RE: DOCBOOK-APPS: docbook -> pdf

[Jeff Beal <jeff.beal@ansys.com>]

Are you trying to do DocBook -> HTML -> PDF?  Based on the bit with prev /
next links, you are.  There are tools that can take you directly from
DocBook XML to PDF.  I won't go into great detail, but searching the
archives and other FAQ's should provide ample information.

There are two major toolchains, described below:

DocBook + DSSSL StyleSheets --> openjade / jade --> PDF
DocBook + XSL-FO stylesheets --> XSLT processor (e.g. Saxon / xsltproc /
xalan) --> XSL-FO document --> XSL Formatter (e.g. FOP / XEP / PassiveTex)
--> PDF

If you've used the DocBook XSL Stylesheets to generate your HTML files,
creating an XSL-FO document should be very similar.  The main stylesheet to
create the XSL-FO is docbook-xsl-version/fo/docbook.xsl.  You can get the
latest version of FOP from xml.apache.org/FOP.  The print quality here is
questionable at best.  You don't have any sort of page break control with
FOP.  XEP is a commercial tool for rendering XSL-FO as PDF.  It's a bit
pricy, and I've had some problems with its output as well.  I haven't been
able to get any of the other tools (jade, openjade, PassiveTex) to run at
all yet, but other people have.

Again, the archives are full of information on these tools, as are the
rapidly multiplying online tutorials.  (Does anyone have a tutorial on
navigating the plethora of DocBook tutorials yet?)

Jeff



-----Original Message-----
From: G.L. Grobe [mailto:gary@grobe.net]
Sent: Saturday, October 12, 2002 4:54 PM
To: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: DOCBOOK-APPS: docbook -> pdf


I'm using Adobe Acrobat 5 to import web pages and was wondering if anyone
was putting their docbook's into pdf's. I did that and it looks great, but
have a few questions.

The 'next' and 'prev' page links that are at the bottom of a page are
usually at the very top of an entire new page which makes them useless.
Should/can those be taken off? How is anybody else doing this? Also, I think
these links are taking up a bit more space than they need in pdf pages.

Any advice much appreciated.