Re: [xsl] XML to PDF (XSL:FO)

[Julie <julie.newcome@xxxxxxxxx>]

Elliot wrote:

> However, if cost and/or throughput speed are an important business issue,
> you may find that you can either compromise a bit on layout and typography
> and apply FO at a much lower cost/faster turnaround or take advantage of
> proprietary extensions to meet typographic requirements. But this requires a
> careful, detailed analysis of the typographic and layout requirements of a
> given publication to determine if FO can meet requirements.

We use xsl-fo to generate course materials (in a "book" format) and
have found there are two main difficulties that we cannot surmount.
One of them is the keep-with-next is not up to par and the other is
the way it treats graphics--although this may be a pdf issue that we
are just more aware of now that we're generating with xsl-fo. We
haven't come across anyone else experiencing this (inconsistent
resizing of graphics and failure of the process when a graphic ends up
being too big!) so we are looking for work-arounds. In general, we
have definitely found that you have to live with the downsides in
order to output complex publications with xsl-fo.

> For automating higher typographic quality, the Typefi product (an InDesign
> plug in) offers excellent value, although it's initial cost is high (on the
> order 50K USD). Likewise, you can do significant automation with Arbortext
> Advanced Publisher (3B2) and XyVision XPP, but at a similar or greater cost
> than Typefi.

And now...I'm off to check out Typfi! Thanks :)

Julie