Special Edition Using XML, Second Edition

Formatting Objects and Properties

When the W3C first moved from a complex stylesheet language such as DSSSL to XSL, the standard quickly became very comprehensive and complex. That led to the XSL standard being split into XSL and XSL Transformations. Remaining as the bulk of the XSL Recommendation are Formatting Objects, which is a vocabulary that enables authors to express very high-level formatting in an XML-based syntax. Formatting Objects allow authors to control page layout, document pagination, and typesetting styles. When used in conjunction with XSL Transformations, the Formatting Objects allow very tight control over the formatting of XML documents for print applications, such as output to PDF files.

For the purposes of layout and visual ...