ClickHelp User Manual

Handling Fonts for Printed Output

In this article, you will learn how ClickHelp handles custom fonts for your printed documentation during export. You need to follow a couple of simple rules to make your user manuals look right in PDF and MS Word formats.

Fonts in PDF Output

Here are a couple of things you should bear in mind when choosing fonts for your PDF documentation output:

  • The system will use only the first font name if you specify multiple font names in the font-family property. All fallback fonts will be ignored.
  • If the font is a common True Type (.TTF) font installed on our server, it will be embedded into the PDF document. This means that every reader will be able to see the custom font in the PDF document regardless of whether the font is present in the reader's system or not.
  • If the font is one of the Open Type fonts installed on our server that use True Type and Compact Font Format glyph outlines (.TTF, .OTF), it will be loaded and used to export the document to PDF. However, loaded fonts won't be embedded into the PDF document. This means that the readers will see this font in the document only if they have it installed in their system. 
  • If the font is any other Open Type font or an uncommon True Type font not installed on our server, the Sans Serif font will be used instead.
Tip
If you need to use a custom font that is not supported in PDF output, you may try the following:
  1. Export your manual to Microsoft Word.
  2. Ensure you have the font installed in your system (it should appear in MS Word fonts dropdown in this case).
  3. Open the Word file and save it as a PDF from Microsoft Word.

Fonts in Microsoft Word Output

As far as DOC and DOCX formats are concerned, the rules that apply to fonts in Microsoft Word outputs are the following:

  • The system will use only the first font name if multiple font names are specified in the font-family property for a style. All fallback fonts are ignored.
  • Only font names, not the fonts themselves, are saved in Word files (DOC or DOCX). So, the reader must install the font into their system to see the custom font. Therefore, we recommend that you avoid using uncommon fonts for Word output instead of popular fonts like Arial or Calibri