Overview

AH Formatter V7.1 is a PDF publishing software that formats XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO), XML/HTML with CSS. (XSL-FO and CSS cannot be used together). It is compatible with XSL 1.1 (Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1), that is an XSL-FO specification for displaying and printing XML documents beautifully. It also supports the page formatting with the layout specified by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets Level 2) and formatting with the layout specified by the page media specifications defined in CSS3 (Cascading Style Sheets Level 3) that are being formulated by W3C. This makes it possible to use HTML/XML with CSS to output various documents, forms, high-quality page formatting such as books, and page media such as printing and PDF.

The following six products are prepared according to the formatting capability of AH Formatter V7.1

• AH Formatter V7.1

  XSL-FO formatting, HTML formatting using CSS are available. As long as there is no notice especially in this document, when it is called AH Formatter V7.1, it is a generic term of six types of all products in many cases, but it may point an individual product guessing from the context.

• AH XSL Formatter V7.1

  XSL-FO formatting is available. HTML formatting using CSS is not available.

• AH CSS Formatter V7.1

  HTML formatting using CSS is available. XSL-FO formatting is not available.

• AH Formatter V7.1 Lite

  This is a function limited version of AH Formatter V7.1. See About AH Formatter V7.1 Lite. As long as there is no notice especially in this document, when it is called AH Formatter V7.1 Lite, it is a generic term including AH XSL Formatter V7.1 Lite and AH CSS Formatter V7.1 Lite.

• AH XSL Formatter V7.1 Lite

  This is a function limited version of AH XSL Formatter V7.1. See About AH Formatter V7.1 Lite.

• AH CSS Formatter V7.1 Lite

  This is a function limited version of AH CSS Formatter V7.1. See About AH Formatter V7.1 Lite.

AH Formatter V7.1 provides the following features:

• Compliant with XSL 1.1

  Compliant with XSL 1.1 (Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1), which is an XSL-FO specification. AH Formatter V7.1 faithfully implements quite almost elements of the XSL specification and properties. See “XSL-FO Conformance”.

• Compliant with CSS

  AH Formatter V7.1 supports CSS 2.1 and CSS3. Page models of CSS3 is also supported, now that high-quality page formatting will be available. For details about the conformance, see “CSS Conformance”. HTML/XHTML formatting is also available except for frames, etc., in HTML. See “Formatting HTML”.

• Passes Acid2

  AH Formatter V7.1 has passed the Acid2 test published by “The Web Standard Project (WaSP)” that measures the conforming level to CSS.

• Format virtually any size document

  AH Formatter V7.1 can now format a document of virtually any size whether it is a publication, tens of thousands of invoices, reports, technical manuals, or personalized one to one documents. See “Formatting Large Document”.

• High speed formatting

  AH Formatter V7.1 processes the formatting at high speed, and generates PDF. It is the best suited for applying to the Web application such as the PDF delivery on Web etc.

• Multilingual language

  AH Formatter V7.1 supports over 70 different languages, almost any language that is supported by Unicode and also supports surrogate pairs. It offers the abilities to write in vertical mode, to run the text from right to left as in Arabic and Hebrew and also to create multilingual documents with language mixtures on the same page and even on the same line. It also offers the hyphenation processing, and the adjustment of white space before and behind the punctuation which differs according to the language and defining a custom counter style, etc. Moreover, AH Formatter V7.1 makes it possible to hyphenate more than 40 languages.

• Outputs to the various file format

  PDF Output can be done for an unlimited number of users on a server by utilizing the Antenna House developed PDF direct creation engine. The license of Acrobat is unnecessary. AH Formatter PostScript^® Output Option, XPS Output Option and SVG Output Option make PostScript^® Output, XPS Output and SVG Output available. If you subscribe, Word(docx) Output is available.

• Supports PDF/X and PDF/A

  AH Formatter V7.1 supports PDF/X. PDF/X is a specification that places much value on exchanging data and defined by ISO for printing purpose. PDF/A is also supported. PDF/A is a format for long-term preservation of an electronic document and it is also defined by ISO.

• Accessible PDF

  AH Formatter V7.1 can generate Tagged PDF and PDF/UA for enhancing the accessibility of the PDF to people with disabilities. Generating Tagged PDF or PDF/UA is required for complying with Section 508, the law of the United States that became enforceable on June 21, 2001.

