Rules for Font Substitutions to / from PDF when using SSRS / ReportViewer to create PDFs?

Question

In an effort to reduce the size of the PDF files exported from SSRS and the ReportViewer control, one of the main contributors to the size of a PDF is full and subset font embedding.

Ultimately, we decided to standardise our reports using only variations (size, bold, italic etc) of the Arial and Times New Roman fonts - fortunately most of our reports are corporate death-by-spreadsheet fare and not requiring aesthetic appeal.

During PDF creation, these fonts seem to then be substituted by ReportViewer/SSRS for one of the 14 PDF 'standard permissable fonts' (since the standard fonts aren't usually installed on most Windows machines anyway).

So my question is, what exactly are the rules that the PDF renderer on ReportViewer uses during font substitution, rather than embedding a font in the PDF?

Based on this site, and with a bit of trial and error, the following substitutions do seem to be made (from RDL to PDF, list is incomplete):

• Times New Roman => Times
• Courier New => Courier
• Arial => Helvitica

I had thought that the substitution was forced because of font embedding legalities, but Times New Roman and Arial are both "Editable" which I understand to be the least restrictive.

Answer 1

There are a few conditions to be met when the pdf is rendered.

I suspect one of the parameters set out here are not met and converting your fonths to the closest one that fits.

1. Ensure the font is installed correctly and that font embedding is granted font; and

2. The font must be a true type font.