Did you know… Export to PDF Tips?

Lumira is a great interactive tool to explore and visualize your data, but sometimes you need to present static content to tell your story… to print your results or to share via email to those not connected to the live system.

In the Compose room, Lumira provides an “Export to File…” option. This currently offers an export to PDF, but to get the best results there are some things you should be aware.

• Objects are exported per widget. This means that visualizations, their titles and labels are exported as an image.  However, text in page titles and in tables are exported as text. This impacts how the objects are selected within the PDF, i.e. an image can only be selected in its entirety while individual text elements can be selected.

• When exporting to a PDF there is one option which allows data filters to be included in the export.  This will add all global filters, story filters and page filters to an appendix at the end of the PDF. This is quite important as it provides context to the static content.
  

• When exporting to PDF, the page length is limited to 14,400 pixels. At 72 pixels/inch, that is equivalent to printing a page 200 inches (~5m) long. Lumira will actually truncate the page at 194 inches so, if you are exporting a particularly long table, this is worth remembering.

• Unicode characters are exported as images. This has the advantage that you do not need to embed the unicode font, but the disadvantage is that you cannot highlight and copy unicode text in the PDF.

“Did you know…” is a series of short blogs by the BI & Analytics Competence Centre, a global team within SAP engineering focused 100% on customer success. They are a useful reminder of Lumira hints, tips and best practices.