XSL-FO

Appendix C. Today’s Tools

This appendix covers the tools that are currently available. I’ve placed this in an appendix simply because I didn’t want the book to appear dated within months of it being on the shelves. Please keep in mind the general comments I made about tools in Chapter 2 when reading this.

RenderX XEP Formatter

XEP is an engine that converts XSL-FO documents to a printable form (PDF or PostScript). An evaluation package with limited functionality is freely available. It aligns with the November 2001 Recommendation. Extensions are included and partial SVG support is now available.

I think XEP is the most established product; it was certainly the first one I came across. Developed by a small and dedicated team, it’s a commercial product, with an evaluation version available for download. The evaluation version is restricted in the number of pages it will output. It produces PDF and PostScript output. Its command-line interface is convenient, and it has good error reporting. It’s developers, who are contributors on the XSL-FO related lists, are very helpful. Inputting of an XML file in the fo namespace, will deliver PDF in the evaluation version. An implementation features list is available on their web site, http://www.renderx.com. XEP is written in Java and runs on any system that supports Java 2 (JDK/JRE 1.1.8) and above. Their web site hosts many demonstration files, and they have provided the W3C with a PDF version of the Recommendation ready for printing.

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