How can I test if my font is rendered correctly in pdf?

Since jasper report use the itext library the easiest way to test if your font will be rendered correctly in pdf is to test it directly with itext.

Example program^*, adapted from iText: Chapter 11: Choosing the right font

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;

import com.lowagie.text.Document;
import com.lowagie.text.DocumentException;
import com.lowagie.text.Font;
import com.lowagie.text.Paragraph;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.BaseFont;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.ColumnText;
import com.lowagie.text.pdf.PdfWriter;

public class FontTest {

    /** The resulting PDF file. */
    public static final String RESULT = "fontTest.pdf";
    /** the text to render. */
    public static final String TEST = "Test to render this text with the turkish lira character \u20BA";

    public void createPdf(String filename) throws IOException, DocumentException {
        Document document = new Document();
        PdfWriter writer = PdfWriter.getInstance(document, new FileOutputStream(filename));
        document.open();
        BaseFont bf = BaseFont.createFont(
            "pathToMyFont/myFont.ttf", BaseFont.IDENTITY_H, BaseFont.EMBEDDED);
        Font font = new Font(bf, 20);
        ColumnText column = new ColumnText(writer.getDirectContent());
        column.setSimpleColumn(36, 730, 569, 36);
        column.addElement(new Paragraph(TEST, font));
        column.go();
        document.close();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException, DocumentException {
        new FontTest().createPdf(RESULT);
    }
}

Some notes (seen in example):

• To render special characters use it’s encoded value example
  \u20BA to avoid problems of encoding type on your file.
• Consider to always use Unicode encoding, this is recommended approach
  in the newer PDF standard (PDF/A, PDF/UA) and gives you the possibility to mix
  different encoding types, with the only dis-advantage of slightly
  larger file size.

Conclusion:

If your font is rendered correctly in the “fontTest.pdf”, you have a
problem with your font-extensions in jasper report.

If you font is not rendered correctly in the “fontTest.pdf”, there is
nothing you can do in jasper reports, you need to find another font.

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^{*Latest jasper-reports distribution use a special version itext-2.1.7, the imports in this version is com.lowagie.text, if you are using later version the imports are com.itextpdf.text as in adapted example.}