Problems with PDF theming (undefined method `unpack' for nil:NilClass)

Hello,

I'm experiencing issues when I try to theme the PDF output. I'm aware that pdf styling is in alpha status but I'm afraid that I am doing something  fundamentally wrong.

You can access my test project from here:
https://github.com/alexanderklein/adoc-pdf-styling-test


I understood that it was currently necessary to start with the basic theme provided here:
https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor-pdf/blob/master/data/themes/default-theme.yml

So I copied this file to [my-project]/src/docs/resources/themes/basic-theme.yml

My build.gradle file looks like this:

buildscript {
  repositories {
    jcenter()
  }

  dependencies {
    classpath 'org.asciidoctor:asciidoctor-gradle-plugin:1.5.3'
      classpath 'org.asciidoctor:asciidoctorj-pdf:1.5.0-alpha.10'
  }
}

task debug {
  doLast {
    println asciidoctor.outputDir
  }
}

apply plugin: 'org.asciidoctor.convert'
asciidoctor {
  backends = ['pdf']
    attributes 'source-highlighter': 'coderay', 'pdf-fontsdir': '/Users/aklein/dev/adoc/pdf/src/resources/fonts', 'pdf-style': '/Users/aklein/dev/adoc/pdf/src/resources/themes/basic-theme.yml'
}

task wrapper(type: Wrapper) {
  gradleVersion = '2.9'
}
defaultTasks = ['asciidoctor']


(Obviously you will need to modify the absolute paths when trying to reproduce but I sticked with absolute paths since it is a recommendation in the documentation and the project is in alpha status where I consider recommendations as rules).

When my fonts directory [my-project]/src/docs/resources/fonts/ is empty, I get the following error message:
➜  pdf  ./gradlew asciidoctor
:asciidoctor
(ArgumentError) /Users/aklein/dev/adoc/pdf/src/resources/fonts/notoserif-regular-subset.ttf not found
:asciidoctor FAILED

That makes sense to me as there are not fonts in my fonts directory. So I downloaded all fonts from here:
https://github.com/asciidoctor/asciidoctor-pdf/tree/master/data/fonts

When I then try to convert the document, I get the this error message:
  pdf  ./gradlew asciidoctor
:asciidoctor
(NoMethodError) undefined method `unpack' for nil:NilClass
:asciidoctor FAILED

And here, I'm lost because of my lack of familarity with the Ruby language. However, I don't think that this is a Gradle or asciidoctorj-pdf issue because I get a very similar (or the same) error message when I try to convert the document with the Ruby Gem directly:

➜  pdf  asciidoctor-pdf src/docs/asciidoc/test.adoc -a pdf-style=/Users/aklein/dev/adoc/pdf/src/resources/themes/basic-theme.yml -a pdf-fontsdir=/Users/aklein/dev/adoc/pdf/src/resources/fonts
undefined method `unpack' for nil:NilClass

It does work well when I use other fonts (e.g Open Sans) but then Callouts are not rendered. So this does not help.

This being said, I'm already failing when I try to create a PDF document using the basic theme as long as I specifically declare it (I'm doing this because I would then like to start modifying the basic theme in order to create one that fits my needs more).

Any help would be highly appreciated.

Many thanks, Alex

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NAML

I'm a bit closer to get this work. But  I'm not yet there :-(

You are very close, actually. Just a few more things to clear up and I think you'll have it.

 

I get error messages about missing font files when I leave the pdf-fontsdir in the gradle file and just empty the physical directory on my disc:

Correct. You either need to not specify the pdf-fontsdir and use the built-in fonts, or you need to specify the pdf-fontsdir and provide all the fonts. The two options are mutually exclusive.

 

I would like to use the M+ 1mn font for source code as it contains glyphs for the Callout icons. And other fonts for headlines and paragraphs (that's why i need to have the pdf-fontsdir in my build file).
I've also updated my sample project on Github:
https://github.com/alexanderklein/adoc-pdf-styling-test

Yep, that's the typical case for customization.

 

If you move them from the sub folder into the fonts folder directly, you should be able to see the other error message printed:

➜  adoc-pdf-styling-test git:(master) ✗ grad
:asciidoctor
(NoMethodError) undefined method `unpack' for nil:NilClass
:asciidoctor FAILED

This means the font files are corrupt (or have something in them that the font library can't read). When I compare the fonts in your repository with the fonts from Asciidoctor PDF, the binary files differ. So something happened when you copied them. Make sure that diff confirms that the files are the same.

For me, not even fontforge can open the font. So I think that is your underlying problem. I can assure you that your build.gradle file is now correct.

We probably need to fail more gracefully if a font file is corrupt. Though that may be something that should be fixed in Prawn instead of Asciidoctor PDF.

Cheers,

-Dan

--

Dan Allen | @mojavelinux | http://google.com/profiles/dan.j.allen

Oh yes!

Thank you so much Dan,

I cloned your repository and copied the fonts locally to my project and it worked immediately. Of course, I feel a bit embarrassed as broken font files are obviously not an Asciidoctor problem. So, I appreciate your help even more.

I updated my repo on GitHub and will keep it there. Hoping that it might be sort of useful as a reference on how to set up a pdf "customization" project with Asciidoctor and Gradle.

Thanks again.

Best regards, Alex

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NAML