title: Can one export Special symbols / Cyrillic letters in plot labels when exporting graphics to PDF ?
body: <p>I am trying to export a list of graphics as separate frames in PDF format in order to then compile a vector SWF animation with the aid of external utility (such as pdf2swf). Unfortunately, some special characters (e.g. Degree sign or triple dots) are corrupted in the exported PDF files. That is also the destiny of all Russian letters. Note that Mathematica rasterises graphics in a list when it is directly exported from Mma to SWF, which yields unsatisfactory results in my case. </p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Is there a way to preserve those letters in exported graphics?</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Single graphics can be manually edited in a graphics editors, but it is hardly possible for hundreds of frames for video. Some symbols can be preserved by the following custom function:</p>
  
  <pre><code>ExportPDF[filename_, elem_, 
    opts : OptionsPattern[{Export, Outlines -&gt; True}]] := Module[{$elem},
    $elem = Style[elem, Background -&gt; None];
   If[OptionValue[Outlines] == True
     , $elem = 
      First@ImportString[ExportString[$elem, "PDF"], "PDF", 
        "TextMode" -&gt; "Outlines"]
     ];
    Export[filename, $elem, FilterRules[{opts}, Options[Export]]]
   ]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Unfortunately, it doesn't always help.</p>