Re: [doc] DITA files PDF output

Hi Jean,

I think posting a pdf would be a good idea for people to look at the 
output etc without the need to build it.

One question I haven't asked about pdf output.  What is the default 
output in terms of fonts/styles etc for docs?  Does IBM have a standard 
they use, or is it related to something else?  I'm certain that some 
type of output specs exist that have been found to create good output.  
I haven't looked around for this information, as I think it would take a 
while to find good information on this.  I would guess that we might 
need to find font(s) that everyone can build the docs with.

It looks like Helvetica is used for everything within the xslt scripts, 
with sizes of 30, 24, 20, 16,11, 8.
http://xml.apache.org/fop/fonts.html  has a bit more information on 
fonts related to FOP.

Something I found out today.  Transforming a doc on OS X, the Helvetica 
fonts were using Arial instead.  I noticed the generated PDF Jeff has on 
the site also shows this when using Acrobat under x86Linux.  On OSX the 
transformed document we created today looked really bad.  When I 
generated the same thing on x86 linux, it looked great.  I am new to 
transformations through FOP etc, so am a bit uncertain about some of 
this.  I tried going to the adobe site that FOP points to and 
registered, but of course nothing works.  I'll get back to that again.  
But, I am a bit uncertain as to the Used font being different that the 
Original Font?  I do know in postscript that  if a font is not available 
jump to the next font, so I would guess this is the same.  FOP says 
Helvetica is standard, but it doesn't seem to be used.
Also, I think the PDF viewer has a bit to do with what the PDF looks 
like.  As  acrobat and  gnome-nautilus  have a bit of difference in the 
view.

I don't think the docs look all that bad, just some cleaning up and 
trying to figure out some of the mysteries of PDF output :-) 

thanks,
scott

Jean T. Anderson wrote:

> For anyone who is inclined to fiddle, can you include some basic 
> instructions on how to produce a pdf, let's say for just the Getting 
> Started guide, using saxon and the default DITA xslt stylesheets as a 
> starting point? Are these style sheets included in any of the 
> downloads from http://incubator.apache.org/derby/manuals?  Also, maybe 
> it would help to post a pdf that exhibits the issues you and Scott 
> discussed.
>
> -jean
>
>
> Jeff Levitt wrote:
>
> > Another issue I was hoping to discuss is the PDF
> > output of the DITA files.  Scott Hutinger and I spent
> > some time using saxon and fop to create pdf's from the
> > dita, and we found that some of the issues we are
> > having with it can be worked around (for example, a
> > solution Scott found for the lack of a generated
> > index), but also some that we need more knowledge of
> > XSL to fix.  For example, when one page links to
> > another page, the link doesnt show the title of the
> > new page, it instead displays an id for the page,
> > which is jibberish.  Is there anyone out there that
> > knows XSL enough to be able to modify the DITA XSL
> > files so that they display information correctly? There are currently 
> > three books available on the Derby
> > Manuals page that are already in DITA, so if anyone
> > wants to work with them, they are already available.
> >