I’m also a fan of PrinceXML, which generates PDF from any structured content using fairly robust CSS styles. I transform from DocBook to HTML (using the stylesheets) and from HTML to PDF with Prince (CSS for styles). I’m very impressed with the results.
www.princexml.com<http://www.princexml.com> From: Bob Stayton [mailto:b...@sagehill.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2012 10:40 AM To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org; daniel.ke...@finaris.de Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] Customizing and creating a stylesheet for docbook using the XML Mind or Oxygen XML Editor Hi Daniel, CSS has progressed to the point where it can format printed output, and I know of at least one product that can use CSS to generate PDF output (Antenna House XSL Formatter http://www.antennahouse.com/product.htm). But most people use DocBook's XSL-FO output (fo/docbook.xsl) and an XSL-FO processor such as FOP to generate PDFs from DocBook content. I believe someone pointed you to my online book DocBook XSL: The Complete Guide at http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/index.html. I believe it has the information you need to customize your PDF output. This link will get you started with parameter setting: http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/PrintOutput.html and this one with titlepage customization: http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/HTMLTitlePage.html and this one will help with further customizations: http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/PrintCustomEx.html Bob Stayton Sagehill Enterprises b...@sagehill.net<mailto:b...@sagehill.net> ----- Original Message ----- From: daniel.ke...@finaris.de<mailto:daniel.ke...@finaris.de> To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org<mailto:docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org> Sent: Monday, January 23, 2012 4:38 AM Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] Customizing and creating a stylesheet for docbook using the XML Mind or Oxygen XML Editor Hello, sorry that it took so long, but I was quite busy. Thanks for all the response - it made things easier for us. The customization process is getting along pretty well, but we still have some questions regarding the PDF Output: As said before, we customized Docbook to match our requirements. We basically added a few elements to the schema and blocked those we didn’t want. The font size etc. is determined by an css style sheet. One problem is, that most of our new styles are not recognized if we output a document as a PDF. We already found the param.xml and pagesetup.xsl file, but were not sure if it is necessary to customize them as well. Did we go wrong using css instead of xsl as a stylesheet? Oxygen handles both, but it seems like only xls is supported for creating a PDF. Another problem that we have is, that we can´t really figure out how to influence the general page layout (header, footer, graphic on the front page etc.). Is there any tutorial or something? Finally, at least for now, we are wondering how to insert text boxes in line with the text, since in our current configuration text boxes are always inserted below the paragraph. Thanks for the help and sorry if some questions might seem unnecessary. I´m not one of the XML guys in the company, but rather one of those who write and translate. Greetings, Daniel From: daniel.ke...@finaris.de To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org Date: 17.01.2012 09:44 Subject: [docbook-apps] Customizing and creating a stylesheet for docbook using the XML Mind or Oxygen XML Editor ________________________________ Hello, currently my company is thinking about transferring its user documentation into XML and docbook. Since we are an IT company, XML and programming in general is not a problem. But: We cannot find and adjust the stylesheet needed to create our custom documentation. We are currently setting up a prototype for our documentation, following the instructions from Walsh´s "DocBook 5: The definitive Guide" and working with the XML Mind Editor and a trial version of "OXYGEN Editor". Basically, we are satisfied with the results and trust in docbooks function (since having lots of trouble with Word), but the lacking transparency makes it really hard to come up with a sample documentation/ prototype .Each file we open has at least one reference to a website we cannot open and dozens of files that don´t exist or are really hard to find. We checked the regular docbook.zip from the docbook homepage, but also all files of the respective editors. (Is there something as a "default" Docbook editor that you would propose?) Can anyone give me some advice, a link or even a how-to for adjusting the docbook stylesheet? Personally, I would love to use docbook for our user documentation, simply for the additional features it has compared to other text processing program, but only if I can adjust the appearance. Especially regarding corporate identity this is absolutely necessary. Thanks and with best regards, D. Keyes ======================================================= Disclaimer The information contained in this e - mail and any attachments ( together the "message") is intended for the addressee only and may contain confidential and/or privileged information. If you have received the message by mistake please delete it and notify the sender and do not copy or distribute it or disclose its contents to anyone. FINARIS Financial Software Partner GmbH Sömmerringstr. 23, 60322 Frankfurt/Main, Germany Registered at Frankfurt/Main, HRB 52873 Managing Directors: Dipl. Inf. Hermann Friebel, Dipl. Ing. Kai Bächle, Dipl. Inf. Werner Märkl =======================================================
