docker-wkhtmltopdf: font-family ignored

I’ve included your wkhtmltopdf binary into one of my Alpine 3.7 based images like this:

COPY --from=surnet/alpine-wkhtmltopdf:3.7-0.12.4-small /bin/wkhtmltopdf /bin/wkhtmltopdf

It works fine so far, except for one nasty issue: It seems to ignore any font-family settings in the generated PDF. Is this a known problem? If not, any idea what I’m doing wrong or what else I could try?

More background:

I’m migrating an older Debian based application with wkhtmltopdf 0.11 to an Alpine based image. The old app works just fine, whereas the new one fails to render the correct font. The relevant part of the CSS is:

font-family: serif;
font-size:      24pt;
font-weight:    bold;
line-height:    20pt;

As I understand it, wkhtmltopdf asks fontconfig to deliver a matching font file. So far I found out, that in the end the old app uses the n021004l.pfb font file. This is the font recommended by fontconfig. The font is also available under the new app and listed there under fc-list. So I used FC_DEBUG=1 to see what wkhtmltopdf asks for and what fontconfig sends back in return.

The output is listed below. The top block seems to be the “query part” (AKA what wkhtmltopdf asks for). And the lower block (Best score …) is, what fontconfig thinks is the best match for this query.

The weird thing is, that with 0.12.4 it always queries the same list of font families (family: “Helvetica”(s) “TeX Gyre Heros”(s) “Arial”(w)…) , no matter what I set in CSS. Whereas in the old app the query is much more in line with my CSS (family: “Times New Roman”(s) “Tinos”(s)…).

Any feedback is appreciated.

