I'm using Visual Studio 2008 withy SQL Server 2005. I've created an .rdlc report that uses a 3 of 9 barcode. The barcode displays perfectly when looking at the report on an .aspx page through Report Viewer. If I export the report to an Excel sheet, again the barcode displays perfect. If I expert the report to a pdf file, it is blank where the barcode should display. We have other reports that were written in Crystal that use the 3 of 9 barcode, and the barcodes display perfectly in pdf when viewing those reports. So whatever the problem, it seems to be specfic to SSRS. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Hello, RS 2005 prior to sp3 does not support font embedding for PDF, so you won't be able to see the barcodes. Also, have a look at the "Font Embedding" section of this article to check for other conditions that might be preventing the displaying of the barcode if you are already on sp3: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159713(SQL.90).aspx

Thank you...I will definitely read that article and see if it helps me with my issue. But maybe you can answer another question for me that I kind of struggle with. I'm still learning tons of stuff when it comes to Reporting Services, so I'm thinking this is a "basic" question. If I understand correctly Reporting Services is generally talked about like it is a part of SQL Server -- is this correct? If that's the case, I don't think I'm truly using Reporting Services, and maybe that's where I'm having some of my issues. I have created an .RDLC file, and it gets loaded via a 'stand alone' Stored Procedure. The .RDLC is using a local filepath and not a remote server filepath. I also feel like I'm walking some kind of line that I don't understand, because our SQL Server is 2005 and I'm developing in Visual Studio 2008, so when I hear things like "RS 2005 prior to sp3 does not support font embedding..." I don't know if I'm OK because I'm coding in 2008, or if I will still have issues because my SQL Server is in 2005... Are there any good articles out there that I can read that might help me understand the relationship between the two a little better?

Well, I'm not very familiar with .rdlc files so I would suggest you start a new thread with a relevant subject so other people can reply, and then close this one if you think you got the answer. From all your questions, though, I can tell you the following: Yes, Reporting Services is part of SQL Server and it is offered for free. As long as you are licensed for SQL Server then you can use Reporting Services. The version of Reporting Server is based on the version of Reporting Services you have (which is the same as the SQL Server version you have); it does not matter what version of Visual Studio you are using in order to develop the reports. In your case, I understand that you are using Visual Studio 2008 but your SQL Server is 2005, so your Reporting Services version is 2005. In addition, you need to check the version of the Reporting Services plug-in in Visual Studio if you go to Help/About, and it should match the Reporting Services version you will deploy the reports to. If the version begins with 9 then the plug-in is for Reporting Services 2005; if it begins with 10 then it's for Reporting Services 2008. So, again, I would suggest closing this thread and opening a new one with any remaining questions you have, with a more appropriate subject.

After reading over the article, one of the things it says is that the incoming font needs to be Unicode, and apparently my fonts are coming in as ANSI. I've spent the past couple of hours trying to change the encoding and am having no luck...do you have any good articles on that? :)

OK, here is my latest attempt to get this working...I was able to do some work on our SQL Server (2005) and get it in order -- the server it was sitting on was in bad need of patches, service pack upgrades, etc. After getting the server in order, I verified that the SQL Server is now running service pack 3, which I believe is crucial to getting this to work. Next, I converted my .RDLC file to a .RDL file and imported it into Reporting Services on my SQL Server. At this point, when I right-click on the report and select "View Report", it will open in a browser and looks just like I want it to -- on the web page. However, I'm still encountering the same problem in that when I try to import it into PDF, it's dropping the barcode :(. It's my understanding that if you are using SQL Server 2005 SP 3 or later, it automatically would embed all the fonts so that this type of thing would not be an issue -- am I missing anything?

Does the report contain both ANSI and Unicode characters being rendered? If so, SQL Server 2005 has a limitation of not embedding any fonts in this scenario. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/robertbruckner/archive/2008/10/27/unicode-in-pdf-font-embedding.aspx Your best bet would be to upgrade to SQL Server 2008, 2008R2, or 2012. Thanks, Matt