PS and PDF

[Kevin Conder <kconder interaccess com>]

> From: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera math toronto edu>
> 
> Could someone tell me how to turn DocBook into Postcript of PDF?

	You have the choice between two tool-chains: XSL or DSSSL.

	In the XSL tool-chain you'd use an XSLT style-sheet to transform a
DocBook/XML file into a Formatted Object (FO). Then you'd use a tool to
render this Formatted Object into PostScript or PDF.

	I'm assuming that you're using xsltproc to do the transform step.
To do the render step, there are two Open Source tools: FOP or PassiveTex.
FOP uses Java and is very immature, IMHO. The last time I checked, it
didn't support the latest XSL specification and had problems rendering
tables. I haven't tried PassiveTex yet.

	FOP: 
	http://xml.apache.org/fop/index.html
	
	PassiveTex: 
	http://www.hcu.ox.ac.uk/TEI/Software/passivetex/

	Alternately, there is a program called OpenJade that uses DSSSL 
style-sheets to render DocBook/XML into a LaTeX file. (OpenJade can
handle both SGML and XML.) Then you'd use TeX to render this LaTeX file
into PS or PDF. This is the method I use.

	I'm assuming you are using Linux. The tools for the DSSSL 
tool-chain are available as packages for Debian, RedHat, and Mandrake.
They're also discussed in the DocBook-Install mini-HOWTO:
	http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/DocBook-Install/

	BTW: I've found the docbook-apps mailing list to be a valuable
resource for questions like this. Information about subscribing to the 
docbook-apps mailing list is available at:
	http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/docbook/mailinglist/index.shtml


-- Kevin Conder, kevin kevindumpscore com