Fontconfig output from the old app

Match Pattern has 21 elts (size 32)                          ] 50%                                                      [810/1838]
        family: "Times New Roman"(s) "Tinos"(s) "Liberation Serif"(s) "Thorndale"(s) "Thorndale AMT"(s) "Tinos"(s) "Liberation Ser
if"(s) "Thorndale"(s) "Thorndale AMT"(s) "Times"(w) "TeX Gyre Termes"(w) "Nimbus Roman No9 L"(w) "TeX Gyre Termes"(w) "Nimbus Roma
n No9 L"(w) "DejaVu Serif"(w) "DejaVu LGC Serif"(w) "DejaVu LGC Serif"(w) "DejaVu Serif"(w) "DejaVu LGC Serif"(w) "Bitstream Vera 
Serif"(w) "DejaVu LGC Serif"(w) "DejaVu Serif"(w) "DejaVu Serif"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "Thorndale AMT"(w) "Luxi Serif"(w) "Nimbu
s Roman No9 L"(w) "Times"(w) "Artsounk"(w) "BPG UTF8 M"(w) "Kinnari"(w) "Norasi"(w) "Frank Ruehl"(w) "Dror"(w) "JG LaoTimes"(w) "S
aysettha Unicode"(w) "Pigiarniq"(w) "B Davat"(w) "B Compset"(w) "Kacst-Qr"(w) "Urdu Nastaliq Unicode"(w) "Raghindi"(w) "Mukti Narr
ow"(w) "padmaa"(w) "Hapax Berbère"(w) "MS Mincho"(w) "SimSun"(w) "PMingLiu"(w) "WenQuanYi Zen Hei"(w) "WenQuanYi Bitmap Song"(w) "
AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL New Sung"(w) "ZYSong18030"(w) "HanyiSong"(w) "MgOpen Canonica"(w) "Sazanami Mincho"(w) "IPAMonaMin
cho"(w) "IPAMincho"(w) "Kochi Mincho"(w) "AR PL SungtiL GB"(w) "AR PL Mingti2L Big5"(w) "AR PL Zenkai Uni"(w) "ＭＳ 明朝"(w) "ZYSo
ng18030"(w) "NanumMyeongjo"(w) "UnBatang"(w) "Baekmuk Batang"(w) "KacstQura"(w) "Frank Ruehl CLM"(w) "Lohit Bengali"(w) "Lohit Guj
arati"(w) "Lohit Hindi"(w) "Lohit Marathi"(w) "Lohit Maithili"(w) "Lohit Kashmiri"(w) "Lohit Konkani"(w) "Lohit Nepali"(w) "Lohit 
Sindhi"(w) "Lohit Punjabi"(w) "Lohit Tamil"(w) "Rachana"(w) "Lohit Malayalam"(w) "Lohit Kannada"(w) "Lohit Telugu"(w) "Lohit Oriya
"(w) "LKLUG"(w) "FreeSerif"(w) "Code2000"(w) "Code2001"(w) "DejaVu Serif"(w) "DejaVu LGC Serif"(w) "Bitstream Vera Serif"(w) "Deja
Vu Serif"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "Thorndale AMT"(w) "Luxi Serif"(w) "Nimbus Roman No9 L"(w) "Times"(w) "Artsounk"(w) "BPG UTF8 M"
(w) "Kinnari"(w) "Norasi"(w) "Frank Ruehl"(w) "Dror"(w) "JG LaoTimes"(w) "Saysettha Unicode"(w) "Pigiarniq"(w) "B Davat"(w) "B Com
pset"(w) "Kacst-Qr"(w) "Urdu Nastaliq Unicode"(w) "Raghindi"(w) "Mukti Narrow"(w) "padmaa"(w) "Hapax Berbère"(w) "MS Mincho"(w) "S
imSun"(w) "PMingLiu"(w) "WenQuanYi Zen Hei"(w) "WenQuanYi Bitmap Song"(w) "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL New Sung"(w) "ZYSong180
30"(w) "HanyiSong"(w) "MgOpen Canonica"(w) "Sazanami Mincho"(w) "IPAMonaMincho"(w) "IPAMincho"(w) "Kochi Mincho"(w) "AR PL SungtiL
 GB"(w) "AR PL Mingti2L Big5"(w) "AR PL Zenkai Uni"(w) "ＭＳ 明朝"(w) "ZYSong18030"(w) "NanumMyeongjo"(w) "UnBatang"(w) "Baekmuk B
atang"(w) "KacstQura"(w) "Frank Ruehl CLM"(w) "Lohit Bengali"(w) "Lohit Gujarati"(w) "Lohit Hindi"(w) "Lohit Marathi"(w) "Lohit Ma
ithili"(w) "Lohit Kashmiri"(w) "Lohit Konkani"(w) "Lohit Nepali"(w) "Lohit Sindhi"(w) "Lohit Punjabi"(w) "Lohit Tamil"(w) "Rachana
"(w) "Lohit Malayalam"(w) "Lohit Kannada"(w) "Lohit Telugu"(w) "Lohit Oriya"(w) "LKLUG"(w) "FreeSerif"(w) "Code2000"(w) "Code2001"
(w) "serif"(w) "Nazli"(w) "Lotoos"(w) "Mitra"(w) "Ferdosi"(w) "Badr"(w) "Zar"(w) "Nazli"(w) "Lotoos"(w) "Mitra"(w) "Ferdosi"(w) "B
adr"(w) "Zar"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "TeX Gyre Heros"(w) "Nimbus Sans
 L"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "Times"(w) "Times"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "A
rial"(w) "Arimo"(w) "Liberation Sans"(w) "Albany"(w) "Albany AMT"(w) "Times New Roman"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "Times"(w) "serif"(w) "se
rif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "
serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "DejaVu Sans"(w) "DejaVu LGC Sans"(w) "DejaVu LGC Sans"(w) "Bitst
