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W3C Updates XML Formatting Standard to Incorporate Popular Extensions

Press release from the issuing company

Dec. 5, 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.

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