Unicode data from SalesLogix not exporting from the web Crystal Report viewer to PDF correctly.

The later version of SalesLogix allow the storage of Unicode data in the database.  This allows for the use and Japanese or Chinese characters.

I recently found if you try to use the PDF export of a Crystal Report that has a field containing Unicode
data in a SalesLogix field, the preview of the report works fine in the web Crystal viewer,
however if you export the file to PDF it strips out the Unicode
characters from the report.  They are replaced by squares instead.

Running the same report in the LAN client and using the LAN client’s Crystal Report preview and PDF export functionality did work properly.

I thought this to be a limitation with the underlying web architecture.  The web uses the ASP.Net
CrystalDecisions.CrystalReports.Engine assembly to generate the
PDF.  The LAN client uses an older ActiveX control.  I found  running something like
“Report.ExportToDisk(ExportFormatType.PortableDocFile, “report.pdf”);” from a custom C# solution caused the same problem. 

Stupid Crystal.

After further research, I have found the export problem is limited to Unicode characters in a Crystal Report using the MS Arial Unicode font.  All I had to do to make this work properly was switch to another Unicode friendly font.  In my case I used MS Gothic as the font in the report.

Whamo!  The export to PDF worked!

Still, stupid Crystal.