Using Fonts in System with iTextSharp

Question

I want to use iTextSharp to write some text. I'm using this method:

var font = BaseFont.CreateFont(BaseFont.TIMES_BOLD, BaseFont.WINANSI, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);

My question is: does iTextSharp support all fonts in the system fonts directory?

Say I have a font called 'mycoolfont' selected by the user in the font chooser dialog. Can I create a new iTextSharp font like this?

var font = BaseFont.CreateFont("mycoolfont", BaseFont.WINANSI, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);
overContent.SetFontAndSize(font, fontSize);

UPDATE:

I tried var font = BaseFont.CreateFont("Verdana", BaseFont.WINANSI, BaseFont.EMBEDDED); but got the error "Verdana" is not recognized by itextsharp

Answer 1

1st you need to register the font and then just retrieve it from the FontFactory (and don't create it every time):

public static iTextSharp.text.Font GetTahoma()
{
    var fontName = "Tahoma";
    if (!FontFactory.IsRegistered(fontName))
    {
         var fontPath = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SystemRoot") + "\\fonts\\tahoma.ttf";
         FontFactory.Register(fontPath,fontName);
    }
    return FontFactory.GetFont(fontName, BaseFont.IDENTITY_H, BaseFont.EMBEDDED); 
}

Answer 2

I ended up combining the 2 answers here into this method:

public static Font GetFont(string fontName, string filename)
{
    if (!FontFactory.IsRegistered(fontName))
    {
        var fontPath = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("SystemRoot") + "\\fonts\\" + filename;
        FontFactory.Register(fontPath);
    }
    return FontFactory.GetFont(fontName, BaseFont.IDENTITY_H, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);
}

Which I then use in my code like so:

writer.DirectContent.SetFontAndSize(GetFont("Franklin Gothic Medium Cond", "FRAMDCN.TTF").BaseFont, 24f);

On Windows you can find out the font's file name from the font's property sheet:

I also found that you have to use the font's exact name on the Details tab: