PDF: fonts and unicode support

PDF generation -specially if the intended users are from all around the world- can sometimes be tricky.

We use the dompdf library which, essentially, turns any html-css3 formatted page into a decent pdf, with some limitations.

So our pdf generator has to "map" somehow the font-families defined in our html-css3 to font files that can be used to generate a pdf. Also, these fonts need to be unicode friendly for those of you who use non-latin character set.

After lots and lots (and I mean it) of trial and error, we've finally equipped siwapp with the dejavu fonts, and liberation because they are free and unicode.

Here you have the doc that we have written on all topics related to pdf, fonts and unicode

• The default set of fonts siwapp brings under its arm, and how to access them via css font-family attributes.
• Add custom pdf fonts the hard way. Do you have any particular ttf font you want to use? Do you feel courageous? This is your page!
• Adding unicode support for legacy siwapp If you happen to have an old version of siwapp (therefore, an old version of dompdf too), take a look at this.