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  4. <p>DITA Open Toolkit</p>
  5. <hr>
  6. </div></header><nav role="toc"><ul><li><a href="../index.html">DITA Open Toolkit 2.3</a></li><li><a href="../release-notes/index.html">Release Notes</a></li><li><a href="../getting-started/index.html">Getting Started</a></li><li><a href="../user-guide/index.html">User Guide</a></li><li><a href="../parameters/index.html">Parameter Reference</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/index.html">Developer Reference</a><ul><li><a href="../dev_ref/DITA-OTArchitecture.html">DITA-OT Architecture</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/extending-the-ot.html">Extending the DITA-OT</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/plugin-creating.html">Creating plug-ins</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/plugin-extension-points.html">Extension points</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization.html">Customizing PDF output</a><ul><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-transformation-history.html">History of the PDF transformation</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization-approaches.html">PDF customization approaches</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization-plugin-types.html">Types of custom PDF plug-ins</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-plugin-structure.html">PDF plug-in structure</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization-example.html">Simple PDF plug-in example</a></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization-best-practices.html">Customization best practices</a></li><li class="active"><a href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization-resources.html">Custom PDF plug-in resources</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="../dev_ref/migration.html">Migrating customizations</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="../user-guide/dita-and-dita-ot-resources.html">DITA Resources</a></li></ul></nav><main role="main"><article role="article" aria-labelledby="ariaid-title1">
  7. <h1 class="title topictitle1" id="ariaid-title1">Resources for custom PDF plug-ins</h1>
  8. <div class="body refbody"><p class="shortdesc">There are several external resources that can help you generate and refine custom PDF plug-ins for the DITA
  9. Open Toolkit.</p>
  10. <section class="section"><h2 class="title sectiontitle">PDF Plugin Generator</h2>
  11. <p class="p">This online tool, developed and maintained by Jarno Elovirta, enables you to generate a PDF customization
  12. plug-in automatically.</p>
  13. <p class="p">The application at
  14. <a class="xref" href="http://dita-generator.elovirta.com/" target="_blank">dita-generator.elovirta.com</a> walks you through the process of creating a custom PDF plug-in and allows
  15. you to adjust a variety of settings for your PDF output. For example, you can:</p>
  16. <ul class="ul">
  17. <li class="li">Define the target environment, selecting from the most current and two previous versions of the DITA-OT</li>
  18. <li class="li">Select the XSL formatting engine (FOP, Antenna House Formatter, or RenderX XEP)</li>
  19. <li class="li">Specify page size, columns, and margins</li>
  20. <li class="li">Select from (limited) options for headers and footers</li>
  21. <li class="li">Specify layout options for chapters</li>
  22. <li class="li">Select formatting for the following publication components:
  23. <ul class="ul">
  24. <li class="li">Normal text</li>
  25. <li class="li">Headings (levels one through four)</li>
  26. <li class="li">Titles for sections and examples</li>
  27. <li class="li">Tables and figures</li>
  28. <li class="li">Notes and examples</li>
  29. <li class="li">Lists (unordered, ordered, and definition)</li>
  30. <li class="li">Code blocks and pre-formatted text</li>
  31. <li class="li">Inline elements such as links and trademarks</li>
  32. </ul>
  33. <p class="p">For each component, you can specify: </p>
  34. <ul class="ul">
  35. <li class="li">Font family, size, weight, and style</li>
  36. <li class="li">Color and background color</li>
  37. <li class="li">Alignment, indentation, spacing, and padding</li>
  38. </ul></li>
  39. </ul>
  40. <div class="note tip note_tip"><span class="note__title tiptitle">Tip:</span> The PDF Plugin Generator should be your first stop as you start developing a brand-new PDF
  41. customization plug-in.</div>
  42. </section>
  43. <section class="section"><h2 class="title sectiontitle"><cite class="cite">DITA for Print: A DITA Open Toolkit Workbook</cite> (2013)</h2>
  44. <p class="p">Authored by Leigh W. White, DITA Specialist at IXIASOFT, and published by XML Press, walks readers through
  45. developing a PDF customization from scratch. Here is an excerpt from the back cover:</p>
  46. <blockquote class="lq"><cite class="cite">DITA for Print</cite> is for anyone who wants to learn how to create PDFs using the DITA Open Toolkit
  47. without learning everything that there is to know about XSL-FO, XSLT, or XPath, or even about the DITA Open
  48. Toolkit itself. <cite class="cite">DITA for Print</cite> is written for non-programmers, by a non-programmer, and although it
  49. is written for people who have a good understanding of the DITA standard, you don't need a technical background
  50. to get custom PDFs up and running quickly.</blockquote>
  51. <p class="p">This is an excellent, long-needed resource that was developed for DITA-OT 1.8.</p>
  52. <div class="note important note_important"><span class="note__title importanttitle">Important:</span>
  53. <cite class="cite">DITA for Print</cite> recommends copying entire files from the PDF2 plug-in to your custom plug-in. The
  54. DITA-OT project does not recommend this practice. Instead, we suggest you copy only the specific attribute sets
  55. and templates that you want to override. Following this practice will more cleanly isolate your customizations
  56. from the DITA-OT code, which will make it easier for you to update your plug-ins to work with future versions of
  57. the DITA-OT.</div>
  58. </section>
  59. <section class="section"><h2 class="title sectiontitle"><cite class="cite">DITA for Practitioners: Volume 1, Architecture and Technology</cite> (2012)</h2>
  60. <p class="p">Authored by Eliot Kimber and published by XML Press, this seminal resource contains a chapter dedicated to the
  61. DITA Open Toolkit: “Running, Configuring, and Customizing the Open Toolkit”. In addition to a robust overview of
  62. DITA-OT customization and extension, the chapter contains a detailed example of customizing a PDF plug-in to
  63. specify 7" x 10" paper size and custom fonts for body text and headers.</p>
  64. <p class="p">The DITA-OT chapter in <cite class="cite">DITA for Practitioners: Volume 1</cite> was written for DITA-OT 1.5.4, which was
  65. the latest stable version at the time it was written.</p>
  66. </section>
  67. </div>
  68. <nav role="navigation" class="related-links"><div class="familylinks"><div class="parentlink"><strong>Parent topic:</strong> <a class="link" href="../dev_ref/pdf-customization.html" title="You can create custom DITA-OT plug-ins that build on the default DITA to PDF transformation. Plug-ins can customize covers and page layouts, modify formatting, override logic of the default PDF plug-in, and much more.">Customizing PDF output</a></div></div></nav></article></main></body></html>