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A
appianpram304724
April 28, 2026
Question

Question about Japanese text support in HTML To PDF Conversion plug-in

  • April 28, 2026
  • 6 replies
  • 0 views

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"/>

  • 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

  • Removed the <style> tag entirely to check whether CSS was the cause

My questions are:

  1. Does this plug-in support Japanese / CJK / Unicode characters when converting HTML to PDF?

  2. Is there any way to specify or embed a Japanese font for the PDF conversion?

  3. Does the plug-in support @font-face or base64-embedded fonts?

  4. Are there any recommended settings or workarounds for generating Japanese PDF files?

  5. 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.

[View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/19/Sample_5F00_PDF_5F00_20260428_2D00_231825.pdf:320:240]

6 replies

shubhama926776
shubhama926776
April 28, 2026

AFAIK, No native Appian plug-in fully supports Japanese/CJK PDF generation out of the box.

A
appianpram304724Author
April 29, 2026

Hello,

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:

  1. Are there any Appian plug-ins that can generate PDF files containing Japanese text correctly?

  2. Is there a recommended approach in Appian for generating PDFs with Japanese/CJK content?

  3. Would a PDF form template approach, such as filling fields in an existing PDF template, work better for Japanese text?

  4. Would a DOCX/Word template approach be more suitable for Japanese PDF generation in Appian?

  5. Are there any known best practices for generating and storing Japanese PDF documents in Appian?

  6. 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.

varuntejg243705
varuntejg243705
April 29, 2026

Hey [mention:4f06b51c18b94943a933e64aa19eb2a5:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] ,

I have few suggestions, that could help you choose best possible solution.


1) DOCX (Word) template → PDF (Best approach)

I would strongly recommend this approach as docx handles most fonts, but sometimes, its mostly related to type of font in Japanase text.

2) Custom iText-based plug-in (Best control, more effort)

A Custom plugin is needed to build, with iText Package using JAVA, that could be more efforts, but reliable and customized.

3) External PDF service (Most flexible, quickest to scale, but compromise privacy)

Compromise the privacy of the document and use the external PDF service like IlovePDF, smallPDF using APIs, but i dont recommend if its a private data, Please dont go for this, unless the content document contains, can be freely available in public

harshas2775
harshas2775
April 29, 2026
Is Convert DocX to PDF (Aspose) a good option for this use case?

Yes, this plugin can do this job well. Pass the japanese fonts to this and then configure. You will need license key to use this plugin though.

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