Symbols not converted into PDF
Asked by Marie:

Hello,

We need to use Symbols in our documents. Unfortunately, when we convert the documents into PDF, the symbols are removed and are missing from the PDF. Is there a way to keep them? I looked into the PDF settings but I didn't find anything that seems appropriate. Could you please let me know what we can?

We are using the cloud-based version of Confluence.


Answers:
author: Shannon S
body: Marie,

Welcome to Community! It's nice to meet you.

1. Can you help me to understand what kind of symbols you need to include in your PDF?
2. Have you installed a custom font to use with PDF exports?
3. Do you have any customizations applied for PDF exports?

Thank you for your help!

Regards,

Shannon

comments: author: Marie
body: Hi Shannon,

We currently use the symbol for micro as featured in this snippet of our page in Confluence:

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54972i3B6B9B375BB24B74/image-dimensions/204x110?v=v2 "image.png")

Once we convert to PDF, the symbol micro disappears.

![image.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/54973i063C6367E27917BF/image-dimensions/267x118?v=v2 "image.png")

To my knowledge, we don't have any customization font applied to PDF export. How can we ensure PDF converts also the symbol?

Thank you for your guidance,

marie


author: Shannon S
body: Marie,

Thank you for sharing that with me.

I believe the reason for it omitting the symbol is because it's not included in the default PDF export language.

From the following article: [Create a PDF in Another Language](https://confluence.atlassian.com/doc/create-a-pdf-in-another-language-175473.html)

*
  > The only font files supported are *true type fonts* and *true type collections*. The accepted file extensions are \*.ttf and \*.ttc.
*
  > Confluence can only store **one** font file at any one time. Please [create a collection](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-create-ttc-family-font-file-773981523.html) to install more than one \*.ttf files.
*
  > We recommend that you use Unicode font Verdana for correct character encoding and exporting to PDF.
*
  > For symbols, if the other fonts do not work, try Seguisym

I'm sharing the Server version of this article, because the Cloud article doesn't mention the issue with the symbols. The Cloud version can be found here:

* [How to Export PDF from Confluence in Another Language](https://confluence.atlassian.com/confkb/how-to-export-pdf-from-confluence-cloud-in-another-language-779166013.html)

You'll want to [contact Cloud Support](https://support.atlassian.com/contact) directly and then provide them with a PDF font you will want to use to export your documents. You can try this with the fonts Verdana or Seguisym as mentioned above.

Be advised you will need to supply the .ttf or .ttc directly to Support, as a link to download the font will not be accepted for security reasons and to ensure the font is licensed.

Once they install the font for you, you can attempt to export the page, and if the symbols are not included still, you might need to try with another.

There's also a feature request for users to be able to upload their own fonts below:

* [CONFCLOUD-30954](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-30954) *Allow Cloud customers to upload their own fonts to Confluence for PDF exports*

I hope that's all clear, but do let me know if you have any issues!

Regards,

Shannon


Tags: cloud

confluence-cloud