fop/docs/xml-docs/fop

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<!-- 
  Authors:
   James Tauber
   Fotis Jannidis 
   Arved Sandstrom
-->


<!-- Overview -->

<s1 title="Fop">
  <s2 title="What is FOP?">
    <p>FOP is the world's first print formatter driven by XSL formatting
       objects. It is a Java application that reads a formatting object
       tree and then turns it into a PDF document. The formatting object
       tree, can be in the form of an XML document (output by an XSLT engine
       like XT or Xalan) or can be passed in memory as a DOM Document or (in
       the case of XT) SAX events.
    </p>
    <p>The latest version of Fop is 0.17 and it supports the xsl:fo candidate release.
       You can <jump href="download.html">download</jump> 
       Fop including a precompiled version, the source code and many example files to 
       get you started. Pointers to introductions into xsl:fo can be found in the
       section <jump href="specs.html">specifications</jump>. Please be aware, that 
       Fop is at the moment not a full implementation of the basic conformance level
       of the xsl:fo standard. You can find a list of supported flow objects and properties
       in the section <jump href="implemented.html">Features</jump> and in section 
       <jump href="limitations.html">Limitations</jump> in what way this support is 
       limited.
    </p>
    <p>FOP is part of Apache's XML project. The homepage of FOP is 
       <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/fop">http://xml.apache.org/fop</jump>. A list
       of known bugs, the committers to this project and the tasks they are working on can be found 
       in the file <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/websrc/cvsweb.cgi/xml-fop/">Status</jump> in the
       root of your Fop distribution.
    </p>
  </s2>

  <s2 title="FOP Objectives">
    <p>The goals of the Apache XML FOP Project are to deliver an XSL FO->PDF formatter that is compliant to at least the Basic
       conformance level described in the W3C Candidate Recommendation 21 November 2000, and that complies with the 11 March 1999 Portable Document
       Format Specification (Version 1.3) from Adobe Systems. 
    </p>

    <p>Conformance to the XML 1.0 Recommendation, XSLT 1.0 Recommendation and the XML Namespaces Recommendation is
       understood. Other relevant documents, such as the XPath and XLink Working Drafts, are referenced as necessary. The FOP
       Project will attempt to use the latest version of evolving specifications. 
    </p>

    <p>Secondary goals of the FOP Project (also, "FOP") are desirable requirements that also have a high priority. 
    </p>

    <p>One secondary goal of the FOP Project is to deliver a follow-on version of the formatter that is compliant to the Extended
       conformance level described in the XSL FO. Any formatting objects that cannot be translated into PDF will be explicitly
       identified as such. 
    </p>

    <p>Another secondary goal is to promote the conversion of SVG into PDF. The most natural mechanism for doing so is within
       fo:instream-foreign-object FO's. The powerful graphics offered by both SVG and PDF are a natural fit, and it is
       desirable that FOP natively supports an SVG content processor for the fo:instream-foreign-object. 
    </p>

   <p>A final secondary goal is the continued refinement of the FOP design and implementation. In particular, maintaining the
      separation between formatting and rendering, continuing to support the AWT Viewer renderer (backend), and providing
      new renderers, are all desirable objectives. 
   </p>
  </s2>

</s1>