Configuration is based on the Configurable and Configuration interfaces of avalon: org.apache.avalon.framework.configuration.Configurable org.apache.avalon.framework.configuration.Configuration A type that implements Configurable can be configured by calling its method configure(Configuration configuration), where the argument is the Configuration object that holds the user configuration settings. It can also be configured by calling the static method ContainerUtil.configure(object, cfg) of the class ContainerUtil = org.apache.avalon.framework.container.ContainerUtil This method checks if object implements Configurable. If not, no configuration is attempted. The following classes implement Configurable: render.AbstractRenderer and its subclasses (all renderers). Only render.pdf.PDFRenderer and render.ps.PSRenderer have meaningful implementations of the configure method. The command line module configures each renderer from the user configuration file with the subconfiguration renderers/renderer[@mime=$mimetype]. svg.PDFTranscoder svg.PDFDocumentGraphics2D. This class is configured by svg.PDFTranscoder via ContainerUtil.configure(graphics, this.cfg). In addition render.ps.AbstractPSTranscoder has a member Configuration cfg. It configures graphics via ContainerUtil.configure(graphics, this.cfg). The graphics are of type render.ps.AbstractPSDocumentGraphics2D, which does not implement Configurable, so that no configuration takes place. render.pdf.PDFRenderer and svg.PDFDocumentGraphics2D both call fonts.FontSetup.buildFontListFromConfiguration(cfg) and pdf.PDFFilterList.buildFilterMapFromConfiguration(cfg). Configuration info is used by: fonts.FontSetup.buildFontListFromConfiguration(cfg). It uses fonts/font/font-triplet from the renderer subconfiguration. pdf.PDFFilterList.buildFilterMapFromConfiguration(cfg). It uses filterList/value from the renderer subconfiguration render.ps.PSRenderer.configure(cfg). It uses auto-rotate-landscape as a Boolean.