• Direct Printer output

  The Windows version also supports the ability to send the converted results directly to any Windows based printer without the need to first create a PDF document. It's also possible to get the formatted result and print it immediately by using Graphical User Interface.

• Native rendering of vector Graphics

  With AH Formatter V7.1 SVG, MathML, EMF, WMF and CGM image is rendered into PDF as vector thus retaining the quality of output images. AH Formatter CGM Option is required for rendering CGM graphic.

• Supports the embedding of PDF into PDF

  An arbitrary page of other PDF can be embedded into PDF. It is possible to convert EPS into PDF and embed into PDF using this function. In the environment where Adobe Distiller and Ghostscript are installed, it can be performed automatically.

• Barcode Embedding

  Barcodes can be embedded in the document as images by using AH Formatter Barcode Generator Option.

• Supports PANTONE^® color

  The color name of PANTONE^® can be directly specified by using AH Formatter PANTONE^® Option.

• Wide array of Integration Interface

  As integration interface AH Formatter V7.1 provides Command-line Interface, .NET Interface, COM Interface, Java Interface and C/C++ Interface. (.NET and COM interfaces are available only for Windows.) All interfaces support streaming input/output which makes for the easy system integration. Also the output of the native parser of .NET (XML and XSLT output) can be directly received without going through a file. It is possible to receive DOM directly and process it with not only .NET interface but also COM interface.

• Flexible float features

  By implementing the advanced float features, it's now available to arrange the float content in an arbitrary place of the page, or in multi-column layout with column spanning of the float. See also Float Extension.

AH Formatter V7.1 formats XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO), XML with XSL stylesheet, or HTML with CSS. The formatted result will be displayed in GUI and outputted or printed to PDF. (Display and printing are available only with the Windows version.) The work flow is as shown below.

• When an (X)HTML document is inputted, AH Formatter V7.1 formats it immediately using a default HTML stylesheet.
• When an XML document or an (X)HTML document with a CSS are inputted, AH Formatter V7.1 formats it immediately.
• When an XSL Formatting Object is inputted, AH Formatter V7.1 formats it immediately.
• When an XML document and an XSL stylesheet are inputted, AH Formatter V7.1 transforms them to XSL Formatting Object using XSLT Processor and formats the XSL Formatting Object or XHTML.

Find a list of implemented XSL-FO/CSS and properties in “XSL/CSS Properties”.

New Enhancements of AH Formatter V7.1 from AH Formatter V7.0 are as follows:

