Fonts
The conversion ("Converter“ web service) of foreign formats and the use of PDF/A conversion ("Pdfa“ web service) requires fonts so that the conversion can be carried out as accurately as possible.
All the following information about the fonts and options refers exclusively to the integrated document converter and not to the Office-Bridge.
The server first looks for the font which has been used in the source document. If this font is not installed on the server, an attempt is made to find a substitute font. In doing so, the server tries to find a font which corresponds to the "font family" (typeface) of the original font or which is similar in appearance (e.g. with or without serifs). If no font is found, the conversion falls back to the default font of the system (see "Default font" below).
Whenever the original font of the document is not available and a substitute font must be used, there may be visual and content discrepancies between the original document and the created PDF document.
It is also important that the fonts support the corresponding unicode ranges. For example, if a document with Asian characters is converted, then there must be at least one font on the server which supports this unicode range.
If possible, install the fonts on the server that are used in the documents you want to convert. This is the only way to achieve optimal conversion quality.
Replacement takes place automatically so that as nearly as possible, every document can be converted. If this should prove not to be possible, the operation, for example, a PDF/A conversion, will be cancelled and a corresponding error report is returned.
Supported formats
The "Converter" web service presently supports TrueType Fonts (TTF) and TrueType Collections (TTC). In addition to TTF and TTC, the "Pdfa" web service also supports OpenType Fonts (OTF).
Directories
In Windows, fonts must be installed (registered) in <Windows>\fonts.
Make sure that the fonts are installed system-wide and not only for the logged-in user (what is the default installation).
Under Linux, fonts are looked for in the folder /usr/share/fonts (and its subfolders). Additionally, on Linux, the folder /home/<user>/.fonts/ is used, where <user> corresponds to the user name under which the server is running.
The sum of all directories with fonts must not be longer than 256 characters.
Because the fonts are divided into subdirectories, the list of the directory names can exceed the character limit of 256. In this case, merge the fonts into one (or a few) directories.
The list of used directories for fonts is displayed at server startup at the respective web service. Only directories where at least one font was found are used.
The server searches all folders for fonts. At least one valid font must be found. If no font is found, then the startup of the respective web service is cancelled and the web service will not be available.
If you have created your own fonts, for example, to support your corporate design, then be certain that these fonts are available on the server.
Custom font directory
An individual font directory can be specified for the "Converter" web service via the configuration in the Admin Portal. In this case, only the fonts from the configured directory (and all sub-directories) are used. This provides the possibility to set up an individual list of fonts for the server only.
Default font
webPDF installs the default font "Go Noto Current" and uses it as the default font (see above) . This font has a large coverage of the Unicode range and is therefore suitable as the default font if the font defined in the document is not available during conversion.
If the font Arial Unicode MS is available, then it is preferred (see below). In this case, Go Noto Current is not used.
In the Admin Portal, an individual font can also be defined as the default font for the "Converter" web service. If a font is specified there, then this will be used as the default font. If no font is defined there or an invalid font name is specified, then the previously described default font is used.
Symbol character sets
Under Linux, please be certain that the character sets Symbol, Wingdings and Webdings” which are commonly used under Windows are also installed. These fonts are often used in documents which have been created under Windows. If documents like these are converted under Linux and the fonts are not available, then no substitute can be found and the documents may contain gaps in the content.
The “Arial Unicode MS” font
The “Arial Unicode MS” font is considered the universal substitute font for missing fonts. The font covers the complete range of Unicode characters and also defines a number of graphical symbols (e.g. checkboxes). If this font is available on the server, then the probability is very high that most documents will be able to be converted and there will be no loss of information or display features in the converted document resulting from missing characters of a font.
If the font Arial Unicode MS is available, then you will see a corresponding message in the server log that the font is used as the default font.
Fonts under Linux
In Linux, install support for TrueType fonts (TTF) (in Debian Linux) and search for packages that provide TTF fonts for your distribution.
On Debian:
apt-get install fontconfig
On Linux it is recommended to install at least the fonts Liberation, DejaVu and OpenSymbol.
On Debian:
apt-get install fonts-liberation2 fonts-dejavu fonts-opensymbol
Most Linux distributions feature a package called msttcorefonts or other packages related to ttf."
In order to make some basic fonts from Windows available in Linux as well, you can use the corresponding package and instructions found at http://mscorefonts2.sourceforge.net/. In Debian, this package is available under the name msttcorefonts.
On Debian:
apt-cache search ttf
After installing fonts, make sure to rebuild the Linux distribution’s "font cache" and restart the webPDF server in order to enable the changes.
On Debian:
fc-cache -fv