Custom font in SQL Server 2005 Reporting Services

Question

I'm having issues with my SQL Reporting Services reports. I'm using a custom font for report headers, and when deployed to the server it does not render correctly when I print or export to PDF/TIFF. I have installed the font on the server. Is there anything else I need to do in order to use custom fonts?

When viewing the font in the browser it looks correct - since all client computers have the font installed...

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Thanks Ryan, your post to the FAQ solved the problem. Installing the fonts on the server fixes the print problem, as well as problems with charts (which are also rendered on the server). Like you point out (as well as being mentioned in the FAQ) Reporting Services 2005 does not do font embedding in PDF files. I guess that is okay for now - the most important part was being able to hit print and get the correct fonts.

The reason the fonts didn't show up straight away is answered in the FAQ:

Q: I've installed the font on my client/server but I still see ?'s or black boxes. Why? A: For the client machine, closing all instances of the PDF viewer then reopening them should fix the issue.

For the server, restarting the services should allow the PDF renderer to pick up the new font information.

Unfortunately, I have also seen times where I needed a full machine reboot to get the client/server to recognize the newly installed font.

Answer 1

The PDF files served up from SSRS, like many PDF files, have embedded postscript fonts. So, the local fonts used in the report are converted to a best matching postscript font when the conversion takes place so the PDF is totally portable without relying on locally installed fonts.

You can see the official MS guidelines and font requirements for SSRS PDF exports here: SQL Server 2005 Books Online (September 2007) Designing for PDF Output. Also, this post should provide some help as well: Reporting Services: PDF Renderer FAQ

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Aspose apparently also has a component that claims to be able to add custom embedded fonts in SQL Report PDFs.

See Aspose.Pdf for Reporting Services

Aspose.Pdf for Reporting Services makes it possible generating PDF reports in Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and 2005 Reporting Services. Some advanced features like XMP metadata, custom embedded font and rendering watermark for pages are now supported. All RDL report features including sections, images, charts, tables, matrices, headers and footers are converted with the highest degree of precision to PDF.

I've not tried this component, so I can only share what it claims to be able to do.

Answer 2

Note: I have found that when you install the fonts on the Reporting Services server box, you may need to:

= Actually open the font from the Fonts control panel, so you can see the preview

AND

= Reboot the server box.

And yes, I agree you should not need to do this - but I have seen it work.

Answer 3

Running into the same problem - When you export to pdf, it doesn't render the Free 3 of 9 font. The font is installed on my report server, and does appear when you run the report using SSRS 2005.

The user can print directly, which is nice. And the report renders successfully during an Excel export. But that requires extra steps to print from Excel (page setup, etc.).

What I found to be a workaround is to use CutePDF (freeware).

Just click the direct print button on SSRS, and choose the CutePDF printer. It asks you where to save the file. Open the file, and the barcode fonts render successfully.