mPDF Manual – Fonts & Languages

Font substitution 5.x

(mPDF ≥ 5.0)

If a font or default font is declared in mPDF (including the default stylesheet, and any CSS stylesheets etc.) the font that is actually set is determined by:

Standard use

If called in HTML/CSS the font-family name is converted to an mPDF font-family name (see Font names in 5.x) e.g.

...FIXME

The font requested (including style) is checked to see if it is available to mPDF: set by the array $available_unifonts:

  1. If the font[style] exists - selected e.g. trebuchetms['B']
  2. If the font[nostyle] exists - selected e.g. trebuchetms['R']
  3. Looks up the font-family in the three arrays sans_fonts, serif_fonts, and mono_fonts defined in mpdf_config.php , in this case looking for ‘trebuchetms’. If found, substitutes a font of similar type (sans-serif, serif, or mono) - the first font in the sans_fonts, serif_fonts, or mono_fonts arrays is used.
  4. If no font has yet been selected, the first font in the array $available_unifonts* is selected

* The array $available_unifonts is initially derived from $this->fontdata in the config_fonts.php file. (trebuchetms['B'] will be converted to ‘trebuchetmsB' The array can be altered when certain languages are defined e.g. when using lang markup in the HTML code:

If ‘ar’ (arabic) is set as the language, the default settings in config_cp.php define a restricted set of fonts which can be selected. In the example case, mPDF will look for trebuchetmsB and if not available, trebuchetms

Core fonts

If core fonts only are specified by using $mpdf = new \Mpdf\Mpdf('c'), then all font requests will be substituted by Arial/Helvetica, Times or Courier i.e. the core PDF fonts. mPDF determines whether the requested font is a sans-serif, serif or monospace font (as above), and substitutes accordingly. 

Character (font) substitution

If some circumstances, individual characters are replaced by glyphs from another font - see character (font) substitution.

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