Problem Note 63514: Arabic letters are written in an isolated form and appear to be disconnected within a word in SAS® ODS PDF output
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Arabic letters have different forms (initial, medial, final, or isolated), depending on where they are located in a word. In a SAS session that is running with Arabic encoding, Arabic letters are written only in the isolated form in SAS Output Delivery System (ODS) output to PDF. As a result, Arabic words appear to have disconnected letters with unnecessary spacing in between them.
Here is an example of output with disconnected letters:
Here is an example of correct output with connected letters:
This issue occurs only for the PDF output. It does not occur in other ODS output types.
Click the Hot Fix tab in this note to access the hot fix for this issue.
After applying the hot fix, you need to use an ODS style with a font that supports the different Arabic letter forms (initial, medial, final, or isolated). Here are examples of supported fonts:
Windows Operating Systems
- Arial
- Times New Roman
Other Operating Systems
- Albany AMT
- Cumberland AMT
- Thorndale AMT
- Arial Unicode MS
- Times New Roman Uni
Here is example code that creates and uses a new ODS style to ensure that the PDF output contains connected Arabic letters:
define style Styles.TMP;
parent = styles.Printer;
replace fonts /
'docFont' = ("Times New Roman",8pt)
'headingFont' = ("Times New Roman",9pt,Bold)
'headingEmphasisFont' = ("Times New Roman",9pt,Bold Italic)
'FixedFont' = ("Courier New, CourierArial Unicode MS",7pt)
'BatchFixedFont' = ("SAS Monospace, Courier New, Courier",5pt)
'FixedHeadingFont' = ("Times New Roman",7pt,Bold)
'FixedStrongFont' = ("Times New Roman",7pt,Bold)
'FixedEmphasisFont' = ("Times New Roman",7pt,Italic)
'EmphasisFont' = ("Times New Roman",8pt,Italic)
'StrongFont' = ("Times New Roman",8pt,Bold)
'TitleFont' = ("Times New Roman",11pt,Bold Italic)
'TitleFont2' = ("Times New Roman",10pt,Bold Italic);
end;
run;
ods pdf style=TMP;
proc print data=ArabicData;
run;
ods pdf close;
Operating System and Release Information
| Product Family | Product | System | Product Release | SAS Release | ||
| Reported | Fixed* | Reported | Fixed* | |||
| SAS System | Base SAS | Linux for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||
| Solaris for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| HP-UX IPF | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| 64-bit Enabled Solaris | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| 64-bit Enabled AIX | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Professional x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Professional 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Home Premium x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Home Premium 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Enterprise x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Windows 7 Enterprise 32 bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Std | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Std | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Datacenter | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows Server 2008 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 10 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8.1 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Pro 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise 32-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| Microsoft® Windows® for x64 | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| z/OS | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||
| z/OS 64-bit | 9.4_M4 | 9.4 TS1M4 | ||||