Customizing PDF output

Example of PDF output customization with a custom transformation type.

Create a new plug-in directory com.example.print-pdf into DITA-OT plugins directory.

Create a plug-in configuration file plugin.xml, declare the new transformation type print-pdf and dependencies.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<plugin id="com.example.print-pdf">
  <require plugin="org.dita.pdf2"/>
  <feature extension="dita.conductor.transtype.check" value="print-pdf"/>
  <feature extension="dita.transtype.print" value="print-pdf"/>
  <feature extension="dita.conductor.target.relative" file="integrator.xml"/>
</plugin>

Add an Ant script integrator.xml to define the transformation type.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<project name="com.example.print-pdf">
  <target name="dita2print-pdf.init">
    <property name="customization.dir" location="${dita.plugin.com.example.print-pdf.dir}/cfg"/>
  </target>
  <target name="dita2print-pdf" depends="dita2print-pdf.init, dita2pdf2"/>
</project>

Add a cfg/catalog.xml file to take custom XSLT stylesheets into use.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<catalog prefer="system" xmlns="urn:oasis:names:tc:entity:xmlns:xml:catalog">
  <uri name="cfg:fo/attrs/custom.xsl" uri="fo/attrs/custom.xsl"/>
  <uri name="cfg:fo/xsl/custom.xsl" uri="fo/xsl/custom.xsl"/>
</catalog>

Add attribute and variable overrides to cfg/fo/attrs/custom.xsl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                version="2.0">
  <!-- Change page size to A4 -->
  <xsl:variable name="page-width">210mm</xsl:variable>
  <xsl:variable name="page-height">297mm</xsl:variable>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Add XSLT overrides to cfg/fo/xsl/custom.xsl

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
                xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
                xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"
                version="2.0">
  <!-- Move figure title to top and description to bottom -->
  <xsl:template match="*[contains(@class,' topic/fig ')]">
    <fo:block xsl:use-attribute-sets="fig">
      <xsl:call-template name="commonattributes"/>
      <xsl:if test="not(@id)">
        <xsl:attribute name="id">
          <xsl:call-template name="get-id"/>
        </xsl:attribute>
      </xsl:if>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="*[contains(@class,' topic/title ')]"/>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(contains(@class,' topic/title ') or contains(@class,' topic/desc '))]"/>
      <xsl:apply-templates select="*[contains(@class,' topic/desc ')]"/>
    </fo:block>
  </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

Add variable definition file cfg/common/vars/en.xml for English to override generated text.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<vars xmlns="http://www.idiominc.com/opentopic/vars">
  <!-- Remove dot from list number -->
  <variable id="Ordered List Number"><param ref-name="number"/></variable>
  <!-- Change unordered list bullet to an em dash -->
  <variable id="Unordered List bullet">&#x2014;</variable>
</vars>

The plug-in directory should have the layout and files:

com.example.print-pdf/
  cfg/
    common/
      vars/
        en.xml
    fo/
      attrs/
        custom.xsl
      xsl/
        custom.xsl
    catalog.xml
  integrator.xml
  plugin.xml

Run integration process to install the plug-in and take the print-pdf transformation type into use.

DITA Open Toolkit, version 1.8.M2

Customizing PDF output