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Introduction to XSL-FO

This tutorial teaches you the basics of XSL-FO (Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects) — a W3C standard for describing the formatting of XML data for output to screen, paper, or other media. PdfBroker.io uses XSL-FO as one of its primary PDF generation formats.

What You Should Already Know

Before starting this tutorial, you should have a basic understanding of:

  • XML (Extensible Markup Language)
  • XML Namespaces

What is XSL-FO?

XSL-FO stands for Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects. It is an XML-based markup language that describes the formatting of XML data for output to screen, paper, or other media.

XSL-FO is About Formatting

XSL-FO is a language for formatting XML data. The formatting defines how the data is presented — the page size, margins, fonts, colors, and layout of the output document.

XSL-FO is Formally Named XSL

XSL originally encompassed both transformation and formatting. The W3C divided it into three separate specifications:

  • XSLT — a language for transforming XML documents
  • XSL-FO — a language for formatting XML documents
  • XPath — a language for navigating in XML documents

XSL-FO is a Web Standard

XSL-FO achieved W3C Recommendation status on October 15, 2001. It is a stable, mature standard supported by multiple implementations.