Re: [docbook-apps] Tips for DB Users for Tool Chain (Linux):xsltproc, fop 1.0 [html and pdf]

[Tom Browder <tom.browder@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 14:52, Tom Browder <tom.browder@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 7, 2011 at 14:01, Matt Dew <marcoz@osource.org> wrote:
>> On 04/07/2011 12:54 PM, Tom Browder wrote:
>>>
>>> I'm not sure it's been pointed out here recently, but two common
>>> requirements for good looking docs now have work-arounds for the
>>> subject tool chain:
...
>>> 2.  good looking equations in svg for html and pdf (with free,
>>> easy-to-use tools for generating MathML and converting to svg)
>
> This is a delightful find:
>
> 1. Create an equation using LibreOffice Math (from http://www.libreoffice.org/).

Update from more experience:

1.  LibreOffice Math is more powerful than I first thought.  Be sure
and read ALL the documentation.

2.  SVGMath conversion of the  mml file from LibreOffice seems to
ignore much of any user-added horizontal white space.  I took care of
that by fine tuning the equation's appearance with the excellent
Inkscape vector editor (whose native file format is svg).

3.  Apache FO doesn't always respect font choices when importing the
equation svg (I'm still investigating and have a so-far-unanswered
query on the FOP users' mailing list).  My first equation rendered in
pdf used my body serif italic font just fine, but when I made the more
complex equation it fell back to using a non-serif font for the
italicized characters!  Note that the html rendering is still fine
even for the more complex equation.

Best regards,

-Tom