PDF Functionality that is not Supported by the PDF generator plugin

Problem

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The TinyMCE editor allows rich text creation that our PDF generator plugin (com.snc.pdf_generator) was not designed to support. TinyMCE is the standard editor for the ServiceNow platform, so it can’t be simply updated to not allow certain HTML elements that PDF generation supports. 

Symptoms

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If you have the PDF plugin installed (com.snc.pdf_generator) and you are generating PDF using an UI action. However, some element do not appear on the final PDF generated.

Cause

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There are several elements that are not supported by the PDF generator. We use iText technology on which the following are non-supported HTML elements: 

• Vertical alignment
• Page breaks
• Table-specific color (text color is supported)
• Custom spacing between blocks of text or images
• Custom column width in HTML tables
• Custom column alignment in HTML tables
• Custom border styling in HTML tables
• CSS text manipulation (including CSS based font tags)
• Inline styling
• Background images

Resolution

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Please educate your users that when printing using the PDF options on the instance that use the PDF generator plugin, it could result on some element being missed from the final output. On those cases, please use the browser printing capabilities for a more accurate representation of the forms.

 

Note:ServiceNow PDF generation plugin has some limitations on the HTML elements that can process.