custom pdfs from the dita ot

Customizing PDF output from the DITA Open Toolkit

Leigh WhiteElementalSource, LLC

ElementalSource, LLC

Me, me, me

• Background: English, Theoretical Linguistics• NOT a programmer or stylesheet developer• 20+ years as a content creator

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Lower your standards?

• That depends…– Are your standards based on…non-standards?

• A tweak here, a tweak there, whatever “looks right”

• That is not a standard!• A standard is “an approved model”

– Predictable and prescriptive• PDF processing via the OT is absolutely based on

standards– If you can’t capture your “tweak” with a context-based rule,

it’s not predictable or prescriptive—drop it!

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Ask yourself…

…which is more important:– perfect pages– more time to spend creating quality content

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How does the OT make PDFs?

• Uses the FO plug-in• A collection of stylesheets, variables files, build files,

etc. that transform DITA into XSL:FO and then send it to an FO processor

• You never see an actual page until the PDF is done– This is a COMPLETE mind freak for some people– And a godsent miracle for others

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FO plug-in

• Originally developed to fill in the “hardcopy” gap• Currently maintained by Suite Solutions• Several folks working on improvements or complete

re-writes• It ain’t pretty but it works

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What happens

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Quick tour of the FO plug-in

• DITA-OT\demo\fo:

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The cfg folder

• DITA-OT\demo\fo\cfg:

Language-specific variables for

“boilerplate” text; header/footer

definitions; note image paths

Attribute sets to control

appearance of elements

Stylesheets to control

processing and behavior of elements

Images associated with the

customization

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Attribute sets

• Grouped by element “type” (lists, links, tables, etc.) or domain (ui, pr, etc.)

• Everything else is in commons-attr.xsl

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Attribute sets

• Expect to see the attributes in the default sets• If you customize &

remove attributes, OT “fills them back in” from the default

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Attribute sets

• Can call other attribute sets:

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Attribute sets

• Called by the stylesheets inDITA-OT\demo\fo\xsl

• Use the attribute set name to find the xsl template OR use the xsl template to find the attribute set

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Attribute sets

• Some files are specific to FO processors:– _axf: Antenna House– _xep: XEP– _fop: Apache FOP

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basic-settings.xsl

• Variables that define:– page dimensions– margins– default font size– default line height

• Use these variables instead of fixed values in attribute sets and layout-masters

• Add more as needed for greater uniformity

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XSL

• Lots of these but many you probably won’t touch• Grouped by element “type” (lists, links, tables, etc.) or

domain (ui, pr, etc.)– Names match the attribute set files

• Everything else is in commons.xsl– Kitchen sink

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XSL

• Some files specific to FO processors:– _axf: Antenna House– _xep: XEP– _fop: Apache FOP

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_1.0 files

• Sometimes replace original file:– bookmarks_1.0.xsl– front-matter_1.0.xsl

• Sometimes supplement original file:– commons_1.0.xsl– index_1.0.xsl– table_1.0.xsl– toc_1.0.xsl

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root-processing.xsl

• Creates the “shell” for your FO file• Calls other templates for frontmatter, TOC, index, etc.• Creates variables from map metadata that are available

throughout the build in headers, footers, cover pages, etc.

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Bored? Confused?

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Okay, let’s make a PDF!

• Multiple ditamaps• Bookmap• ANT build file

– DITA-OT\samples\ant_sample• Batch file

– Copy startcmd.bat from DITA-OT

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A couple of quick changes

• ANT build file:– Change FO processor– Retain the topic.fo file

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Create your own customization

• Copy and rename Customization folder– Don’t make changes to the default files!

• Rename and edit catalog.xml.orig• Call your customization from your ANT build file• Copy a file into your customization

– commons-attr.xsl

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Create your own customization

• In IntellCont\fo\attrs, rename custom.xsl.orig– Rename the one in IntellCont\fo\xsl, too

• Call your commons-attr.xsl from custom.xsl– <xsl:import href="commons-attr.xsl"/>

• Make small, obvious change to commons-attr.xsl and run build to test

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basic-settings.xsl

• Copy to your customization

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Add bookmap metadata to cover

• Copy root-processing.xsl to your customization• Create variables

– productRev– bookNo

• Copy front-matter_1.0.xsl to your customization• Add fo:block elements that contain variables

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Rearrange info in headers, footers

• Copy en.xml to your customization• Copy static-content.xsl to your customization

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static-content.xsl

• insertBodyOddHeader• insertBodyEvenHeader

– Comment out <prodname>, <pagenum>• insertBodyOddFooter• insertBodyEvenFooter

– Comment out <heading>– Add <prodname>, <version>

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en.xml

• <variable id="Body odd footer"/>– <param ref-name="prodname"/>&#xA0;<param ref-

name="version"/><param ref-name="pagenum"/>• <variable id="Body even footer"/>

– <param ref-name="pagenum"/><param ref-name="prodname"/>&#xA0;<param ref-name="version"/>

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Wait!

• Page numbers are not on the outside in even footers• basic-settings.xsl:

– <xsl:variable name="mirror-page-margins" select="true()"/>

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Justify footers

• static-content.xsl:– <fo:leader leader-pattern="space"/>– Be sure to put in right place!

