Re: Convert xml to PDF

> Why cannot I generate PDF directly from xml and xsl
> combination what are the issues?

You can only generate output from XSLT if you have an XML description of
the output format (unless you just use the text output and place the 
whole pdf document in a single text node)

But even if you get past that, you would then have to write a
typesetting engine in XSLT which would be no fun at all.

firstly you'd have to invent an XML encoding of font metrics
then get the XSLT stylesheet to read these in (so it knows the printed
lengths of character strings) implement line breaking hyphenation and
page breaking algorithms etc etc etc.

It is far more reasonable to use XSLT to an existing formatter
so output XSL FO then use an FO formatter, or output TeX and use
(La)TeX, or even output rtf and use word (although I wouldn't really
call word a formating system).

David

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