Indic script shaping in PDF: why most PDF tools render Hindi as boxes
The reason Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and other Indic scripts come out as tofu boxes in DOMPDF, mPDF, TCPDF, and most other PDF libraries is not a font problem. It is a text-shaping problem. Here is what the shaping does, why HarfBuzz exists, and what running Chromium gets you for free.
By LightningPDF Jun 4, 2026 5 min read