Problem copying text from latex PDF - special characters

Question

I am using LaTeX in a portuguese document, with special characters such as tilde or cedilla. I have a sample document with the following content:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\begin{document}

é canção

\end{document}

My editor (TeXworks) is configured to use UTF8, and the resultant PDF shows the right result, as seen on the following image:

Generated PDF

My problem is: when I copy the text from the PDF I get weird characters, and not the text that is exhibited. How to overcome this?

Thanks.

Note that ● never use the solution suggested below \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} for XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX ● that solution only works for characters that is actually included in T1 encoding, so for example ṃ will still not work, refer to this for a solution. ● another related question — user202729, Dec 21 '23 at 09:09

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 23 '11 at 15:23

8

You could use T1 font encoding with support for special characters:

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

answered Feb 23 '11 at 15:23

Stefan Kottwitz

This isn't working for me: I have \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} \usepackage{lmodern} both specified, but I still can't copy say, $\gamma$ out of the resulting PDF. – Canageek Sep 28 '11 at 18:09
1

@Canageek: $\gamma$ is not text, it's a math symbol of a math font. However,you could try the same if you use the Unicode text gamma γ. – Stefan Kottwitz Sep 28 '11 at 19:30
@StefanKottwitz Crud, that removes the ease of inserting greek characters from LaTeX as I have to go find a source for them then. – Canageek Sep 28 '11 at 20:28
@Canageek: get just one Greek alphabet, such as here, or use a Greek keyboard. If you really mean math font letters, I suggest you post a new question instead of a comment. – Stefan Kottwitz Sep 28 '11 at 20:44
related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/1291/why-are-bitmap-fonts-used-automatically – matth May 09 '12 at 18:26

1 Answers1