docs/xml-docs/fop/faq.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE faqs SYSTEM "../dtd/faq-v10.dtd">
<faqs title="Frequently Asked Questions">
<faq>
    <question>About the FAQ</question>
		<answer>
      <p>
       Here we have some answers to common questions about FOP. This only covers
       general information about getting started with FOP and pointers to more
       information. 
      </p>
      <p>
        For up to date information or more details please visit the Fop FAQ site.
        The site uses Jyve to provide an interactive FAQ: 
         <jump href="http://www.owal.co.uk:8090/asf/servlet/asf/screen/DisplayTopics/action/SetAll/project_id/18/faq_id/276">http://www.OWAL.co.uk:8090/</jump>
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>
<faq>
    <question>What is FOP?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
        FOP is a print formatter for XSL formatting objects.
      </p>
      <p>
        It can be used to render an XML file containing XSL formatting objects
        into a page layout. The main target is PDF but other rendering targets
        are supported, such as AWT, PCL, text and direct printing.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>
<faq>
    <question>How does FOP interact with other Apache Projects?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
        FOP is distributed with <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/cocoon">Cocoon</jump> as a PDF serializer for XSL (FO) documents.
      </p>
      <p>
        <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/batik">Batik</jump> can be used with FOP to <jump href="http://xml.apache.org/batik/svgrasterizer.html">transcode an SVG image</jump> into a PDF document.
        The mime type for PDF is "application/pdf".
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

<faq>
    <question>What is XSL (FO)?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
XSL is an XML format that is used to specify a pagination and other
styling for page layout output. XSL can be used in conjunction with
XSLT to convert from any XML format into a paginated layout ready for
printing or displaying.
      </p>
      <p>
XSL defines a set of formatting objects in xml that describes the
way pages are set up. The contents of the pages are filled from
flows which. There can be static flows that appear on every page
and the main flow which fills the body of the page.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

<faq>
    <question>What can I do with FOP?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
FOP is an application or library that converts an XSL FO document
into the paginated output. It is possible to render the output
to different targets, the main target is PDF. FOP can be run from
the command line or embedded into your Java application.
      </p>
      <p>
The XSL FO can be delivered to FOP with XML(XSL FO), XML+XSL or
SAX events.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

<faq>
    <question>How can I contribute?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
There is always plenty of things to do.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

<faq>
    <question>How do I author XSL documents?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
Often XSL FO is created from XML and XSLT. There are some
standard XML markups such as Docbook that can be converted
into XSL FO and other XML formats.
      </p>
      <p>
There are some XSL authoring tools that may help you to
author XSL FO documents or the XML and XSLT documents.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

<faq>
    <question>How can I insert special character "X"?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
All the characters you need are available at
<jump href="http://www.unicode.org/charts/">http://www.unicode.org/charts/</jump>.
If you need a character it will be there. Once you have found the hex
or decimal code for the character then you can use this in you xml
document. It will be in the form &amp;#&lt;decimal value&gt;; or 
&amp;#x&lt;hex value&gt;;.
      </p>
      <p>
You must have a font that supports the character you need otherwise
it will replace it with a "#" in the output.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

<faq>
    <question>How can I see a demo?</question>
    <answer>
      <p>
        There will be a Java Webstart demo sometime in the future.
This will use the AWT viewer to display FO documents.
      </p>
  </answer>
</faq>

</faqs>