diff --git a/fine-itext/src/com/fr/third/v2/lowagie/text/pdf/PdfFont.java b/fine-itext/src/com/fr/third/v2/lowagie/text/pdf/PdfFont.java
index 60917613c..4b213ac98 100644
--- a/fine-itext/src/com/fr/third/v2/lowagie/text/pdf/PdfFont.java
+++ b/fine-itext/src/com/fr/third/v2/lowagie/text/pdf/PdfFont.java
@@ -55,8 +55,6 @@ import com.fr.third.v2.lowagie.text.Image;
 import sun.font.FontDesignMetrics;
 
 import java.awt.FontMetrics;
-import java.awt.font.FontRenderContext;
-import java.awt.geom.AffineTransform;
 
 /**
  * <CODE>PdfFont</CODE> is the Pdf Font object.
@@ -74,6 +72,7 @@ import java.awt.geom.AffineTransform;
  */
 
 public class PdfFont implements Comparable {
+
     private static final int ONE_THOUSAND = 1000 ;
 
     private Font oriFont;
@@ -153,6 +152,8 @@ public class PdfFont implements Comparable {
         return width(' ');
     }
 
+    private FontMetrics metrics;
+
     /**
      * Returns the width of a certain character of this font.
      *
@@ -161,30 +162,19 @@ public class PdfFont implements Comparable {
      */
 
     float width(int character) {
-        FontMetrics metrics = FontDesignMetrics.getMetrics(getAwtFont());
-        if (image == null)
-            return metrics.charWidth(character) * hScale;
-        else
-            return image.getScaledWidth();
+        return image == null ? getMetrics().charWidth(character) : image.getScaledWidth();
     }
 
-    public float width(String s) {
-        double width = 0.0d;
-        java.awt.Font font = this.getAwtFont();
-        if (font.getSize2D() > 0) {
-            float scale = ONE_THOUSAND / font.getSize2D();
-            java.awt.Font derivedFont = font.deriveFont(AffineTransform.getScaleInstance(scale, scale));
-            width = derivedFont.getStringBounds(s,  new FontRenderContext(new AffineTransform(), true, true)).getWidth();
-            if (derivedFont.isTransformed()){
-                width /= scale;
-            }
-        }
-        if (image == null)
-            return (float) width * hScale;
-        else
-            return image.getScaledWidth();
+    float width(String s) {
+        return image == null ? getMetrics().stringWidth(s) : image.getScaledWidth();
     }
 
+    private FontMetrics getMetrics() {
+        if (null == metrics) {
+            metrics = FontDesignMetrics.getMetrics(getAwtFont());
+        }
+        return metrics;
+    }
 
     BaseFont getFont() {
         return  oriFont.getCalculatedBaseFont(false);