Custom Fonts

Forme includes three standard PDF font families by default: Helvetica, Times, and Courier (each with regular, bold, italic, and bold italic variants), plus Noto Sans (regular and bold) as a builtin Unicode fallback for non-Latin scripts. For any other typeface, register a TrueType (.ttf) font file. Registered fonts are automatically subsetted — only glyphs used in the document are embedded, keeping file sizes small.

Font.register()

import { Font } from '@formepdf/react';

Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  src: './fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf',
});

Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  src: './fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf',
  fontWeight: 'bold',
});

Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  src: './fonts/Inter-Italic.ttf',
  fontStyle: 'italic',
});

Then use the font by name in any style:

<Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontSize: 14 }}>
  Regular text in Inter
</Text>
<Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontSize: 14, fontWeight: 'bold' }}>
  Bold text in Inter
</Text>

Options

Option	Type	Default	Description
`family`	`string`	(required)	Font family name to reference in `fontFamily` style
`src`	`string \| Uint8Array`	(required)	Font source: file path, base64 data URI, or raw bytes
`fontWeight`	`number \| "normal" \| "bold"`	`400`	Font weight. `"normal"` = 400, `"bold"` = 700.
`fontStyle`	`"normal" \| "italic" \| "oblique"`	`"normal"`	Font style variant

Font.clear()

Remove all globally registered fonts. Useful in tests.

Font.clear();

Multiple weights in one call

You can register multiple weights for the same family using the fonts array syntax:

Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  fonts: [
    { src: './fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf', fontWeight: 400 },
    { src: './fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf', fontWeight: 700 },
    { src: './fonts/Inter-Italic.ttf', fontWeight: 400, fontStyle: 'italic' },
  ],
});

Google Fonts

You can register fonts directly from a URL. Google Fonts .woff2 URLs work:

import { Font, Document, Page, Text } from '@formepdf/react';

Font.register({
  family: 'Inter',
  fonts: [
    { src: 'https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/inter/v13/UcCO3FwrK3iLTeHuS_fvQtMwCp50KnMw2boKoduKmMEVuLyfAZ9hiA.woff2', fontWeight: 400 },
    { src: 'https://fonts.gstatic.com/s/inter/v13/UcCO3FwrK3iLTeHuS_fvQtMwCp50KnMw2boKoduKmMEVuI6fAZ9hiA.woff2', fontWeight: 700 },
  ],
});

export default function Doc(data) {
  return (
    <Document>
      <Page>
        <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontWeight: 700, fontSize: 24 }}>Bold heading</Text>
        <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontSize: 12 }}>Regular body text</Text>
      </Page>
    </Document>
  );
}

To find the direct .woff2 URL for a Google Font, open https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@400;700 in your browser and copy the url() value from the CSS.

Font fallback chains

Specify multiple font families separated by commas. Forme tries each family in order per character, so mixed-script text (e.g., English + Arabic) works automatically:

<Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter, Noto Sans' }}>
  English text and عربي in the same paragraph
</Text>

If a character isn’t covered by Inter, Forme tries Noto Sans. If no font in the chain covers the character, the builtin Noto Sans is used as a final fallback.

Document fonts prop

<Document fonts={[
  { family: 'Roboto', src: './fonts/Roboto-Regular.ttf' },
  { family: 'Roboto', src: './fonts/Roboto-Bold.ttf', fontWeight: 'bold' },
  { family: 'Roboto', src: './fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf', fontStyle: 'italic' },
]}>
  <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Roboto' }}>Hello in Roboto</Text>
</Document>

Document fonts and global fonts are merged. If both register the same family + weight + style combination, the document font wins.

Font sources

The src option accepts three formats:

Format	Example	When to use
File path	`'./fonts/Inter.ttf'`	Local development, CLI dev server
Data URI	`'data:font/ttf;base64,AAAA...'`	Pre-encoded fonts, bundled assets
`Uint8Array`	`new Uint8Array(buffer)`	Fonts loaded from a database or API

File paths are resolved relative to the template file in the CLI dev server (forme dev), or relative to the working directory in renderDocument().

Standard fonts

The 14 built-in standard fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier) are not embedded in the output PDF — viewers substitute metrically-identical system fonts. That’s fine for everyday documents, but PDF/UA and PDF/A require every font to be embedded: to use standard-font styling in compliance modes, register @formepdf/fonts-standard — metric-compatible TrueType replacements, so layout is identical. See Standard fonts for PDF/UA and PDF/A below.

