VelocityReport Plugin

It seems that when a pdf is generated the font-weight options in my template are ignored.
I've got the following template:
#foreach ($row in $filterTable)
<tr>
<td style="width:50px;">$!row.title</td>
<td>#if($row.col1)$!row.col1: <b>$!row.val1</b>#end</td>
<td>#if($row.col2)$!row.col2: <b>$!row.val2</b>#end</td>
<td>#if($row.col3)$!row.col3: <b>$!row.val3</b>#end</td>
<td>#if($row.col4)$!row.col4: <b>$!row.val4</b>#end</td>
</tr>
#end


I've also tried changing the <b> tag with <strong> or a span with the following styling:
span{font-weight:bold;}
But the val columns are never in bold.

When I output to a html instead of pdf it does show the text in bold.