XML-FO Engines

A Review comparing the major for engines and their status in July 2001.

FOP

• http://xml.apache.org/fop/
• Apache XML mailing list archive: http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/

This is the engine that is part of the apache xml effort. It is opensource and evolving very quickly, but it does have some problems in the quality of output it produces. I expect this to be alleviated soon, but until then it may be a good idea to use tex-based tools that have a longer history and better quality.

NotesForUsingFop^?: A list of things to know about FOP.

PassiveTex

• http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/TEI/Software/passivetex/

Other Tools

FOA

• http://www-uk.hpl.hp.com/people/fabgia/foa/foa.html

FOA is the world's first XSL-FO Authoring tool. It is a Java application that gives users a graphical interface to author XSL-FO stylesheets. FOA was created in collaboration with DIBE (University of Genoa). With FOA you can generate pages, page sequences and fill them with content provided into one or more XML files. FOA will generate the XSLT stylesheet that transforms the XML content into an XSL-FO document. FOA is compatible with WH2FO (see FOA & WH2FO) so you can author more quickly you documents. From FOA GUI is also possible to invoke an XSLT processor and an XSL-FO renderer, so you can see how the document looks like.

Resources

• CustomizingXslFo: Tips and links for customizing XSL-FO stylesheets

Tutorials

• IBM Developer Works tutorial: Transforming XML into PDF
• What is XSLT?: Introductory tutorial on what XSLT is and how to use it.
• Transforming XML Series: A set of tutorials about XSLT and how to use it.
• Using XSL Formatting objects: Tutorial on how to use XSL formatting objects (by hand).
• FOP Faq document: Very complete FAQ for FOP.

-- PatrickHartling - 13 Oct 2004