Overview

As part of our commitment to offer the best XSL-FO software available Antenna House is proud to release this milestone in the development of Formatter.

Antenna House XSL Formatter V3.4 offers all the features (GUI, support for over 50 languages, PDF generation), W3C compliance, extensions and formatting capabilities of our previous Version 2.5 plus the significantly enhanced performance, unlimited document size and SVG support, vector support for EMF and WMF, CMYK support, new output capabilities, MathML native drawing and numerous other enhancements.

Conforms to XSL V1.0 W3C Recommendation
Antenna House XSL Formatter V3.4 can transform an XML document into XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) by using XSL stylesheets or work directly with an XSL-FO file, format the XSL-FO, and output it to either a PDF file or if on a Windows system directly to a printer.

XSL Formatter V3.4 is based on Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0 W3C Recommendation 15 October 2001.

New in XSL Formatter V3.4 :

• Format virtually any size document

  With the release of V3 Antenna House Formatter can now format a document of virtually any size whether it is a publication, tens of thousands of invoices, reports or personalized one to one documents. This overcomes the V2 limitation of approximately 4,000 pages in a single document.

• High speed

  V3 is the fastest XSL formatting software available and is significantly faster. In batch mode V3 can start to produce PDF output immediately from the inputted XSL-FO file.

• Most compliant with the W3C Specification

  V3 faithfully conforms to the numerous elements and properties defined by the W3C specification. The overflow property and table-layout="auto" are also supported, for example. See also XSL-FO Conformance.

• Multilingual Language

  V3 supports almost any language which is supported by Unicode including Latin, Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese (Hiragana and Katakana), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Hangul, Arabic, Hebrew and Thai. It offers the abilities to write in vertical mode, to run the text from right to left as in Arabic and Hebrew and also to create multilingual documents with language mixtures on the same page and even on the same line.

  Multilingual support is further enhanced with the add-on XSL Formatter Hyphenation Option . The Hyphenation Option integrates the very powerful hyphenation algorithms from Computer Hyphenation Ltd., which enhances the quality of hyphenation and greatly simplifies setting up Formatter to hyphenate over 40 different languages.

  For additional information please visit Computer Hyphenation's website.

• PDF output on a server with PDF direct creation module

  An unlimited number of users can now convert XML to PDF on a web server by utilizing the Antenna House developed PDF direct creation engine which outputs formatted results to PDF files by itself. The license of Acrobat is unnecessary. Antenna House has added numerous extensions to provide for document information in the PDF, security and many other functions.

• SVG output

  With the new SVG Output module it is now possible to create SVG 1.1, SVG Basic, and SVG Tiny files using XSL Formatter V3.4. This function requires XSL Formatter SVG Output Option.

• New SVG, MathML, EMF and WMF support for output module

  As part of the output module, V3 retains the vector information for SVG, EMF and WMF thus enhancing the quality of output images and meeting the increasing demand for delivery of vectors in the output. XSL Formatter V3.4 makes it possible to draw high-resolution MathML in PDF by using XSL Formatter MathML Option.

• Integration Interface

  Antenna House provides Command-line, .NET, COM, Java interfaces and C++/C interface. The various interfaces support streaming input/output which makes for the easy system integration of Formatter with web applications, content management systems, and other software products.

• Possible to get the .NET native parser output

  With the .NET Interface when XSL-FO is generated from XML and XSL using an XSLT processor that transformation can now be passed directly and seamlessly to Formatter without passing it through a temporary file first.

  The .NET and the COM interfaces can now also get the DOM directly without passing through a temporary file. This has the effect of slightly improving performance.

• Direct Printer output

  The Windows version also supports the ability to send the converted results directly to any Windows based printer without the need to first create a PDF document.It's also possible to get the formatted result and print it immediately by using GUI.

• Searching on a screen

  On a screen, it's possible to search a sequence of characters or a property in the formatted result.

XSL Formatter V3.4 can format XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) directly or XML documents by using XSL stylesheets. The output can be directed to PDF or on the Windows version to any Windows supported printer. For the Windows version of Formatter the formatted result can also be displayed in Antenna House's GUI.

The following illustrates Formatters workflow:

• When an XSL Formatting Object is inputted, XSL Formatter V3.4 formats it immediately.
• When an XML document and an XSL stylesheet are inputted, XSL Formatter V3.4 transforms them to XSL Formatting Object using XSLT processor and formats the XSL Formatting Object.
• When a WordML document is inputted, XSL Formatter transforms it into XSL Formatting Objects using XSLT processor and formats the XSL Formatting Objects.
• When an XML document and the Project file of XSL Report Designer areboth inputted, XSL Formatter V3.4 transforms it into XSL Formatting Objects using XSL Report Designer.

XSL Formatter V3.4 is based on Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.0. Implementation of Formatting Objects and Formatting Properties are shown at XSL-FO Conformance.

New Enhancements of XSL Formatter V3.4 from V3.3 are as follows:

• PANTONE® Option allows only the color name of PANTONE® to be specified for separation color (spot color). no-LT
• show-destination is effective for outputting of PDF with Distiller. no-LT
• axf:document-info has been extended, and the magnification and the action, etc. when opening PDF can be specified. The document information dialog to specify those was also newly added.
• <a> of SVG is supported.
• Line Numbering is now able to be output. no-LT
• Extension for European Rule is newly provided. For instance, it makes the adjustment of the space inside guillemet in French possible. The document which is compliant with "Interinstitutional style guide" (EU) can also be made. no-LT
• axf:avoid-widow-words was added to specify so that the last line of the paragraph does not become one word. no-LT
• overflow="error-if-overflow" is supported.
• When layout="auto" is specified at table, the number of judgments row can be controlled by table-auto-layout-limit of the Option Setting File.

