I just had the problem to create a VF page that renders as a pdf and outputs polish text. The only font that supports polish characters is Arial Unicode MS but with this font, I can't output bold or italic, the renderer simply ignores it. The other fonts work as expected but there the special characters are missing.
Anyone out there who found a workaround to format the text in bold/italic with Arial Unicode MS?
Best Answer
After version 27, users have to add applyBodyTag="false" to render double-byte PDF as usual.
ref: http://www.salesforce.com/us/developer/docs/pages/Content/pages_quick_start_renderas_pdf.htm