Advantages
- XML language – Because it is an XML language, only an XSLT transform (and an XSLT processor) is required to generate XSL-FO code from any XML language. One can easily write a document in TEI or DocBook, and transform it into HTML for web viewing or PDF (through an FO processor) for printing. In fact, there are many pre-existing TEI and DocBook XSLTs for both of these purposes.
- Ease of use – Another advantage of XSL-FO is the relative ease of use. Much of the functionality of the language is based on work from CSS, so a CSS user will be familiar with the basics of the markup attributes. Understanding what a specific section of an FO document will look like is usually quite easy.
- Low cost – Compared with commercial typesetting and page layout products, XSL-FO can offer a much lower cost solution when it otherwise meets the typographic and layout requirements (see below). The initial cost of ownership is low (zero if the free implementations, such as Apache FOP and xmlroff, meet your requirements), especially compared to the cost of commercial composition tools. The skills required (primarily XSLT programming) are widely available. There are a number of good books on XSL-FO as well as online resources and an active user community.
- Multi-lingual – XSL-FO has been designed to work for all written human languages and the implementations have largely achieved that goal. This makes XSL-FO particularly well suited for composing documents localized into a large number of national languages where the requirement is to have a single tool set that can compose all the language versions of documents. This is especially valuable for technical documentation for things like consumer electronics, where Asian and Middle Eastern languages are important because those parts of world represent huge markets for things like mobile phones and computer peripherals.
- Mature standard – With the publication of XSL-FO 1.1, XSL-FO is proving to be a mature standard with a number of solid commercial and non-commercial implementations. There is no other comparable standard for page composition.
Read more about this topic: XSL Formatting Objects
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