DocumentationExperience Cloud KCS

Images and Chinese fonts missing in PDFs generated by Adobe Experience Manager

Last update: October 5, 2026

In Adobe Experience Manager, PDFs generated from rich text fields don’t display embedded images or Chinese characters correctly. Images are missing, while Chinese characters appear as blank spaces or unreadable symbols. To fix this issue, correct inaccessible image references and make the required fonts available to the PDF generation environment.

Description description

Environment

Adobe Experience Manager (AEM)

Issue/Symptoms

  • Images embedded in the source content don’t appear in the generated PDF.
  • Chinese characters are displayed as blank spaces or unreadable symbols in the PDF.
  • Images and Chinese characters are missing from the PDF output generated from a rich text field in Adobe Experience Manager.

Resolution resolution

Follow the steps below to resolve the issue.

  1. Verify font installation:

    1. Ensure that the required Chinese fonts are installed on every application server hosting Adobe Experience Manager or the PDF generation engine.
    2. Confirm that the fonts are located in the configured font directory and have the correct permissions for the PDF generation process to access them.
    3. Make sure the font files contain the necessary Chinese glyphs.

  2. Reference fonts correctly in HTML/CSS:

    1. Use the @font-face rule in your HTML or CSS to declare the Chinese font and provide a valid, server-accessible URL to the font file.

    2. Example:

      code language-none 
      @font-face {
  font-family: "CustomCJK";
  src: url("https://example.com/fonts/custom-cjk.ttf") format("truetype");
}

body {
  font-family: "CustomCJK", sans-serif;
}

  3. Check image references:

    1. Ensure that image paths in the HTML or rich text field are correct and accessible by the PDF generator.
    2. Use absolute URLs or ensure that relative paths resolve correctly in the PDF generation environment.

  4. Generate the PDF using both the AEM Admin UI and direct API calls (if applicable) to determine whether the issue is specific to a particular method.

  5. Check server logs for any errors or warnings related to missing fonts or images during PDF generation.

  6. Confirm that the HTML input used for PDF generation properly references the fonts and images as described above.

After completing these steps, generate a PDF and verify that images and Chinese characters are displayed correctly.

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