Digital Humanities Questions & Answers

1. 

   Andrew Jewell
   Member

   I am experimenting with generating well-designed PDF documents from my TEI P5 files, and I could use a little advice if others have worked with XSL-FO in a DH context:

   1. I have been using Oxygen and the FOP processor that is packaged with it, but apparently FOP doesn't support certain XSL-FO elements (like <fo:float>). Have other used alternative processors? Do they cost?

   2. Though I have found Dave Pawson's book on XSL-FO useful, and I have consulted with the W3C site on the topic, I have struggled to find other resources to help me when these resources fail (particularly online ones). Any advice?

   Thanks for your help.

   Andy Jewell

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   Posted 5 years ago Permalink
2. 

   Patrick Murray-John
   

   Just a hunch, but I'd first try the other processors that <oXygen/> has, and see if they do any better.

   Are you using the default XSL-FO stylesheets for TEI, or ones that you have created or extended from the default? I don't remember for sure, but if you are using the defaults it might be worth double-checking whether there are quirks to how the stylesheets create <fo:float> elements.

   Hope that helps,
   Patrick

   Posted 5 years ago Permalink
3. 

   Andrew Jewell
   Member

   After an initial attempt to use the default XSL-FO stylesheets for TEI, I decided to write my own (it seemed considerably easier than grabbing what I needed from the complex suite of the default TEI files). However, I think you have a good idea: I could mine those examples for tips on how to accomplish certain things within my current setup.

   Oh, and I cannot locate alternative FO processors already in Oxygen (10.2), so I think FOP is my only option there unless I install another.

   Thanks,
   Andy

   Posted 5 years ago Permalink
4. 

   Joe Wicentowski
   Member

   You're right, oXygen only comes with FOP. Other than FOP most FO processors are commercial. It's too bad that even the recently-released FOP 1.0 doesn't support floats (http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/compliance.html#fo-object-float). The two commercial processors that keep coming up are XEP and Antenna House. XEP's float support is described at http://mediawiki.renderx.com/index.php/XEP_User_Guide/Appendix_A_XSL-FO_Conformance#Floats_Alignment. Some samples of Antenna House's float support can be viewed at http://www.antennahouse.com/XSLsample/FOsample.htm.

   Posted 5 years ago Permalink
5. 

   mjockers
   Member

   Hi Andy,
   I bit the bullet some years ago and got XEP--it's worked great for me ever since.
   Matt

   Posted 5 years ago Permalink
6. 

   Hugh Cayless
   Member

   Replying to @mjockers's post:

   Agreed. FOP works for the basics, but if you're doing anything serious, there is, unfortunately, no substitute for the commercial FO processors.

   The TEI stylesheets will do LaTeX output too. I'm not at all a LaTeX expert, but maybe that would be a viable alternative?

   Posted 5 years ago Permalink

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