Re: [docbook-apps] DocBook -> PDF paths that aren't hugely expensive?

[Robin Lee Powell <rlpowell@digitalkingdom.org>]

On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 01:57:18PM +0000, Jason Zech wrote:
> Hi Robin, 
> 
> I've had a lot of success with PrinceXML
> (http://www.princexml.com/) as a DocBook to PDF solution. Like
> Antenna House (which I haven't used), it allows you to control
> appearance via fairly robust CSS stylesheets. It's not free (about
> $500 for a single-user license last time I looked), but it's
> incredibly flexible for layout and design.
> 
> Also note that while it can produce your PDF directly from the
> DocBook XML source, I find it much better to transform your
> DocBook to HTML (using the open source stylesheets) then process
> the HTML through Prince. This allows you to take advantage of some
> of DocBook's more powerful features- auto-TOCs, labeling, indices,
> etc.  

That's an interesting option.  In a way, I'd rather go via (X)HTML
so that the visual layout is consistent.  The problem I've had with
every such mothed I've tried is that internal cross references show
up as "see section 2.1 wibble" instead of "see page 23".  For a
printed book, I strongly prefer the later, or at least that the page
number be included.  Does Prince handle that?

-Robin