SSRS Custom Fonts

Question

I have a really simple question.  To deploy a report with a custom/non-standard true type font (in my case a bar code) will I need to install the true type font locally on all machines which need to view/print said report OR is it enough to install the font on the server?

Answer 1

Hi mwnorris,

Firstly, you have to install the front on the server, to the client, when a font is embedded in the PDF file, the computer that is used to view the report (the client computer) does not need to have the font installed for the report to display correctly. When a font is not embedded in the PDF file, the client computer must have the correct font installed for the report to display correctly. If the font is not installed on the client computer, the PDF file displays a question mark character (?) for unsupported characters.

Fonts are embedded in the PDF file when the following conditions apply:

• Font embedding privileges are granted by the font author. Installed fonts include a property that indicates whether the font author intends to allow embedding a font in a document. If the property value is EMBED_NOEMBEDDING, the font is not embedded in the PDF file. For more information, see "TTGetEmbeddingType" on msdn.microsoft.com.

• The Font is TrueType.

• Fonts are referenced by visible items in a report. If a font is referenced by an item that has the Hidden property set to True, the font is not needed to display rendered data and will not be included in the file. Fonts are embedded only when they are needed to display the rendered report data.

If all of these conditions are met for a font, the font is embedded in the PDF file. If one or more of these conditions is not met, the font is not embedded in the PDF file.

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Challen Fu

TechNet Community Support

Answer 2

Hi, my company have developed a custom font. While at my BIDS I can see it working, deploying the .rdl to the Report Manager at the same machine using MSIE, renders that font to what Times New Romans may appear. Can someone help me please? Thanks.

Answer 3

Oh, rebooting the machine works, ha!