• Copy static-content-attr.xsl to your customization• Attribute sets odd__footer, even__footer

– text-align=“justify”– text-align-last=“justify”

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Set up even, odd body pages

• Copy layout-masters.xsl to your customization– Different path in custom.xsl

• Copy layout-masters-attr.xsl to your customization• region-body.odd, region-body.even:

– <xsl:attribute name="background-color">#ffffc0</xsl:attribute>

• region.before, region.after:– <xsl:attribute

name="background-color">#ffc0ff</xsl:attribute>

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Change inside, outside margins

• basic-settings.xsl– page-margin-inside– page-margin-outside

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Align footers with margins

• static-content-attr.xsl– odd__footer

• start-indent ($page-margin-inside)• end-indent ($page-margin-outside)

– even__footer• start-indent ($page-margin-outside)• end-indent ($page-margin-inside)

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Why are *all* the pages…

…yellow and pink, not just body pages?

• By default, all page types call region-body.odd and region-body.even

• You can change this– Add new attribute sets for each page type

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Restart page numbering

• Copy commons.xsl to your customization• startPageNumbering template:

– Comment out xsl:if• processTopicAppendix template:

– Add <xsl:call-template name="startPageNumbering"/>– (It’s missing for appendix)

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Add an image to the title page

• Background image– Can also add within flow

• layout-masters.xsl:– Change front-matter-first to use region-

body__frontmatter.first• layout-masters-attr.xsl:

– Create region-body__frontmatter.first

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Change fonts

• Copy font-mappings.xml to your customization• Uncomment entry in catalog• Add Verdana to “Sans”• Add Palatino to “Serif”• Processor-dependent:

– XEP: edit xep.xml– FOP: edit fop.xconf– AH: edit font-config.xml

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Format TOC levels

• Copy toc.xsl and toc-attr.xsl to your customization• Copy font-weight attribute

– Add different colors for levels– Useful model for any level-based attribute

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TOC attribute set interaction

• __toc__topic__content is overwritten by – __toc__chapter__content– __toc__appendix__content– __toc__part__content

when processing bookmap• Many more examples

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Understanding indent formula

• concat($side-col-width, ' + (', string($level - 1), ' * ', $toc.toc-indent, ') + ', $toc.text-indent)– 25pt + (0 * 14pt) + 30pt = 55pt– 25pt + (1 * 14pt) + 30pt = 69pt– 25pt + (2 * 14pt) + 30pt = 83pt

• To play with the formula, adjust values for– toc.toc-indent– toc.text-indent

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Include +/- levels in TOC

• Default is 4• Controlled by tocMaximumLevel

– Defined in topic2fo.xsl, topic2fo_1.0.xsl– You can hardcode in your customization

• toc.xsl:– <xsl:if test="$topicLevel &lt; $tocMaximumLevel">– <xsl:if test="$topicLevel &lt; 3">

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Remove the mini-TOC

• ANT build file:– <property name="args.chapter.layout" value="BASIC"/>

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Format index page numbers

• Copy index-attr.xsl, index.xsl to your customization• Find index-page-citation-list (in index.xsl)• Put whole xsl:if inside <fo:inline>• Call attribute set __index__page__link• Add attributes to __index__page__link (index-attr.xsl)

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Omit top-level index page #s

• In index.xsl:

<xsl:when test="opentopic-index:index.entry">

<!--<xsl:for-each select="child::opentopic-index:refID[last()]">

<fo:inline index-key="{@value}"/>

</xsl:for-each>-->

</xsl:when>

<xsl:otherwise>

...

• This is a complete kludge but the list is silent…any better ideas?

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Dynamically scale images

• “Create a chart note”– Image is way too big

• commons-attr.xsl– “image” attribute set:<xsl:attribute

name="content-width">scale-to-fit</xsl:attribute>

<xsl:attribute name="content-height">100%</xsl:attribute>

<xsl:attribute name="width">100%</xsl:attribute>

<xsl:attribute name="scaling">uniform</xsl:attribute>

• Watch out for width-height ratios!

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Why didn’t I…

…Talk more about how to format specific elements?

• Because that’s the easiest thing to do!– Once you find the correct attribute set, it’s a matter of adding

a new attribute or changing the value of an existing one.

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Frame-FO crosswalk

1. (attribute set name)2. text-indent3. margin-left4. margin-right5. text-align6. margin-top/

space-above7. margin-bottom/

space-below8. line-height9. line-height-shift-

adjustment

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Frame-FO crosswalk

1. font-family2. font-size3. font-style4. font-weight5. text-transform6. color7. letter-spacing8. font-stretch9. xml:lang

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Frame-FO crosswalk

10. text-decoration11. text-decoration12. text-decoration13. baseline-shift14. font-variant

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Frame-FO crosswalk

1. break-before;page-break-before

2. keep-with-next.within-page/keep-together

3. keep-with-previous.within-page/ keep-together

4. orphans, widows5. span6. fo:float*7. relative-align

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Frame-FO crosswalk

1. hyphenation-ladder-count

2. hyphenation-remain-character-count

3. hyphenation-push-character-count

4. hyphenate;hyphenation-keep

5. word-spacing6. border-top*7. border-bottom*

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Other resources

• Jarno Elovirta's web-based PDF plug-in generator: http://dita-generator.appspot.com/pdf-plugin/

• Patrick Quinlan's (Ditanauts.org) mypdf plug-in:http://sourceforge.net/p/mypdf/home/Home/

• Suite Solutions’ DITA-OT webinars:http://www.suite-sol.com

• Custom PDFs from the DITA Open Toolkit, Leigh WhiteXML Press, 2012

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Contact me

Leigh WhiteElementalSource, LLC

elementalsource@gmail.com678.467.7706