Custom Font Issues

[Matt Olson]

I am making a custom deign application for the web at Viva Concepts. I have everything working great on this now, but the custom fonts. Specifically, there are 4 signature fonts that the person can pick from (Google Fonts: Stalemate, Mr De Haviland, Mrs Saint Delafield and Herr Con Muellerhoff). 

I have tried this with html2pdf, which uses TCPDF as it's backend and I get a "TCPDF ERROR: Could not include font definition file: 'stalemate'" (see the post on stack overflow). When I set this font as default, it works fine, but all the text is now Stalemate instead of just one sentence. This is a differnt PDF library, so then I moved over to DOMPDF, which I already use throughout the site. 

I made a sample html page that has the html code I want to make into a pdf and then have a separate page that runs the pdf converter code. Here is the link to those pages:

Sample Page

PDF Converter Page

When I use DOMPDF the font 'stalemate' does not show up. It does not seem to error out and produces a PDF, but it makes the text invisible. I can copy the text from the pdf that is made and paste it into a text document, so the text is there, just not showing up.

In making the fonts I have used all 3 ways of making the font files, not of which made a difference. Though with php-font-lib this should handle it automatically now. I can see that the fonts are made and added to the dompdf_font_family_cache file as well, but still no luck.

I have been checking through forums and banging my head to figure this out for weeks now, with no luck.

The following is the php code that I have in the PDF Converter Page:

<?php

require_once 'dompdf/dompdf_config.inc.php';

$url = 'http://mattodesigns.com/PDFs/sample.html';

$source = file_get_contents($url);
$html   = str_replace(array("\r", "\n", "\t"), '', $source);

$dompdf = new DOMPDF();
$dompdf->set_paper('viva insert');
$dompdf->load_html($html);
$dompdf->render();
$pdf = $dompdf->output();
$dompdf->stream("first_PDF_file.pdf", array("Attachment" => false));

?>

Really need some help on this to sort it out.

[BrianS]

Are you running with the latest version of dompdf? I was able to convert the document you posted without issue.

When I view the document in Firefox I see text, just not what's expected. In Adobe Reader I see nothing, but as you say the text is there.

A couple of suggestions, though I don't know if any will help:

1. Remove the line with the str_replace() from your code ... shouldn't need it.
2. In your HTML you shouldn't need to @font-face declaration since you're already getting it from Google. Try taking that out.
3. If you want to use a local copy of the font file remember that path references depend on how you load the document into dompdf. I'd load the file directly, e.g. $dompdf->load_html_file('http://mattodesigns.com/PDFs/sample.html');.
4. Reset your fonts, you could have a corrupt font or font metrics file. Easiest path for this is to delete the files in dompdf/lib/fonts and replace with fresh copies. If you're comfortable editing you can remove the stalemate font files and metrics and edit the dompdf_font_family_cache file. Also remember to clear out the font cached (e.g. files in dompdf/lib/fonts that end in .ufm.php)
   

[Matt Olson]

Hey Brian, Thanks for the response.

I did the suggestions you stated and still no luck. It is converting it to a PDF, the fonts that have stalemate in the css just are not showing up, they are invisible to sight on the PDF, but the text is actually there. I just wasn't sure if I was doing something wrong or not. I can't tell what the version of dompdf I have, but I downloaded the latest version from github last week. In TCPDF I have the font working by using setfont(), but not sure if there is something I have to do like that with dompdf.

[BrianS]

dompdf relies solely on the CSS for setting the font (loading a font, as you know, can also be done through CSS or by using load_font.php). You are obviously setting the font correctly because dompdf is attempting to use the font. It's just not loading correctly. I don't have time right now to dissect the PDF, so a few more trouble-shooting ideas:

1. Have you tried with font subsetting disabled?
   
2. Can you open the font file saved to dompdf/lib/fonts (i.e. the stalemate TTF file) on your local computer? Perhaps the font itself is corrupted.
3. Have you tried a different custom font (such as from Google Fonts)?
4. Have you grabbed a fresh copy of dompdf from github and removed your current copy. There have been instances in the past of random file corruption with the dompdf files.

[Matt Olson]

Hey Brian, Thanks for you help. I tried enabling and disabling the subsetting, tried different custom fonts like Lato, Grabbed a fresh copy of the latest version of DOMPDF. Still no luck. I have updated the html page, which is not at mattodesigns.com/PDFs/insert-sample.html which more closely represents one of the items that I am using this for. Everything works perfect with positioning and such but the custom font itself. I did also try and load the same font locally on my comp and works great, no issues. mattodesigns.com/PDFs/dompdfconverter.php

I have also been trying out TCPDF and you can see the conversion of the same page here at mattodesigns.com/PDFs/insert-tcpdfconverter.php. You can see that it converts the font perfectly, but the styles are all whack. I would prefer to use DOMPDF as that is what I am using on the rest of the site at this point. I am willing to compensate for your time if this is something you think you can handle.

[BrianS]

I'm at a loss right now. Unless you can find some additional information on what's going wrong I'm not sure I can take you much further. Are you not getting any PHP errors or anything like that? If you enable debugging what does the dompdf log look like?