Custom Fonts in Certificates

This guide outlines prerequisites, implementation steps, and troubleshooting guidance for supporting customers who want to use custom fonts within certificate templates (DOCX → PDF generation).

Prerequisites & Licensing

Before proceeding with any implementation, verify the legal and licensing status:

• Option A: The font is open source or free to use commercially (e.g., SIL Open Font License / Apache License).

• Option B: The customer holds a valid commercial/server license allowing embedding and server-side rendering.

Steps for the Customer

1. Select Font & Character Support:

   • Choose a font that covers all required characters, special symbols, and target languages (e.g., Cyrillic, Arabic, CJK).

   • Ensure licensing is cleared.

2. Provide TrueType / OpenType Font Files:

   • Provide Scheer IMC with standard desktop font files: .ttf (TrueType) or .otf (OpenType).
     Note: Webfont formats such as .woff or .woff2 cannot be used.

   • Include all required font weights/styles (e.g., Regular, Bold, Italic, Bold-Italic).

3. Install Locally & Update Certificate Templates:

   • Install the font on the local workstation.

   • Apply the font to the DOCX certificate template in Microsoft Word.

   • Ensure the font name in Word matches the font's internal name exactly.

   • Upload the updated DOCX template to the LMS.

4. Coordinate Restart Window:
   Agree on a maintenance window for the server update and restart (expected downtime: ~5 minutes).

Steps for IMC Support & Operations

1. Review & Validation:

   • Verify license compliance or open-source license status.

   • Verify that the files provided are valid .ttf / .otf files and that required variants (Bold, Italic, etc.) are included.

2. Uploading fonts to the repository:
   Add the font files to the customer repository

3. Trigger Deployment & Restart

Suggested Fonts (Free / Open Source)

For customers looking for reliable, free-to-use fonts without commercial licensing constraints:

• Google Noto Sans / Noto Serif (SIL Open Font License):
  Best for global/multilingual setups. Comprehensive coverage of practically all scripts, including Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari, and CJK.

• Roboto / Open Sans / Lato (Apache / SIL Open Font License):
  Modern, clean sans-serif designs with extensive Latin and Cyrillic character sets.

Troubleshooting & Common Issues