Re: [docbook-apps] What is status of open-source XSLT to PDF ?

[Robert McIlvride <robert at cogent dot ca>]

Hi Jeffrey,

Welcome back.  You left off about the time we started.  We've been using
SGML/DSSSL since 1999, and it has served us pretty well.  The quality of
print output increased a little until about 2002, and it has been
acceptable for us.

Every six months or so since 2002 we've looked into the possibility of
switching to using XML for our output, but so far the output that comes
from the all-open-source XSL toolchain is not as good as the
DSSSL/Jade/Jadetex output.  Simple text is very good, but complicated
things like tables leave something to be desired.  (Others on this list
might not agree with me, and they might be more up-to-date than I am.) 
Furthermore, we avoid using Java for speed reasons.

However, we did switch to XSL for our HTML output, with very good
results.  What we do is maintain our source in SGML and convert it to
XML in the first stage of producing HTML output.  You might think that
would take a lot of time, but using osx and xsltproc, we get our output
pretty quickly.

We don't see all of this as a permanent solution, but have been waiting
for over two years for open-source tools that will generate PDF output
equal to or better than what we get with DSSSL/Jade.  We do understand
that this is a difficult undertaking, and people aren't always getting
paid to do it.  So we appreciate the tools we have, and look forward to
improvements as time goes by.

Cheerio!

Bob

P.S.  Here is a link to our in-house documentation that describes our
setup in a little more detail:

http://developers.cogentrts.com/cogent/prepdoc/pd-tools.html#pd-toolsoverview


On Mon, 2004-04-12 at 15:00, Jeffrey Franks wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Picking up Docbook XML from where I left off in 1999. At that
> time there where issues relating to using DSSSL vs XSLT for
> print quality PDFs.
> 
> Tried to determine from reviews and mail lists if the current
> available open-source XSLT to PDF toolchains can produce prime-time
> print ready PDF.
> 
> Getting conflicting opinions after reading the archives here, and the
> following three URL's:
> 
>      http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/FOprocessors.html
> 
>      http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DocBook-Demystification-HOWTO/x109.html
> 
>      http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/DocBook-Demystification-HOWTO/sgml.html
> 
> Can someone address this question because I need to setup an open-source
> tool chain to produce a book in print quality PDF (several hundred rendered
> pages with text, tables, and images).
> 
> Along those same lines, can I avoid DSSSL (Jade, etc) and still produce
> a suitable result?
> 
> Simply stated, what is the open-source toolchain that is known to work for
> rendering print quality XML -> PDF ?
> 
> Thanks for any help on this question.
> 
> -- 
> Jeff Franks
> 
> 
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