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Unable to integrate custom fonts and bold text when inserting text into PDFs using PyMuPDF #4823

@jahnvi-sikligar-tcgls

Description

@jahnvi-sikligar-tcgls

I’m implementing a PDF personalization pipeline that uses page.insert_textbox() to add personalized text to existing PDFs. While the text insertion works, custom fonts and bold styling consistently fail, even when trying different font registration and fallback strategies.

PyMuPDF either:

  • silently ignores the requested custom font and falls back to Helvetica,

  • or raises an error if a non-built-in font name is passed.

The same issue occurs with bold text: setting the bold flag or using font names such as "helv-bold" or custom font files does not change the rendered output.

What I Expected

  • The ability to specify a custom .ttf font and use it during insertion.
  • Bold text (bold=True) or bold variants of built-in fonts to render correctly.
  • insert_textbox() to honor the requested font metadata.

What Actually Happens

  • Custom fonts are ignored or cause insert_textbox to fail.
  • Bold text never renders bold, regardless of flags or font naming conventions.
  • Only core fonts (helv, times, courier) work, and only in non-bold styles.

Code Sample

status = page.insert_textbox( rect, text, fontsize=fs, fontname=fontname, # custom fonts or bold variants fail align=0, color=text_color )

Do let me know if any more details are needed.

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