Re: AW: [docbook-apps] PDF customization questions from newbie

["ben.guillon" <ben.guillon@gmail.com>]

Hi,

I'm the dblatex maintainer, so I'm a bit biased, but if you know latex you  
will be free to customize the latex layout as you wish.

I think most of the elements are supported, except the HTML tables. The  
limitations are those imposed by latex: the latex table limitations, the  
footnotes limitations especially in tables (even if workarounded in  
dblatex), the legacy UTF8 support limitations when pdftex is used, the  
one-page only floats, the float positioning (often frustating for non-tex  
users), some hyphenation weirdness, and so on.

But on the other side dblatex deals with all the tex stuff: graphic  
conversions, makeindex use, the ability to use xetex as backend. It even  
supports some advanced features (full callout support on graphics and on  
listings, olinking between a set of documents) that I'm not sure fop-based  
solutions support without some extensions.

In a word, if you know and like latex you'll be in a friendly world.

Regards,
BG

On Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:28:39 +0100, John Rossmann <rossmannjohn@yahoo.com>  
wrote:

> Thank you, Robert.
>
> Your reply gives me more confidence that dblatex is the right choice.  
> But... are
> there any disadvantages compared to the xslt- and fop-processors that  
> seem to be
> the recommended way to convert XML to PDF? Are there any docbook  
> elements that
> are not supported by dblatex? Does dblatex give me more or less  
> flexibility
> compared to the fop-processor?
>
> Johnny
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: "Robert.Buergel@bmw.de" <Robert.Buergel@bmw.de>
> To: rossmannjohn@yahoo.com; docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
> Sent: Thu, February 10, 2011 12:08:58 PM
> Subject: AW: [docbook-apps] PDF customization questions from newbie
>
> Hi Jonny,
>
> we are useing dblatex (http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/ ) for some  
> documents and
> produce with this way high quality PDFs.
>
> A lot of your requirements you can achive with this approach. We are  
> also using
> the KOMA-script-styles without tweaking the Latex-file. With your
> Latex-background I would suggest dblatex.
>
> Regards
>
> Robert
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: John Rossmann [mailto:rossmannjohn@yahoo.com]
> Gesendet: Donnerstag, 10. Februar 2011 11:41
> An: docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
> Betreff: [docbook-apps] PDF customization questions from newbie
>
> Hi, recently I got started with my first docbook document, and I am very
> satisfied with the great possibilities to publish a number of output  
> formats
> from a single structured document.
>
> Coming from LaTeX, I am looking for possibilities to customize high  
> quality PDF
> output. For example, I'd like to modify paragraph indentation, font  
> sizes, line
> spacing, page numbering, page headers and footers etc. Ideally I am  
> looking for
> a gallery of document layouts from which I can choose one and maybe fine  
> tune,
> as it is possible under LaTeX by choosing from a large number of document
> classes (like e.g. koma script).
>
> Some help is given at  
> http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/PrintOutput.html. But
> those  options are too limited to do things like putting a logo into the  
> page
> header, numbering frontmatter pages like i,ii,iii,iv,... and only the  
> main
> document 1,2,3,..., putting a light yellow background below verbatim  
> (code) text
>
>
> boxes, etc. (If someone points me to an explanation how to achieve these  
> three
> options - logo, page numbering, code background color - I might have a  
> better
> idea where to look for other solutions in the future.)
>
> Should I go the DBLatex way and change the intermediate LaTeX file to  
> use the
> desired document class? Or can I find an idiot-proof PDF customization  
> tutorial
> somewhere that doesn't require me to learn the low-level PDF language?
>
> Thank you
> Johnny