Re: [docbook-apps] General questions about DocBook -> LaTeX

["Michael(tm) Smith" <smith@sideshowbarker.net>]

Colin Shapiro <cmshapiro@gmail.com>, 2007-02-19 16:16 -0600:

> I've read online that some people follow a different procedure; instead of
> going from DocBook to FO, they go from DocBook to LaTeX before creating
> their final PDF print output (using 
> dblatex<http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/>,
> for example).  I am wondering if this would be a better publishing model for
> my needs, since I know LaTeX is made for print output.  I've never used
> LaTeX before, however, so it would take some research on my part before
> starting to work with it.
[...]
> 1. What are the main advantages of going from DocBook to LaTeX before
> generating final print output of documents?

I think the main advantage is that dblatex produces better output
than FOP and the other open-source XSL-FO engines. So if you
restrict yourself to using free tools, dblatex is a better choice.

If you don't restrict yourself to using free tools, the DocBook FO
stylesheets and an XSL-FO engine like RenderX XEP/DiType are
probably a better choice -- especially in terms of ease of
customization of your output. That said, there are some things
that dblatex can currently do better than the FO stylesheets (like
placement of callouts in graphics and handling of the Annotation
element) -- mostly because it just relies on some native
capabilities in LaTeX to handle those things.

> 2. If you know what you're doing, can you do most things with XSL
> stylesheets and FO that you could do with LaTeX?

Yeah, I think so.

> 3. Which publishing model would be the best choice for making pretty PDFs
> for print.

The FO stylesheets and XEP (or another XSL-FO engine), if you
don't restrict yourself to free tools. Otherwise, dblatex it well
worth spending some time trying.

  --Mike