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Subject: Re: [docbook-apps] pdf output
Hi John, Thanks for your reply. > There are several problems using both FOP and PassiveTeX for PDF > formatting of Docbook. Using either tool will result in some odd format > errors, depending on what you're formatting. My experience is that if > you have simple needs, and relatively short documents, then FOP will > suffice. However, if you are prepared to work around some of > PassiveTex's formatting issues (by modifying the XSL, the PassiveTeX > macros, or the Docbook source) then a much better-looking output file > will result. Personally, although I've had to work around a lot of > issues with PassiveTeX, I much prefer its output to that of FOP. Over > time, that opinion may change as FOP becomes a better product. Thanks for the tips. I'll give both a go. I was really looking for a more out of the box approach though. Is there somewhere one can find a list of the shortcommings and perhaps workarounds for them? > > When formatting tables, it's helpful to know that cell and row spanning > don't work so well in PassiveTeX, and neither do relative column widths. > Simple tables, however, can be fairly easily accomplished, by not using > spans, and by specifying absolute table widths. If you have border > issues, then those can be worked around too, with a little trickery. > Here is an example of a simple table in one of the PDF documents that my > organization produces: > One of the problems I had with the PassiveTex output was that the left and right frame borders were always blank. Is there a work around for that? Thanks for the example. I'll give it a go. > It should also be noted that it is possible to avoid the use of tables > for many cases in FO-generated output, as FO provides several other > formatting options for cases that would require a table in HTML, so you > may want to investigate using FO block-level formatting (of things such > as variablelist for example) to see if that would meet your needs in > this case. One of the things I want to do is have a block of text on the left, and an image on the right of the page. ie..... ------------------------------------------------- | | | | | | | Text here | image here | | | | | | | |-------------------------------|----------------| I tried to do it didn't really work with the PassiveTex PDF output. Can acheive the same thing without the use of tables? Thanks for your advice, Jason -- Jason Lewis ------------------------------------------------- please note my new email address jason@dickson.st
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