• Support for Armenian and Georgian. ☞  Scripts and Languages no-LT
• Now able to specify multiple values for axf:overflow-condense / CSS -ah-overflow-condense.
• Now able to specify the lower limit value when axf:overflow-condense="line-height" is specified. ☞  axf:overflow-condense-limit-line-height / CSS -ah-overflow-condense-limit-line-height
• Now able to specify the lower limit value when axf:overflow-condense="letter-spacing" is specified. ☞  axf:overflow-condense-limit-letter-spacing / CSS -ah-overflow-condense-limit-letter-spacing
• Now able to specify whether to set text-align-last="justify" automatically after condensing the overflow. ☞  axf:condensed-text-align-last / CSS -ah-condensed-text-align-last no-LT
• Page numbers can now be specified with axf:float-move / CSS -ah-float-move.
• The value of axf:float-x / CSS -ah-float-x has been extended.
• Now able to specify the adjustment when the block in <fo:inline-container> overflows. ☞  axf:inline-overflow-align / CSS -ah-inline-overflow-align no-LT
• Now able to specify whether to intrude the inline element into the punctuation. ☞  axf:intrude-into-punctuation / CSS -ah-intrude-into-punctuation no-LT
• The upper limit width of the keep-together.within-line condition can now be specified. ☞  axf:keep-together-within-inline-dimension / CSS -ah-keep-together-within-inline-dimension no-LT
• The value of axf:footnote-keep / CSS -ah-footnote-keep has been extended.
• The number of rows of fo:table to read ahead to determine the width of column can now be specified when table-layout="auto" is specified. ☞  axf:table-auto-layout-limit / CSS (-ah-)table-auto-layout-limit
• Now able to specify the maximum number of fo:table-row in fo:marker referenced from fo:retrieve-table-marker. ☞  axf:retrieve-table-rows no-LT
• The value of axf:suppress-if-first-on-page / CSS -ah-suppress-if-first-on-page has been extended. no-LT
• axf:suppress-duplicate-marker-contents is now effective even when <fo:retrieve-marker> references a different <fo:marker>. no-LT
• Now able to specify whether to add line numbers except for continued lines. ☞  axf:line-number-except-continued-line / CSS -ah-line-number-except-continued-line no-LT
• Now able to specify in the block element whether to include the last punctuation mark and count them in one character when axf:avoid-widow-word="true" is specified in CJK. ☞  axf:avoid-widow-words-cjk-punctuation / CSS -ah-avoid-widow-words-cjk-punctuation
• The value of axf:word-break / CSS (-ah-)word-break has been extended.
• Now able to change the handling of quotation marks with quotationmark in the Options Setting File, and also able to specify the direction of quotation marks with axf:quotetype. no-LT
• Now able to specify whether to report overflow errors in the Options Setting File. ☞  error-if-overflow no-LT
• ICC profiles can now be specified in HTML. ☞  <meta name="color-profile"> no-LT
• Now able to specify the contents to be displayed in the split cell even with CSS. ☞  CSS running(table-cell-repeated-marker) no-LT
• CSS var() function can now be specified.
• The function for referencing the width/height of the image such as <img> has been extended. ☞  CSS -ah-attr-img()
• Now able to specify whether to apply the default CSS for HTML (html.css) even for XML+CSS. ☞  apply-default-html-css-to-XML
• Now able to specify the annotation creation date and modification date. ☞  axf:annotation-createdate / CSS -ah-annotation-createdate, axf:annotation-modifydate / CSS -ah-annotation-modifydate no-LT
• Now able to specify whether to report the error when italic or small-caps are emulated in the selected font. ☞  emulated-italic, emulated-small-caps
• Arbitrary parameters can now be specified when converting EPS to PDF using Ghostscript. ☞  gs-options
• Now able to specify spaces above and below <msline> in MathML. ☞  mslineOverGap, mslineUnderGap
• Aztec Code can now be specified in the Barcode Generator Option.
• Now able to specify whether to display the WYSIWYG window as multiple pages.
• The GUI can now automatically analyze the formatting results of the current page. no-LT
• The Analyzer for automated analysis of formatting results has been extended. no-LT

• Windows version (32-bit version) can be installed on Windows x64 Edition. When you use each interface, note the following points:
  • .NET Interface : Specify /platform:x86.
  • COM Interface : Use WSH (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cscript.exe) 32-bit version.
  • Java Interface : Use JDK 32-bit version.
  • C/C++ Interface : Compile to be run on Win32 platform.
• Hereinafter unless otherwise explicitly mentioned, the phrase “Windows version” indicates both Windows x32 version and Windows x64 version.
• Hereinafter unless otherwise explicitly mentioned, the phrase “Linux version” indicates Linux 64-bit version.
• Hereinafter unless otherwise explicitly mentioned, the phrase “Macintosh version” indicates Macintosh 64-bit version.
• See “Fonts” for supported fonts. In addition, fonts are not included in the Windows version.
• Core 14 Fonts supplied with non-Windows version have the metrics information file only. They do not have the file of the outline information. If you want to embed these fonts to PDF or PS files, prepare whole fonts by yourself. You can download the fonts from PDF core font information.
• Confirm the necessary environment variables at “Environment Variables” in this manual.
• Confirm the installed modules at “Installed Modules” in this manual.
• When you change the directory of the modules from the installation status in Macintosh version, see Note when changing the location of Macintosh modules.
• Use case-insensitive OSX Extended format for Macintosh version.
• The printing function on the Windows version depends on Windows-based printer drivers.
• In Windows version, the run time library of Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 is required. This run time library is installed when you have the product installed on your system. It is also possible to download it from the following site When you need the package of the library separately.
  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable
• When running AH Formatter V7.1 on the virtual environment (VMware or Hyper-V, etc.), there is no functional restriction when the same operation is guaranteed as the actual running environment.

For more details, see also Antenna House Website.

AH Formatter V7.1 supports languages expressed with the following scripts among the scripts specified by ISO 15924.

