Incorrect font displayed in report on SSRS (Reporting Services) client computer browser

Question

Hi,

The issue is related to SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services).

I would like to resolve an issue where the client's computer is not displaying the correct font. I understand that one of the reasons is that there is no custom font installed in the operating system, but I would like to work out a solution where each user (client) does not have to install a custom font on their computer, but it will import itself.

As I wrote above, after installing the font in the system, the report displays the correct font in the browser.

Please suggest a solution to avoid such situations.

font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif;

Greetings

Dawid Hetmanczyk

Answer 1

Try to choose a font that's universally available across most platforms. This way, even if the client doesn't have your specific custom font, they will still see the text as intended.

If the visual appearance is essential and you must use the custom font, you could convert the text that uses the custom font into an image using the correct font on the server-side. Then, include the image in the report. This guarantees that everyone sees the text exactly as intended. However, this approach can increase the report's loading time and may cause accessibility issues for users who rely on screen readers.

If you're rendering the SSRS report in a web application, you could consider using CSS to embed the font, assuming that it's legal to do so with the font in question :

   @font-face {

     font-family: 'Montserrat';

     src: url('Montserrat-Regular.ttf') format('truetype');

   }

This code tells the browser to download the font file and use it for any text that's styled with font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif;. This solution requires that you have the ability to modify the web application that's displaying the report.

If the reports are being exported to PDF, you may have the option to embed the font into the PDF itself. This ensures that anyone viewing the PDF will see the text in the intended font, whether or not they have that font installed on their computer.

If none of the above solutions are feasible, you could provide instructions for users who need to view the report in the specific font, explaining how they can download and install it.