Comparison of Documentation Generators - Output Formats

Output Formats

The output formats the generators can write.

HTML CHM RTF PDF LaTeX PostScript man pages DocBook XML
ApiGen Yes No No No No No No No No
Autoduck Yes No Yes No No No No No No
BI Documenter Yes Yes No No No No No No No
classdoc Yes No No No No No No No No
CppDoc Yes No No No No No No No No
DB Manual Yes Yes No No No No No No No
DBDesc Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes
DBScribe Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Ddoc Yes Yes4 No Yes4 Yes4 Yes4 Yes4 No Yes4
devscribe Yes No No No No No No No Yes
Doc-O-Matic Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No Yes
DOC++ Yes No No Yes7 Yes Yes7 No No No
Document! X Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Doxygen Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes
Epydoc Yes No No Yes Indirectly5 Indirectly5 No No No
ForgeDoc Yes Yes No No No No No No No
fpdoc Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes
GenHelp Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
Haddock Yes Yes No No No No No Partial No
HeaderDoc Yes No No No No No Yes No Yes
Help Generator Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
HyperSQL Yes8 No No No No No No No No8
IDLdoc Yes No No No Yes No No Yes Yes
Imagix 4D Yes No Yes No No No No No No
Javadoc Yes Indirectly6 Indirectly6 Indirectly6 Indirectly6 Indirectly6 Indirectly6 Indirectly6 Indirectly6
jGrouseDoc Yes No No No No No No No Yes
JSDoc Yes No No No No No No No No
JsDoc Toolkit Yes No No No No No No No Yes+JSON
KDOC Yes No No No No No No No No
Natural Docs Yes No No No No No No No No
NDoc Yes Yes No No No No No No No
phpDocumentor Yes Yes No Yes No No No Yes Yes
phpSimpleDoc Yes No No No No No No No No
Project Analyzer Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No
Sandcastle Yes Yes No No No No No No No
RDoc Yes Yes9 No No No No Indirectly10 No Yes9
ROBODoc Yes Indirectly Yes Indirectly5 Yes Indirectly5 Yes Yes No
Sphinx Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No
ThimbleDoc Yes No No No No No No No No
TwinText Yes Yes No No No No No No No
Universal Report Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
VBDOX Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No
VBSdoc Yes Indirectly11 No No No No No No No
VSdocman Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes
YARD Yes No No No No No No No No
HTML CHM RTF PDF LaTeX PostScript man pages DocBook XML

Note (4): Ddoc has a macro system which can be customized to output any desired format. CHM, groff (manpages), XHTML, XML, and LaTeX (so PostScript and PDF) were tested. They are not currently included in the standard distribution. Standard HTML output also is generated using macros and can be redefined.

Note (5): Though not officially supported as an output format, Epydoc uses LaTeX and PostScript as intermediate steps to produce the final PDF documentation.

Note (6): Via Doclets from Third Parties.

Note (7): DOC++ outputs LaTeX and includes templates to enable conversion to PDF or PostScript with the appropriate latex tools. Required tools however are not included with DOC++.

Note (8): HyperSQL can output UnitTests (which can be embedded with the JavaDoc like description) as XML

Note (9): RDoc currently only provides generators for CHM and XML documents in the RDoc version provided as part of the Ruby 1.9 Core.

Note (10): RDoc generates documentation for RI, which is Ruby's version of the Unix man pages.

Note (11): Requires Microsoft HTML Help Workshop .

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