DITA PDF5-ML Plugin

PDF5-ML is an open source plug-in developed by Antenna House to produce PDFs with AH XSL Formatter. It is intended to replace PDF2; the default plugin provided with the DITA-OT.

Why choose PDF5-ML?

Easier to use
Easier to maintain
More powerful
Easier to change and modify
Simple enough for non-technical authors to utilize
Fewer steps to creating a PDF
Multiple languages in one document
FREE!

Overview

DITA PDF5-ML plugin simplifies PDF output customization w/ a main XML file and subsequent XML files for each language. The main XML file contains the most commonly used style properties and is easy to read. Style can also be dynamically applied by function call.
PDF 5 is designed to work w/ i18n index library and AH Formatter, which provides multilingual back of the book indexing and output to various PDF formats. Applying style by language is made easy, simply add your language file.

PDF5-ML in Detail

DITA elements & attributes for XSL-FO output are supported w/o using xsl:attribute-set instruction and @use-attribute sets, since it is difficult to control dynamic style assignment w/ @use-attribute sets
The plugin functions w/ AH Formatter by default, but plugin’s build.xml file can be rewritten to work w/ other formatting engines. PDF5-ML is open source.
DITA to XSL-FO stylesheets are written in XSLT 2.0
The stylesheet instructions can be customized by adding another stylesheet to the customization folder.
The styles used in PDF2 are defined by xsl:attribute-set. This means you cannot define styles by language.
PDF5-ML can define styles and variables by languages. As a result it is more scalable than PDF2.