ream Vera Sans"(w) "DejaVu Sans"(w) "Verdana"(w) "Arial"(w) "Albany AMT"(w) "Luxi Sans"(w) "Nimbus Sans L"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "Luci
da Sans Unicode"(w) "BPG Glaho International"(w) "Tahoma"(w) "Nachlieli"(w) "Lucida Sans Unicode"(w) "Yudit Unicode"(w) "Kerkis"(w
) "ArmNet Helvetica"(w) "Artsounk"(w) "BPG UTF8 M"(w) "Waree"(w) "Loma"(w) "Garuda"(w) "Umpush"(w) "Saysettha Unicode"(w) "JG Lao 
Old Arial"(w) "GF Zemen Unicode"(w) "Pigiarniq"(w) "B Davat"(w) "B Compset"(w) "Kacst-Qr"(w) "Urdu Nastaliq Unicode"(w) "Raghindi"
(w) "Mukti Narrow"(w) "padmaa"(w) "Hapax Berbère"(w) "MS Gothic"(w) "UmePlus P Gothic"(w) "SimSun"(w) "PMingLiu"(w) "WenQuanYi Zen
 Hei"(w) "WenQuanYi Bitmap Song"(w) "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL New Sung"(w) "MgOpen Moderna"(w) "MgOpen Modata"(w) "MgOpen C
osmetica"(w) "VL Gothic"(w) "IPAMonaGothic"(w) "IPAGothic"(w) "Sazanami Gothic"(w) "Kochi Gothic"(w) "AR PL KaitiM GB"(w) "AR PL K
aitiM Big5"(w) "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL SungtiL GB"(w) "AR PL Mingti2L Big5"(w) "ＭＳ ゴシック"(w) "ZYSong18030"(w) "Nanum
Gothic"(w) "UnDotum"(w) "Baekmuk Dotum"(w) "Baekmuk Gulim"(w) "KacstQura"(w) "Lohit Bengali"(w) "Lohit Gujarati"(w) "Lohit Hindi"(
w) "Lohit Marathi"(w) "Lohit Maithili"(w) "Lohit Kashmiri"(w) "Lohit Konkani"(w) "Lohit Nepali"(w) "Lohit Sindhi"(w) "Lohit Punjab
i"(w) "Lohit Tamil"(w) "Meera"(w) "Lohit Malayalam"(w) "Lohit Kannada"(w) "Lohit Telugu"(w) "Lohit Oriya"(w) "LKLUG"(w) "FreeSans"
(w) "Arial Unicode MS"(w) "Arial Unicode"(w) "Code2000"(w) "Code2001"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "Roya"(w) "Koodak"(w) "Terafik"(w) "sans-
serif"(w) "DejaVu Sans Mono"(w) "DejaVu LGC Sans Mono"(w) "DejaVu LGC Sans Mono"(w) "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono"(w) "DejaVu Sans Mon
o"(w) "Inconsolata"(w) "Andale Mono"(w) "Courier New"(w) "Cumberland AMT"(w) "Luxi Mono"(w) "Nimbus Mono L"(w) "Courier"(w) "Miria
m Mono"(w) "VL Gothic"(w) "IPAMonaGothic"(w) "IPAGothic"(w) "Sazanami Gothic"(w) "Kochi Gothic"(w) "AR PL KaitiM GB"(w) "MS Gothic
"(w) "UmePlus Gothic"(w) "NSimSun"(w) "MingLiu"(w) "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL New Sung Mono"(w) "HanyiSong"(w) "AR PL Sungti
L GB"(w) "AR PL Mingti2L Big5"(w) "ZYSong18030"(w) "NanumGothicCoding"(w) "NanumGothic"(w) "UnDotum"(w) "Baekmuk Dotum"(w) "Baekmu
k Gulim"(w) "TlwgTypo"(w) "TlwgTypist"(w) "TlwgTypewriter"(w) "TlwgMono"(w) "Hasida"(w) "Mitra Mono"(w) "GF Zemen Unicode"(w) "Hap
ax Berbère"(w) "Lohit Bengali"(w) "Lohit Gujarati"(w) "Lohit Hindi"(w) "Lohit Marathi"(w) "Lohit Maithili"(w) "Lohit Kashmiri"(w) 
"Lohit Konkani"(w) "Lohit Nepali"(w) "Lohit Sindhi"(w) "Lohit Punjabi"(w) "Lohit Tamil"(w) "Meera"(w) "Lohit Malayalam"(w) "Lohit 
Kannada"(w) "Lohit Telugu"(w) "Lohit Oriya"(w) "LKLUG"(w) "FreeMono"(w) "monospace"(w) "Terafik"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(
w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(
w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "serif"(w) "monospace"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "serif"(w)
        familylang: "en"(s) "en-us"(w)
        stylelang: "en"(s) "en-us"(w)
        fullnamelang: "en"(s) "en-us"(w)
        slant: 0(i)(s)
        weight: 200(i)(s)
        width: 100(i)(s)
        pixelsize: 32(f)(s)
        hintstyle: 3(i)(s)
        hinting: True(s)
        verticallayout: False(s)
        autohint: False(s)
        globaladvance: True(s)
        outline: True(s)
        lang: "en"(w) "en"(w)
        fontversion: 2147483647(i)(s)
        embeddedbitmap: True(s)
        decorative: False(s)
        lcdfilter: 1(i)(w) 1(i)(w)
        namelang: "en"(s)
        prgname: "wkhtmltopdf-amd64"(s)

