PDF->XML without FO-fuzz or good stylesheet-editor?

[dunklervater]

Hello group,
our shop might be faced with producing pdfs from XML soon.
The XML can be counted on to at least well-formed, if not valid.

It seems that the normal way of producing a pdf from XML is normally
either
a. going from XML to FO via XSLT and to PDF via a FOP
b. going from XML to TeX via XSLT and to PDF via TeX/LaTeX
c. doing your own raw pdf from XML

"c." is much too cumbersome for us.
"b" is out of the question for us, as nobody has the least experience
with TeX

So...

....either we do it the "a" way, but would then need a very good
stylesheet editor,
in which we can visually design the page layout before.

....or there is an easier was I have not thought of (of course we could
be doing it by
automating structured framemaker, but we would like a more generic way
of doing it)

I would be most grateful for any input.
Thanks in advance,
Bye.
FK.

 

[Peter Flynn]

Hello group,
our shop might be faced with producing pdfs from XML soon.
The XML can be counted on to at least well-formed, if not valid.

It seems that the normal way of producing a pdf from XML is normally
either
a. going from XML to FO via XSLT and to PDF via a FOP
b. going from XML to TeX via XSLT and to PDF via TeX/LaTeX
c. doing your own raw pdf from XML

"c." is much too cumbersome for us.
"b" is out of the question for us, as nobody has the least experience
with TeX

There are probably many people who do, though, and it has the
advantage that LaTeX already has a very thorough "understanding"
of what a document is and how to create one: a huge amount of the
formatting requirements can be automated using this method.

So...

...either we do it the "a" way, but would then need a very good
stylesheet editor, in which we can visually design the page layout before.

Are you having a designer design the page layout or is this DIY?

///Peter

 

[Mark]

our shop might be faced with producing pdfs from XML soon.
The XML can be counted on to at least well-formed, if not valid.

It seems that the normal way of producing a pdf from XML is
normally either
a. going from XML to FO via XSLT and to PDF via a FOP
b. going from XML to TeX via XSLT and to PDF via TeX/LaTeX
c. doing your own raw pdf from XML

"c." is much too cumbersome for us.
"b" is out of the question for us, as nobody has the least
experience with TeX

Another option to consider is XML+CSS. YesLogic's Prince product is
probably the best out there for advanced CSS 2.1 support.

http://www.princexml.com/

(I see Prince passes the Acid2 test.)

 

[dunklervater]

There are probably many people who do, though, and it has the
advantage that LaTeX already has a very thorough "understanding"
of what a document is and how to create one: a huge amount of the
formatting requirements can be automated using this method.

This might be so, but it is so much terra incognita for us.

Are you having a designer design the page layout or is this DIY?

Either we ourselves or together with the client. Thing is, in any case
we would
either have to mimick a certain layout very closely or have the freedom
to easily do any layout.

Thanks for the answer.
Cheers.