Functions with no-LT are not supported by XSL Formatter V3.4 Lite.

• Please see "Font Setting" for supported fonts.
• Please confirm the necessary environment variables at "Environment Variable" in this manual.
• Please confirm the installed modules at "Installed Modules" in this manual.
• The printing function on the Windows version depends on Windows-based printer drivers.
• For WindowsNT4.0, ServicePack 6a and Internet Explorer 6.0 or later are required. In Internet Explorer it is necessary to add 'Hebrew Text Support' or 'Arabic Text Support' or 'Thai Text Support' in the Multi-Language Support option when working with those languages.

libstdc++.so.5 in Linux

XSL Formatter V3.4 uses an XSLT processor for converting XML documents and XSL stylesheets into XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). In the Windows version, either MSXML4 or MSXML3 is used as the standard XSLT processor. Windows users have the option to use a different XSLT processor if desired. Solaris/Linux/Macintosh/HP-UX/AIX users set their desired XSLT processor through the "Environment Variable" or "Option Setting File". For Windows XP, Internet Explore 6 or later MSXML3 is already installed. There is no need for the user to separately install MSXML3.

XSL Formatter V3.4 supports the following FO Encodings.

• UTF-8
• UTF-16
• UTF-32
• ISO-10646-UCS-2
• ISO-10646-UCS-4
• ANSI_X3.4
• ISO_646.irv
• ISO646-US
• US-ASCII
• ISO_8859-1
• latin1

Followings are supported only with XSL Formatter V3.4. These are not supported with XSL Formatter V3.4 Lite.

• Windows-31J
• Shift_JIS
• EUC-JP
• EUC-JP-FIX
• ISO-2022-JP
• GB18030
• GBK
• GB2312
• Big5
• KS_C_5601-1987
• iso-ir-149
• korean

Shift_JIS is regarded as Windows-31J. For a historical reason, Macintosh Shift_JIS and Windows Shift_JIS have no compatibility. As for the incompatible characters in Macitosh Shift_JIS, such as a number in circle, etc., it is necessary to use the character reference.

Regarding the XML document and the XSL stylesheet, it depends on the XSLT processor to be used.

XSL Formatter V3.4 Lite is a popular version of XSL Formatter V3.4, it limits some of the high-quality functions of V3.4 (hereafter Standard) and is a lower-cost alternative to V3.4 Standard. V3.4 Lite is suitable for customers who don't need the multilingual function, formatting a great deal of pages, etc. But it's still full of many other attractive functions.

• Total page number of the formatted pages are limited to 300 per 1 document. The watermark that shows the limited version is displayed on the back ground and the URL of our Website is displayed at the bottom of the pages which exceed 300.

• Arabic, Hebrew and Thai are not supported. The formatted result is not correct.

• Japanese, Chinese and Korean are not supported. Though the characters are displayed, the vertical writing mode, control of line breaking at symbols, adjustment of punctuation, etc., are not performed.

• The following XSL-FO elements/properties are not supported.

  • fo:declarations
  • fo:color-profile
  • fo:bidi-override
  • unicode-bidi
  • direction
  • writing-mode

• The auto layout of the table is not supported. table-layout="auto" is invalid. Be sure to use the fixed layout when creating a table.

• Some of Extensions are not supported.

• Impossible to input/output the Area Tree.

• CJK FO Encodings are not supported.

• Text Output is not supported.

• It's impossible to format by setting the Project file of Antenna House XSL Report Designer.

• It's impossible to format WordML without specifying a stylesheet.

FYI: no-LT sign is applied to the restricted items or described as restriction in this Online Manual.

XSL Formatter V3.4 Evaluation version has the following restrictions as compared to the product version.

• The URL of Antenna House website is shown at the bottom of all pages.
• The background watermark image, "Evaluation Version", is placed on each page.
• PDF1.3 cannot be output with the evaluation version. PDF 1.4 is output.
• Impossible to input/output the Area Tree.
• The function of MathML drawing by utilizing our direct creation module is effective. This function in the product version is an option. In order to use this function with the product version, it's necessary to purchase XSL Formatter MathML Option separately.
• SVG Output has the following restrictions.
  • Only the first one page can be outputted.
  • Font embeddong is not available.
  The SVG output function in the product version is an option. In order to use this function in the product version, you need to purchase XSL Formatter SVG Output Option separately.
• The evaluation copy expires after 90 days.
• Use of the evaluation version for an live production or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.

There are no restrictions on formatting functions except for the above mentioned.

When a customer purchases Antenna House XSL Formatter V3.4 they receive a Product Key and a Maintenance Service Key. These keys which are copied into the directory where the evaluation software has been installed removes all restrictions from the evaluation version of XSL Formatter V3.4. Without the Keys Formatter can be used for evaluation purposes only. In this case the evaluation period has no limitation. The function of XSL Formatter V3.4 Lite is limited from the function of XSL Formatter V3.4 Evaluation version.

The maintenance service key is provided at the first purchase or when the annual maintenance contract is concluded.

For further information, please refer to Q&A Page on our web site.

• XSL Formatter Q&A

Antenna House provides numerous XSL-FO samples for testing and learning purpose. Please see:

• Stylesheet Tutorial, Sample Files of Formatting Objects and Sample Stylesheets

For more information , technical support and service needs, please contact us by e-mail.

• info@antennahouse.com

The following information is necessary for the mail to our support. Please cooperate with us to do your support smoothly.

• Version of XSL Formatter
• License information (Serial No., Company name, Section and User name)
• OS environment

If you are a user of the evaluation version, please enter "evaluation version" for the serial number. In the Windows product version, you can put the required information for support to the mail text automatically by using [Help]-[Mail to Support] on the menu bar in GUI.