Best score 0 0 0 0 0 0 1001 0 1 12 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 2.14748e+12
Pattern has 17 elts (size 17)
        family: "Nimbus Roman No9 L"(w)
        style: "Medium"(w)
        slant: 0(i)(w)
        weight: 200(i)(w)
        width: 100(i)(w)
        foundry: "urw"(w)
        file: "/usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/n021004l.pfb"(w)
        index: 0(i)(w)
        outline: True(w)
        scalable: True(w)
        charset: 
        0000: 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff 7fffffff 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
        0001: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 00040000 00000000 00000000 00000000
        0002: 0f000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 3f0002c0 00000000
        0003: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00100000 10000000 00000000 00000000
        0004: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 00000000 fffff000 ffffffff ffff199f 033fffff
        0020: 77180000 06010047 00000010 00000000 00000000 00001000 00000000 00000000
        0021: 00400000 00000004 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
        0022: 46260044 00000000 00000000 00000031 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
        0025: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000400 00000000
        00f6: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 000001f8 00000000
        00fb: 00000006 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
(w)
        lang: aa|ab|af|av|ay|ba|be|bg|bi|br|bs|bua|ca|ce|ch|chm|co|cs|cv|da|de|en|eo|es|et|eu|fi|fj|fo|fr|fur|fy|gd|gl|gv|ho|hr|hu
|ia|id|ie|ik|io|is|it|kaa|ki|kk|kl|kum|kv|ky|la|lb|lez|lt|lv|mg|mh|mk|mo|mt|nb|nds|nl|nn|no|nr|nso|ny|oc|om|os|pl|pt|rm|ro|ru|sah|
se|sel|sh|sk|sl|sma|smj|smn|so|sq|sr|ss|st|sv|sw|tg|tk|tl|tn|tr|ts|tt|tyv|uk|uz|vo|vot|wa|wen|wo|xh|yap|zu|an|crh|csb|fil|hsb|ht|j
v|kj|ku-tr|kwm|lg|li|mn-mn|ms|na|ng|pap-an|pap-aw|rn|rw|sc|sg|sn|su|za(w)
        fontversion: 0(i)(w)
        fontformat: "Type 1"(w)
        decorative: False(w)
        hash: "sha256:372b66a5816f2c31323ef4b56166a6d89356bda6cc6276fa41532fc2f970807d"(w)
        postscriptname: "NimbusRomNo9L-Medi"(w)

