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Text is not editable in exported PDF
What is the bug or the crash?
When exporting to PDF, text isn’t editable, even if I check the box to export text as text objects. When opening in illustrator, fonts are reported as missing, and all text is individual letters, not words. I entered this as a feature request, but in my mind it really is a bug.
There is a way of getting around this problem, but it is awkward at best.
Steps to reproduce the issue
This is easy to reproduce. Create a print layout (it can be empty), add some text in the layout, and export to PDF, being sure to check the box to export text as text objects. Open in illustrator; no text will be editable, and fonts are reported as missing.
Versions
This has been an issue in all 3.x versions, including 3.28.
Supported QGIS version
- [x] I'm running a supported QGIS version according to the roadmap.
New profile
- [X] I tried with a new QGIS profile
Additional context
I created a profile with no plugins. There was no change from the behavior already described.
@bkepl can you try opening the exported file in Inkscape and confirming whether or not this is an Illustrator specific issue?
I tried. I have avoided using Inkscape because it doesn't handle tiled backgrounds in PDFs well (imagery and the like). But I never looked at the text. To my surprise, it did allow text editing, and when I then saved as a PDF, the text was editable when I opened the PDF in Illustrator. I should note that when first opening the PDF in Inkscape, you should keep "Replace PDF fonts by closest-named installed fonts" selected; your intended font will most-likely be restored.
My sense is that this is a problem with QGIS, because the fonts are still incorrect in the exported PDF, but Inkscape is smart enough to fix the problem (not always perfectly, but close enough to easily make corrections).
