SAP Knowledge Base Article - Public

1273957 - Chinese Characters display as boxes or questions marks, in Crystal Reports

Symptom

  • Chinese characters shows as questions marks.
  • When viewing a report in Crystal Reports, Chinese characters appear as boxes, or as unreadable characters.

Environment

  • SAP Crystal Reports 2011
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2013
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2016
  • SAP Crystal Reports 2020

Reproducing the Issue

  1. In Crystal Reports, create a new report of any data source.
  2. Insert a Database Fields on the report that contains Chinese characters.
  3. Refresh the report.
    Notice the fields displays white boxes, questions marks, or unreadable characters, instead of the expected Chinese Characters.

Cause

  • Font used on the report does not support Chinese Characters.

Resolution

  • Change the font of the field to a unicode font supporting Chinese Characters like:
    • Arial Unicode MS
    • MingLiU
    • SimHei  
    • SimSun
    • etc...     

Keywords

Chinese Fonts, CR , KBA , BI-RA-CR , Crystal Reports designer or Business View Manager , Problem

Product

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2013 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2016 ; SAP Crystal Reports 2020