Subject: Re: [xsl] xsl-fo and professional publishing From: "Eliot Kimber ekimber@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 13:24:22 -0000 |
Most publishers do not use an XSL-FO process for books that have unique page designs--publishers today almost without exception use InDesign as their page composition tool. While it is possible to use XSL-FO for professional publishing there are limitations, both in what you can achieve through a one-pass FO process and the overall typographic quality of the result relative to what tools like InDesign can achieve (albeit with human intervention). For one-off page designs it usually wouldn't make sense to have a process that requires creating custom FO generation for that one book, certainly not within the context of typical publishing workflows. There is also the issue of available skills: InDesign operators are essentially a commodity, XSLT and XSL-FO programmers are rare, so even if it made technical or economic sense it can be hard to staff and FO-based workflow, especially one that requires new engineering for each new title. For publications that represent a series or consistent page design, then it can make sense to use XSL-FO because the cost savings over manual page layout are tremendous (easily 10x or greater cost reduction and time reduction from weeks or months to minutes). Even the cost of implementing multi-pass FO processes can be easily justified. There are publishers pursuing this approach but they are still relatively rare. Some specialty publishers they may be happy to have you produce the final pages yourself if you can otherwise meet their layout requirements and some technical publishers, like O'Reilly, already have sophisticated XML-based composition automation. The smaller the publisher, the more likely they are to be flexible and receptive to non-traditional production approaches. Cheers, Eliot bbbbb Eliot Kimber, Owner Contrext, LLC http://contrext.com On 6/13/14, 8:09 AM, "jfrm.maurel@xxxxxxxxx jfrm.maurel@xxxxxxxxx" <xsl-list-service@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: >Hi, > >I wonder whether xml + xsl + xsl-fo is a current practise in >professional publishing for technical books at least in Europe. > >My use case is as follows: >I have home made xml file database with their schema, xsl stylesheets >and xsl-fo style sheets that I am currently using to create various >output formats such as xhtml and pdf in the context of training courses. >This works fine up to now. > >Now I would like to use the xml stuff to publish a paper book (300 >pages). I don't expect a very large audience as it is technical stuff. I >know some publisher are interested but before contacting one of them I >would like to have information on the current practise. So my question is: > >- is it current practise to develop specific xsl-fo stylesheets for one >paper book or is it efficient only if several formats are needed ? >- is xsl-fo competitive compared to direct loading of xml files in >professional publishing software ? >- is there a reference book on the subject of xsl-fo and professional >publishing ? > >any information is welcome. > >Regards > >-- >Jean-FranC'ois MAUREL >PIMECA >http://www.pimeca.com
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