[smc-discuss] Malayalam LaTeX pdf - copying text from

[Rajeesh K V]

> > Just wondering if something can be done about this:
> > https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/464160/copying-text-from-pdf-created-using-xelatex-containing-malayalam-text?fbclid=IwAR14eWxPDdiXEZ91ZfCv2yytA-yT9yzoNQ2AqdF_aVTqq-eonJS92qFapa8
>
> This same list contains some related older threads:
> 1. Aisan and other complex text language copy/conversion issue in PDF - 2017
> 2. PDF -Whether it is an input file or an output file? - 2018
>
> I don't remember (or haven't re-read) the content, but its an issue with
> the PDF generation. The generator preserves the appearance, but drops
> the actual text.
>
> There is similar difficulty with LibreOffice-produced PDF also, but it's
> better than XeLaTeX.
>

This seems to be a technical limitation of the XeLaTeX engine. Recent
versions of `luahbtex` can generate PDF containing complex script
texts which can be copy pasted back to a text editor properly. Here is
one example of such a document:
http://books.sayahna.org/ml/pdf/bbh-web.pdf


-- 
Rajeesh