• Latn : Latin
• Grek : Greek
• Cyrl : Cyrillic
• Armn : Armenian V7.1 no-LT
• Geor : Georgian V7.1 no-LT
• Ethi : Ethiopic no-LT
• Arab : Arabic
• Syrc : Syriac no-LT
• Hebr : Hebrew
• Deva : Devanagari
• Beng : Bengali no-LT
• Guru : Gurmukhi no-LT
• Gujr : Gujarati no-LT
• Orya : Oriya no-LT
• Taml : Tamil no-LT
• Telu : Telugu no-LT
• Knda : Kannada no-LT
• Mlym : Malayalam no-LT
• Sinh : Sinhala no-LT
• Thai : Thai
• Khmr : Khmer no-LT
• Laoo : Lao no-LT
• Mymr : Myanmar no-LT
• Kana : Katakana
• Hira : Hiragana
• Hang : Hangul
• Hani : Han (Kanji)
• Hans : Han (Chinese Simplified)
• Hant : Han (Chinese Traditional)
• Jpan : Japanese (Hani+Hira+Kana)

Depending on the language, it's possible to hyphenate the Latin script, the Greek script and the Cyrillic script. Even if the hyphenation is no in this table, the hyphenation is available by preparing the TeX Dictionary.

Many of the language codes that are defined by ISO 639-2 (T) or ISO 639-3 can be specified. The main codes are as follows:

The codes in parentheses are defined by ISO 639-3. The corresponding scripts show the major example.

AH Formatter V7.1 supports the following HTML, CSS or FO Encodings. These are registered in CHARACTER SETS of IANA. However, the list includes some encodings that are not registered there. (Windows-31J is considered Shift_JIS.)

The encoding of the XML document and XSL stylesheet depends on the XSLT Processor you use when the XML document and XSL stylesheet are converted into XSL-FO by using the XSLT Processor.

AH Formatter V7.1 uses an XSLT Processor for converting XML documents and XSL stylesheets into XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO) or XHTML. In the Windows version, the higher version available from MSXML6 to MSXML3 is used as the standard XSLT Processor. Windows users have the option to use a different XSLT Processor if desired. In non-Windows version users set their desired XSLT Processor through the “Environment Variables” or “Option Setting File”. For Windows MSXML is already installed.

AH Formatter V7.1 Lite is a popular version of AH Formatter V7.1, it limits some of the professional functions of V7.1 (hereafter Standard) and is a lower-cost alternative to V7.1 Standard. V7.1 Lite is suitable for customers who don't need advanced handling of PDF, formatting of a great deal of pages, etc. But it's still full of many other attractive functions.

• Total page number of the formatted pages are limited to 300 per 1 document. The watermark that shows the limited version is displayed and the URL of our Website is displayed at the bottom of the pages which exceed 300.
• Some Scripts and Languages are not supported. V7.1
• PDF/X, PDF/A, PDF/UA and Tagged PDF are not supported.
• Embedding multimedia is not supported.
• Embedding rich media is not supported.
• Cannot embed annotations, like 3D objects, in PDF.
• Cannot linearize PDF for Fast Web View.
• Cannot support embedding tagged PDF in tagged PDF.
• Cannot perform 2-pass format.
• Cannot save and load the AreaTree.
• TEXT Output is not supported.
• Word(docx) Output is not supported.
• MathML rendering is not supported. In order to use the function of MathML, you will have to purchase the AH Formatter MathML Option separately.
• Cannot support hyphenation with TeX dictionary.
• Cannot support Pass Through and High Compression Settings of images.
• Cannot support suppressing the output of the bookmark of PDF.
• Cannot support encrypting the metadata.
• Cannot support Edit Option Setting File from GUI.
• Cannot support Edit Font Configuration File from GUI.
• Cannot support Full Screen mode in GUI.
• Cannot support Show Border with Baseline.
• Cannot specify the default format of the Output File Name in the PDF output dialog.
• Cannot support Analyze Page in GUI. V7.1
• Cannot support WOFF File Format 1.0 and 2.0.
• Cannot support Automated Analysis.
• Some attributes that can be set in the Option Setting File are not supported.
• The following XSL/CSS Extensions are not supported. (When there is no specification written, they are common for XSL extension and CSS extension.)
  • Printer marks such as a crop mark
  • Appending a Font
  • PDF Forms
  • PDF annotation V7.1
  • Specify the page number of the link destination
  • PDF output in multiple separate volume
  • Specify the ICC profile to be embedded in PDF using the <meta> tag in HTML V7.1
  • Specify the tag name of Tagged PDF
  • Removal of duplicate marker references.
  • Line continued marks
  • Line numbers V7.1
  • Printer control
  • Leader expansion
  • Page Control Extensions
  • Suppress a block on the first page
  • Character string conversion such as Japanese numerals
  • Set the prefix for line numbers
  • Omit header/footer on column breaks, not on page breaks
  • Specify additional hyphenation information
  • Specify additional option setting information
  • Change letter-spacing depending on the number of characters
  • Transform the block
  • Gradation expressions
  • Rendering of characters to be upright and horizontal-in-vertical composition
  • Unicode normalization forms
  • Layer in PDF Output
  • Overprint
  • Text shadow
  • Drop Capitals
  • Baseline grid
  • Spread Page Master Extension
  • fo:page-sequence
  • Define custom counter styles
  • Tab stop position
  • Custom property in PDF
  • Stroke of the character
  • Feature control of OpenType font
• Some of the following XSL/CSS Extensions have limitations. (When there is no specification written, they are common for XSL extension and CSS extension.)
  • Bookmarks
  • rgb-icc()
  • text-transform
  • force-page-count
  • fo:change-bar-begin
  • Embed the document information in PDF
  • Images, Multimedia
  • Line Breaking V7.1
  • Overflow Extensions V7.1
  • Box shadow
  • Page number
  • Footnote
  • Background
  • Table V7.1
  • odd-or-even
  • Borders
  • Trimming and Hanging V7.1
  • Text Alignment
  • Ligature
  • Properties based on the CSS3 specification
• Lite doesn't include 90 day warranty. Customers may purchase an annual maintenance agreement to get the customer service.

