News Release: W3C Updates XML Formatting Standard to Incorporate Popular Extensions

In response to user and vendor feedback, W3C has revised the widely  
deployed XML formatting standard XSL-FO 1.0 to support the creation  
of back-of-the-book style indexes, revision bars, PDF bookmarks, and  
to include other popular features.
For more information, please contact Janet Daly, W3C Global  
Communications Officer, at +1 617 253 5884 <janet@w3.org>, or the W3C  
Communications Team representative in your region.


W3C Updates XML Formatting Standard to Incorporate Popular Extensions

XSL-FO Improvements Benefit Printing, Online Display

Web Resources

	This press release
	  In English: http://www.w3.org/2006/12/xsl11-pressrelease.html.en
           In Japanese: http://www.w3.org/2006/12/xsl11- 
pressrelease.html.ja

          XSL-FO 1.1 Recommendation
		 http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/REC-xsl11-20061205/

http://www.w3.org/ -- 5 December 2006 -- In response to user and  
vendor feedback, W3C has revised the widely deployed XML formatting  
standard XSL-FO 1.0 to support the creation of back-of-the-book style  
indexes, revision bars, PDF bookmarks, and to include other popular  
features. The new XSL-FO 1.1 Recommendation increases  
interoperability by standardizing these features and other  
enhancements, formerly only available as proprietary extensions.

XSL-FO 1.1 Adds New Functionality

As a result of extensive experience with XSL-FO for printing and  
display XML — more than 20 commercial implementations supporting more  
than 50 languages — users and vendors alike called upon the XSL  
Working Group to standardize a number of popular, but proprietary,  
extensions. These included support for back-of-the-book style  
indexed, revision bars, PDF bookmarks, conditional text "markers" in  
tables (for example to support partial sums of financial data),  
access to the number of the last page of a group, and multiple flows  
on a page.

In addition to adding these features to XSL-FO 1.1, the XSL Working  
Group enhanced a number of XSL-FO 1.0 features, providing for  
multiple color profile references, more complex page numbering  
schemes, and clarifications for internationalization.

These changes, and the incorporation of corrected errata, represent  
the incremental evolution of the XSL-FO 1.0 specification. The  
Working Group has made these changes with careful attention both to  
backwards compatibility and to interoperability between existing  
implementations.

New Opportunities as XSL-FO 2.0 Work Begins

At the W3C International Workshop on the future of the Extensible  
Stylesheet Language (XSL-FO) Version 2.0 in October 2006, nearly 40  
participants agreed (see the report that work should begin on XSL-FO  
2.0. W3C expects this work to begin in earnest in January 2007. Non- 
Member organizations interested in participating are encouraged to  
contact W3C for information on joining the Consortium and this  
Working Group in particular.

Industry Leaders and Experts Contribute to Strength of XSL-FO 1.1

The XSL-FO 1.1 specification was developed by the XSL-FO Subgroup of  
the XSL Working Group, and approved for publication by the W3C XSL  
Working Group (WG). During the development of XSL 1.1 the members of  
the XSL-FO Subgroup included contributions from Adobe Systems Inc;  
HP; IBM; Inventive Designers; Isogen; Pageflex; PTC-Arbortext;  
RenderX; and Sun Microsystems.

Contact Americas, Australia --
     Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East-
     Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia --
     Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium  
where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work  
together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission  
through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to  
ensure long-term growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are  
Members of the Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer  
Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the  
USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics  
(ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan,and has  
additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http:// 
www.w3.org/

Received on Tuesday, 5 December 2006 14:52:00 UTC