# PDF Viewer Font Rendering Issues **URL:** \ **Category:** Ignition\ **Tags:** ignition81\ **Created:** [March 5, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349 "2026-03-05T18:19:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Porter\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Porter\_Ellis](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Porter_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 6:19pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/1 "2026-03-05T18:19:40Z")
I have explored other threads related to this issue but to no avail. The PDF Viewer behaves in such a way that certain fonts, if not recognized, will render as rectangles instead of characters. I have tried installing the fonts on the gateway, and on the client viewing the PDF. I have tried restarting the gateway and restarting the client after installing the fonts. I have tried installing a similar font with a different typing/family onto the gateway and restarting. Nothing has worked so far. Unfortunately, I must use the PDF Viewer to render PDFs I am loading from a database blob. Recreating the PDFs is not an option, leaving me with trying to force the gateway/Ignition server to recognize my fonts. After diving into the PDFs themselves I notice that most fonts are noted as ‘embedded’. I have seen other solutions post about embedding not being supported for report generation. Does this same rule apply to full PDFs being loaded from a blob on the database? What about PDF files being loaded directly from disk? ---
**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 6:27pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/2 "2026-03-05T18:27:56Z")
Related information > [@PDF Viewer not rendering less than / greater than correct in Arial Font](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-not-rendering-less-than-greater-than-correct-in-arial-font/112620): > > Having an issue I believe is similar to this [Font rendering issue with PDF viewer - #6 by flavien](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/font-rendering-issue-with-pdf-viewer/40399/6) But my issue is that I am using the Arial font everywhere which I at least think is a normal font that sholud be render-able but I am having some issues. Printing to printer, or printing to PDF, or saving the bytes from the db directly to my comptuer and opening in my local computers pdf viewer (adobe/chrome) - these all look correct. Opening it in PDF Viewer (A script grabs the bytes from the db… My solution was to just change the font on the reports to something else that did render. I hope that’s feasible for you. ---
**Author:** ![Porter\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Porter\_Ellis](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Porter_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 6:36pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/3 "2026-03-05T18:36:23Z")
I cannot rebuild the PDFs with different fonts because I have many PDFs. I would prefer to understand how the PDF Viewer functions so I can use the fonts I want, rather than changing the font. ---
**Author:** ![pturmel](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/pturmel/32/3295_2.png) [@pturmel](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/pturmel)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 6:41pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/4 "2026-03-05T18:41:23Z")
Have you opened a support ticket? This will probably become a feature request, but only IA will be able to look under the hood at how this works. ---
**Author:** ![Porter\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Porter\_Ellis](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Porter_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 6:50pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/5 "2026-03-05T18:50:23Z")
I will open a ticket and report back. I have a feeling I’ll just end up frankensteining a Swing PDF viewer together. ---
**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 6:53pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/6 "2026-03-05T18:53:00Z")
Buy the web dev module (cheapest one), write the pdf to file, display the file in the web browser component that’s available with the web dev module. Probably cheaper to buy the web dev module than time wise to frankenstein your own swing pdf viewer. Upgrading to 8.3 also gets your the web browser component. Unfortunately I never got a better way. I did just shell out and open the pdf from file in Adobe before as well in another project. ---
**Author:** ![Porter\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Porter\_Ellis](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/Porter_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/7 "2026-03-05T19:05:14Z")
I’m already an hour deep in my own PDF viewer and almost done. At this point, I am more curious about the workings of the PDF Viewer Component than anything. I have also opened PDFs using the system default viewer, but the customer does not want this. ---
**Author:** ![bkarabinchak.psi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/inductiveautomation/user_avatar/forum.inductiveautomation.com/bkarabinchak.psi/32/83567_2.png) [@bkarabinchak.psi](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/u/bkarabinchak.psi)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2026, 7:07pm UTC](https://forum.inductiveautomation.com/t/pdf-viewer-font-rendering-issues/114349/8 "2026-03-05T19:07:39Z")
You should consider publishing it. Search the forum and you’ll see this problem has been around for a decade +.