FYI: no-LT sign is applied to the restricted items or described as restriction in this Manual.

AH Formatter V7.1 Evaluation version has the following restrictions as compared to the product version.

• The URL of Antenna House website is shown at the bottom of all pages.
• The watermark image, “Evaluation Version”, is placed on each page.
• The weight of the font and the color of the image may look a little different because of the watermark. This is caused by an issue with Adobe Acrobat or Reader. In addition, the printing speed decreases because of the watermark.
• PDF1.3 cannot be output with the evaluation version.
• Impossible to input/output the AreaTree.
• The function of PostScript^® Output is effective. PostScript Output has the following restrictions.
  • Only the first page can be outputted.
  This function with the product version is provided as an option. In order to use this function with the product version, customers must purchase AH Formatter PostScript^® Output Option separately.
• The function of SVG Output is effective. SVG Output has the following restrictions.
  • Only the first page can be outputted.
  The SVG Output function in the product version is provided as an option. In order to use this function in the product version, customers must purchase AH Formatter SVG Output Option separately.
• The function of XPS Output is effective. XPS Output has the following restrictions.
  • Only the first page will be outputted.
  The XPS Output function in the product version is provided as an option. In order to use this function in the product version, customers must purchase AH Formatter XPS Output Option separately.
• The feature of Word(docx) Output is effective. Word(docx) Output has the following restrictions.
  • Only the first page will be outputted.
  The Word(docx) Output feature in the product version is provided as an option. In order to use this feature in the product version, customers must subscribe AH Formatter Word(docx) Output Option separately.
• The feature of CGM rendering by utilizing our direct creation module is effective. This feature in the product version is provided as an option. In order to use this feature with the product version, customers must purchase AH Formatter CGM Option separately.
• Barcode Generator Option is effective. However, it may not be able to read correctly because the watermark is drawn. In order to use this feature with the product version, customers must purchase AH Formatter Barcode Generator Option separately.
• The evaluation copy expires after 90 days.
• Use of the evaluation version for live production or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited.
• Removal of the watermark and/or our website URL at the bottom of the page in the evaluation version is prohibited.

There are no restrictions on formatting functions except for the above mentioned. However, the optional features that are not explicitly stated above are invalid.

For further information about AH Formatter V7.1, see our website.

• AH Formatter

Antenna House provides numerous XSL-FO and CSS samples for testing and learning purpose. See the following:

• Developing XSL-FO Stylesheets
• XSL-FO Samples
• Antenna House Tips & Tricks
• Introduction to CSS for Paged Media

For more information, technical support and service needs, contact us by e-mail.

• info@antennahouse.com

To facilitate support requests, provide the following information:

• Version of AH Formatter
• License information (Serial No., Company name, Section and User name)
• OS environment

If you are a user of the evaluation version, enter “evaluation version” for the serial number. In the Windows product version, you can put the required information for support to the mail text automatically by using [Help]-[Mail to Support] on the menu bar in GUI.