Fontconfig output from the new app

Match Pattern has 22 elts (size 32)                          ] 50%
        family: "Helvetica"(s) "TeX Gyre Heros"(s) "Arial"(w) "Arimo"(w) "Liberation Sans"(w) "Albany"(w) "Albany AMT"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "Bitstream Vera Sans"(w) "DejaVu Sans"(w) "Verdana"(w) "Arial"(w) "Albany AMT"(w) "Luxi Sans"(w) "Nimbus Sans L"(w) "Nimbus Sans"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "Lucida Sans Unicode"(w) "BPG Glaho International"(w) "Tahoma"(w) "Nachlieli"(w) "Lucida Sans Unicode"(w) "Yudit Unicode"(w) "Kerkis"(w) "ArmNet Helvetica"(w) "Artsounk"(w) "BPG UTF8 M"(w) "Waree"(w) "Loma"(w) "Garuda"(w) "Umpush"(w) "Saysettha Unicode"(w) "JG Lao Old Arial"(w) "GF Zemen Unicode"(w) "Pigiarniq"(w) "B Davat"(w) "B Compset"(w) "Kacst-Qr"(w) "Urdu Nastaliq Unicode"(w) "Raghindi"(w) "Mukti Narrow"(w) "malayalam"(w) "Sampige"(w) "padmaa"(w) "Hapax Berbère"(w) "MS Gothic"(w) "UmePlus P Gothic"(w) "Microsoft YaHei"(w) "Microsoft JhengHei"(w) "WenQuanYi Zen Hei"(w) "WenQuanYi Bitmap Song"(w) "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL New Sung"(w) "MgOpen Modata"(w) "VL Gothic"(w) "IPAMonaGothic"(w) "IPAGothic"(w) "Sazanami Gothic"(w) "Kochi Gothic"(w) "AR PL KaitiM GB"(w) "AR PL KaitiM Big5"(w) "AR PL ShanHeiSun Uni"(w) "AR PL SungtiL GB"(w) "AR PL Mingti2L Big5"(w) "ＭＳ ゴシック"(w) "ZYSong18030"(w) "TSCu_Paranar"(w) "NanumGothic"(w) "UnDotum"(w) "Baekmuk Dotum"(w) "Baekmuk Gulim"(w) "KacstQura"(w) "Lohit Bengali"(w) "Lohit Gujarati"(w) "Lohit Hindi"(w) "Lohit Marathi"(w) "Lohit Maithili"(w) "Lohit Kashmiri"(w) "Lohit Konkani"(w) "Lohit Nepali"(w) "Lohit Sindhi"(w) "Lohit Punjabi"(w) "Lohit Tamil"(w) "Meera"(w) "Lohit Malayalam"(w) "Lohit Kannada"(w) "Lohit Telugu"(w) "Lohit Oriya"(w) "LKLUG"(w) "FreeSans"(w) "Arial Unicode MS"(w) "Arial Unicode"(w) "Code2000"(w) "Code2001"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "Roya"(w) "Koodak"(w) "Terafik"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "sans-serif"(w) "Helvetica"(w) "Helvetica"(w)
        familylang: "en"(s) "en-us"(w)
        stylelang: "en"(s) "en-us"(w)
        fullnamelang: "en"(s) "en-us"(w)
        slant: 0(i)(s)
        weight: 200(i)(s)
        width: 100(i)(s)
        size: 30.72(f)(s)
        pixelsize: 32(f)(s)
        hintstyle: 1(i)(w)
        hinting: True(s)
        verticallayout: False(s)
        autohint: False(s)
        globaladvance: True(s)
        outline: True(s)
        lang: "en"(w)
        fontversion: 2147483647(i)(s)
        embeddedbitmap: True(s)
        decorative: False(s)
        namelang: "en"(s)
        prgname: "wkhtmltopdf"(s)
        symbol: False(s)

Best score 0 0 0 0 0 0 1000 0 0 14 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2.14748e+12
Pattern has 19 elts (size 19)
        family: "Nimbus Sans L"(w)
        style: "Bold"(w)
        stylelang: "en"(w) "en"(w)
        slant: 0(i)(w)
        weight: 200(i)(w)
        width: 100(i)(w)
        foundry: "urw"(w)
        file: "/usr/share/fonts/Type1/n019004l.pfb"(w)
        index: 0(i)(w)
        outline: True(w)
        scalable: True(w)
        charset: 
        0000: 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff 7fffffff 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff
        0001: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 00040000 00000000 00000000 00000000
        0002: 0f000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 3f0002c0 00000000
        0003: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00100000 10000000 00000000 00000000
        0004: ffffffff ffffffff ffffffff 00000000 fffff000 ffffffff ffff199f 033fffff
        0020: 77180000 06010047 00000010 00000000 00000000 00001000 00000000 00000000
        0021: 00000000 00000004 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
        0022: 06260044 00000000 00000000 00000031 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
        0025: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000400 00000000
        00f6: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000008 00000000
        00fb: 00000006 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
(w)
        lang: aa|ab|af|av|ay|ba|be|bg|bi|br|bs|bua|ca|ce|ch|chm|co|cs|cv|da|de|en|eo|es|et|eu|fi|fj|fo|fr|fur|fy|gd|gl|gv|ho|hr|hu|ia|id|ie|ik|io|is|it|kaa|ki|kk|kl|kum|kv|ky|la|lb|lez|lt|lv|mg|mh|mk|mo|mt|nb|nds|nl|nn|no|nr|nso|ny|oc|om|os|pl|pt|rm|ro|ru|sah|se|sel|sh|sk|sl|sma|smj|smn|so|sq|sr|ss|st|sv|sw|tg|tk|tl|tn|tr|ts|tt|tyv|uk|uz|vo|vot|wa|wen|wo|xh|yap|zu|an|crh|csb|fil|hsb|ht|jv|kj|ku-tr|kwm|lg|li|mn-mn|ms|na|ng|pap-an|pap-aw|rn|rw|sc|sg|sn|su|za(w)
        fontversion: 0(i)(w)
        fontformat: "Type 1"(w)
        decorative: False(w)
        postscriptname: "NimbusSanL-Bold"(w)
        color: False(w)
        symbol: False(w)