These fonts are always available without registration:

Family	Weights	Styles	Notes
`Helvetica`	400, 700	normal, italic	Default font
`Times`	400, 700	normal, italic
`Courier`	400, 700	normal, italic
`Noto Sans`	400, 700	normal	Builtin Unicode fallback

Automatic fallback: When a character is not covered by your chosen font (e.g., Cyrillic or Greek text with Helvetica), Forme automatically falls back to Noto Sans. This means non-Latin text works out of the box without registering any fonts. If a fontFamily is not found, Forme falls back to Helvetica.

Example: Multiple weights

import { Font, Document, Page, View, Text } from '@formepdf/react';
import { renderDocument } from '@formepdf/core';

Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf' });
Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-Medium.ttf', fontWeight: 500 });
Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-SemiBold.ttf', fontWeight: 600 });
Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf', fontWeight: 700 });

const pdf = await renderDocument(
  <Document>
    <Page size="A4" margin={54}>
      <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontWeight: 400 }}>Regular (400)</Text>
      <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontWeight: 500 }}>Medium (500)</Text>
      <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontWeight: 600 }}>SemiBold (600)</Text>
      <Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter', fontWeight: 700 }}>Bold (700)</Text>
    </Page>
  </Document>
);

Troubleshooting

Text renders in Helvetica instead of my custom font

The fontFamily in your style must exactly match the family you passed to Font.register(). Font names are case-sensitive.

// Registration
Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf' });

// ✅ Correct
<Text style={{ fontFamily: 'Inter' }}>Works</Text>

// ❌ Wrong — case mismatch
<Text style={{ fontFamily: 'inter' }}>Falls back to Helvetica</Text>

Bold or italic text falls back to Helvetica

You need to register each weight and style variant separately. If you register only the regular weight and use fontWeight: 700, Forme will look for a bold variant, not find one, and fall back.

// Only regular registered — bold will fall back
Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-Regular.ttf' });

// Fix: register the bold variant too
Font.register({ family: 'Inter', src: './fonts/Inter-Bold.ttf', fontWeight: 700 });

Non-Latin characters show as boxes or question marks

The font you’re using doesn’t cover those characters. Either:

Register a font that covers them (e.g., Noto Sans for broad Unicode support)
Use a font fallback chain: fontFamily: 'Inter, Noto Sans'
Do nothing — Forme’s builtin Noto Sans provides automatic fallback for most scripts

Standard fonts for PDF/UA and PDF/A

Accessible (PDF/UA) and archival (PDF/A) PDFs require every font embedded. The 14 standard PDF fonts (Helvetica, Times, Courier) are not embedded — viewers substitute them — so a document that relies on them cannot conform, and it also renders differently across machines. @formepdf/fonts-standard provides the Liberation family (Sans/Serif/Mono), which is metric-compatible with Helvetica/Times/Courier. Register it and enable pdfUa, and Forme embeds Liberation in place of the standard fonts — with the standard fonts’ own metrics, so layout does not change:

import { Font } from '@formepdf/react';
import { standardFonts } from '@formepdf/fonts-standard';

for (const font of standardFonts()) Font.register(font);

// Render with { pdfUa: true } — Helvetica/Times/Courier embed as
// Liberation Sans/Serif/Mono; the document is byte-for-byte the same layout.

If pdfUa is set and a standard font is used but the package isn’t registered, Forme still emits the PDF but warns by name with the remedy — it never silently ships a non-conforming file. The fonts are redistributed unmodified under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Getting Started

Reference

API Reference

Concepts

Enterprise

SDKs

Guides

Changelog

Custom Fonts

Font.register()

Options

Font.clear()

Multiple weights in one call

Google Fonts

Font fallback chains

Document fonts prop

Font sources

Standard fonts

Example: Multiple weights

Troubleshooting

Text renders in Helvetica instead of my custom font

Bold or italic text falls back to Helvetica

Non-Latin characters show as boxes or question marks

Standard fonts for PDF/UA and PDF/A

​Font.register()

​Options

​Font.clear()

​Multiple weights in one call

​Google Fonts

​Font fallback chains

​Document fonts prop

​Font sources

​Standard fonts

​Example: Multiple weights

​Troubleshooting

​Text renders in Helvetica instead of my custom font

​Bold or italic text falls back to Helvetica

​Non-Latin characters show as boxes or question marks

​Standard fonts for PDF/UA and PDF/A

Font.register()

Options

Font.clear()

Multiple weights in one call

Google Fonts

Font fallback chains

Document fonts prop

Font sources

Standard fonts

Example: Multiple weights

Troubleshooting

Text renders in Helvetica instead of my custom font

Bold or italic text falls back to Helvetica

Non-Latin characters show as boxes or question marks

Standard fonts for PDF/UA and PDF/A