---
title: Render non-English Characters in PDF Forms
product: PDF Generator
description: Use custom fonts in your PDF forms to correctly render special characters, such as punctuation marks and symbols, or change the form language to a non-Latin based language or script, e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean etc. Learn how to apply custom Base64-encoded .ttf fonts to your PDF form. A free demo for JavaScript.
framework: Vanilla JS
source: https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/examples/special-characters-in-pdf-form/vanillajs
index: https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/examples/overview.md
---

# Render non-English Characters in PDF Forms (Vanilla JS)

When you export your SurveyJS forms to PDF, you may notice that characters from non-English languages, such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Hebrew, or accented Latin letters appear as blank spaces, garbled text, or symbols. This happens because the [standard 14 PDF fonts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDF#Text) supported in the SurveyJS PDF Generator by default don't include glyphs for certain special characters used in non-Latin languages. To ensure all characters render correctly in your PDF, register a custom font that includes the required characters. This demo shows how to register the [Noto Sans Korean](https://fonts.google.com/noto/specimen/Noto+Sans+KR) font to generate a PDF form with Korean characters.

Call the `DocController.addFont(fontName, base64, fontStyle)` method to add a custom font to PDF Generator. This method accepts the following parameters:

- `fontName`: `string`\
A custom name that you will use to apply the custom font.
- `base64`: `string`\
The custom font as a Base64-encoded string. To encode your font to Base64, obtain it as a TTF file and use any TTF-to-Base64 online converter.
- `fontStyle`: `"normal"` | `"bold"` | `"italic"` | `"bolditalic"`\
The style of the custom font.

To apply a custom font to a PDF document, assign its name to the [`fontName`](https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/documentation/api-reference/idocoptions#fontName) property in the [`IDocOptions`](https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/documentation/api-reference/idocoptions) object.

## Files

### `public/index.html`

```html
<div style="display: flex;">
    <div id="surveyElement" style="flex: 1 1 0%; height: 100%; min-width: 0;"></div>
    <div id="pdf-preview" style="flex: 0.7 0.7 0%; display: none">
        <embed id="pdf-preview-frame" type="application/pdf" style="width:100%; height:100%;" />
    </div>
</div>
```

### `src/index.css`

```css
/* You can add your custom CSS here. */
```

### `src/index.js`

```js
import { Model } from "survey-core";
import "survey-js-ui";
import { SurveyPDF } from "survey-pdf";
import { DocController } from "survey-pdf";
import "survey-core/survey-core.min.css";
import "./index.css";
import { json } from "./json";

function createSurveyPdfModel (surveyModel) {
    if (fontIsLoading) {
        alert("Custom fonts are still loading. Please try again later.");
        return;
    }
    const options = {
        fontName: 'notoSansKorean',
    };
    const surveyPDF = new SurveyPDF(json, options);
    if (surveyModel) {
        surveyPDF.data = surveyModel.data;
        surveyPDF.locale = surveyModel.locale;
        
        
    }
    
    return surveyPDF;
}
function saveSurveyToPdf (filename, surveyModel) {
    const pdfDoc = createSurveyPdfModel(surveyModel);
    if (!pdfDoc) return;

    pdfDoc.save(filename);
}

const previewDiv = document.getElementById("pdf-preview");
const previewEmbed = document.getElementById("pdf-preview-frame");
let pdfBlobUrl;

function showPdfPreview(surveyModel) {
    if (!previewDiv || !previewEmbed) return;

    const pdfDoc = createSurveyPdfModel(surveyModel);
    if (!pdfDoc) return;

    pdfDoc.raw("blob").then((blob) => {
        if (pdfBlobUrl) {
            URL.revokeObjectURL(pdfBlobUrl);
        }
        pdfBlobUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
        previewEmbed.setAttribute("src", pdfBlobUrl);
        previewDiv.style.display = "block";
    });
}

function previewPdf(surveyModel) {
    if (!previewDiv) return;

    if (previewDiv.style.display !== "none") {
        previewDiv.style.display = "none";
        return;
    }

    showPdfPreview(surveyModel);
}

let fontIsLoading = true;
let serverHost = window.location.origin;
if (serverHost.indexOf("localhost") < 0 && serverHost.indexOf("surveyjs") < 0)
    serverHost = "https://surveyjs.io";
const fontUrl = serverHost + "/api/fontbase64_notosanskorean";
fetch(fontUrl)
    .then(response => {
        if (!response.ok) {
            throw new Error(`HTTP error: ${response.status}`);
        }
        return response.text();
    })
    .then(base64Font => {
        DocController.addFont("notoSansKorean", base64Font, "normal");
        DocController.addFont("notoSansKorean", base64Font, "bold");
        fontIsLoading = false;
    });

const survey = new Model(json);
survey.showCompleteButton = false;
survey.navigationButtonsLocation = "topBottom";
survey.addNavigationItem({
    id: "survey_save_as_file",
    title: "Download PDF",
    action: () => {
        saveSurveyToPdf("surveyResult.pdf", survey);
    }
});
survey.addNavigationItem({
    id: "survey_pdf_preview",
    title: "Preview PDF",
    visible: window.navigator.pdfViewerEnabled,
    action: () => {
        previewPdf(survey);
    }
});
survey.render(document.getElementById("surveyElement"));
```

### `src/json.js`

```js
export const json = {
  "elements": [
    {
      "type": "text",
      "name": "login",
      "title": "로그인",
      "defaultValue": "존 도우"
    },
    {
      "name": "password",
      "type": "text",
      "title": "비밀번호",
      "description": "8자 이상 입력해주세요",
      "inputType": "password",
      "isRequired": true,
      "autocomplete": "current-password",
      "validators": [
        {
          "type": "text",
          "minLength": 8,
          "text": "비밀번호는 8자 이상이어야 합니다."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
};
```

### `src/theme.js`

```js
export const themeJson = {};
```

### `package.json`

```json
{
  "dependencies": {
    "survey-core": "latest",
    "survey-js-ui": "latest",
    "survey-pdf": "latest"
  }
}
```

## Other Frameworks

- [Angular](https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/examples/special-characters-in-pdf-form/angular.md)
- [React](https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/examples/special-characters-in-pdf-form/reactjs.md)
- [Vue 3](https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/examples/special-characters-in-pdf-form/vue3js.md)
- [jQuery](https://surveyjs.io/pdf-generator/examples/special-characters-in-pdf-form/jquery.md)