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The long and winding roads from DITA XML to PDF output
Thursday, August 20, 2009 — posted by Sheila Loring
DITA XML is of little use to readers unless it's converted to some kind of output. The DITA Open Toolkit (DITA OT) provides transforms and scripts that convert DITA to PDF output and a long list of other formats.Producing PDF output from DITA content can be challenging. DITA XML is converted to an XSL-FO file, a combination of content and formatting instructions. You must know XSL-FO to customize the PDF, even just to add simple content such as headers and footers, logos, and so on.
To forgo the programming, you can choose a page layout or help authoring tool, but these tools also have pitfalls. Page layout programs have varying degrees of DITA support. Help authoring tools let you style the PDF through CSS, but you can't fine-tune page layout as you can in page layout programs.
These are just a few examples we discuss in our white paper "Creating PDF files from DITA content." Read the white paper online (in HTML or PDF).
Labels: Arbortext, DITA Open Toolkit, ePublisher, flare, FOP, FrameMaker, PDF, quark, robohelp, white papers, XEP, xmetal, XPP, XSL Formatter, xsl-fo
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Fixing FOP memory errors
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 — posted by Sarah O'Keefe
Our newest white paper describes how to process large documents with XSL-FO and avoid memory errors. Here's the introduction:Formatting Object (FO) processors (FOP, in particular) often fail with memory errors when processing very large documents for PDF output. Typically in XSL:FO, the body of a document is contained in a single fo:page-sequence element. When FO documents are converted to PDF output, the FO processor holds an entire fo:page-sequence in memory to perform pagination adjustments over the span of the sequence. Very large page counts can result in memory overflows or Java heap space errors. Reducing page count in a document is not usually an option.The full white paper is Handling XSL-FO's memory issue with large page counts. Many thanks to David Kelly (writing), Simon Bate (reviewing), Alan Pringle (editing), and Ethan Duty (productioning, er, production).
As always, we welcome your comments here or directly in the white paper pages. If you have ideas for topics you'd like us to cover, we're all ears.
Labels: dita, DITA Open Toolkit, white papers, xsl-fo
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