XML 2002, Baltimore

The XSL Formatting Objects specification has been a published recommendation for over a year. During that time a number of commercial XSL-FO implementations have become available that make it possible to use XSL-FO for true production-quality creation of printed documents. While there are functionality limitations in XSL 1.0 that limit the types of page layouts that can be created, the page layouts that are supported are sufficient for most technical documentation, such as user manuals, maintenance manuals, and so on. This paper evaluates the XSL 1.0 specification and the currently-available implementations against the print requirements typical of a variety of document types, including technical documents, magazines, and newspapers. We then report our experience in using XSL-FO with commercial tools to produce hardware user manuals for a line of consumer computer peripherals. We discuss the XSLT and XSL issues, as well as XSL-FO extensions that may be required to satisfy typical print production requirements. Finally, we provide a set of recommendations, based on the current state of the XSL specification and the current state of tools, as to when the use of XSL-FO is appropriate and which XSL-FO implementations are best suited to which tasks or disallowed by certain sets of requirements