that.

6

Ohhhh I see. Apologies for the misunderstanding — taking another look now.

7

I’m not seeing quizzes and exams anywhere — maybe because I’m using a free account? But I was able to save the web page as PDF which seemed to work just fine (no corrupted text).

8

You don’t have to, but this one has free tests after each video for each week (Semaine). Better choose the ones with the boxes instead of list slider thing after the 2nd video.

https://www.edx.org/course/les-fondements-de-la-strategie-dentreprise-2?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-sharing-db&utm_source=twitter

Or as I said before, try it on facebook messenger.

9

Tested and seems to work for me without any issue as well. Do you have any extensions installed in the browser at this time?

10

I have a lot of extensions, but I still have the same issue in private window and in virgin Chrome.

11

Hello,

I found the source of the problem: Apple apps like Preview app and Safari don’t support the format because it’s not corrupted when I open with Brave or PDF Expert.

PDFs created with Safari use Quartz PDFContext, while Chromium uses Skia/PDF m111.

Is there a solution to improve compatibility?

12

@Hannover69,
Great detective work here. Let me reach out to some devs and see what we can do.

13

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