Hello,
I am currently evaluating the HTML To PDF Conversion plug-in for generating PDF documents in Appian.
The basic conversion flow works correctly:
I can pass an HTML file as the source document.
The Smart Service generates a PDF document.
The generated PDF can be saved in Appian.
However, I am having an issue with Japanese text.
The HTML file displays Japanese characters correctly when opened as HTML, but after converting it to PDF, the Japanese characters are rendered as #### in the PDF. English text and numbers are displayed correctly.
####
I have already tried the following, but the result did not change:
Added <meta charset="UTF-8"/>
<meta charset="UTF-8"/>
Specified Japanese fonts in CSS, such as:
Noto Sans CJK JP
Noto Sans JP
Meiryo
Yu Gothic
Arial Unicode MS
Specified Open Sans, which is used in the Appian UI
Open Sans
Removed the <style> tag entirely to check whether CSS was the cause
<style>
My questions are:
Does this plug-in support Japanese / CJK / Unicode characters when converting HTML to PDF?
Is there any way to specify or embed a Japanese font for the PDF conversion?
Does the plug-in support @font-face or base64-embedded fonts?
@font-face
Are there any recommended settings or workarounds for generating Japanese PDF files?
If this plug-in does not support Japanese text, is there another recommended Appian plug-in or approach for generating PDFs with Japanese content?
Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.PDF
Discussion posts and replies are publicly visible
AFAIK, No native Appian plug-in fully supports Japanese/CJK PDF generation out of the box.
Thank you for your previous response.
I would like to ask a follow-up question about possible alternatives to the HTML To PDF Conversion plug-in.
Our requirement is to generate PDF documents in Appian that contain Japanese text, and then store the generated PDF files as Appian Documents.
The expected flow is something like this:
A user enters or confirms business data in an Appian interface.
At a certain business timing, such as submission, approval, or completion, Appian automatically generates a PDF document based on that data.
The generated PDF should contain Japanese labels and Japanese input values.
The PDF should be saved in Appian as a Document.
The saved PDF should be linked to the related business record so that users can view or download it later.
We tested the HTML To PDF Conversion plug-in, and the basic process worked:
HTML file input
PDF generation
PDF storage in Appian
However, Japanese characters were rendered as #### in the generated PDF, even though the source HTML displayed Japanese text correctly.
Since it seems that this plug-in may not fully support Japanese/CJK PDF generation, I would like to ask:
Are there any Appian plug-ins that can generate PDF files containing Japanese text correctly?
Is there a recommended approach in Appian for generating PDFs with Japanese/CJK content?
Would a PDF form template approach, such as filling fields in an existing PDF template, work better for Japanese text?
Would a DOCX/Word template approach be more suitable for Japanese PDF generation in Appian?
Are there any known best practices for generating and storing Japanese PDF documents in Appian?
If Appian plug-ins are not suitable for this, is using an external PDF generation service/API the recommended approach?
Our use case is not simply browser printing. We need server-side or process-driven PDF generation and storage in Appian.
Any suggestions or examples would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.