How to add a customized PDF cover

[catherine]

Hi, I am quite new to DITA and Oxygen,
is there any way to add my customized image as a PDF cover?

If not, how can I customize the PDF cover page to acheive the followings:

• add a logo, and change the logo position

I tested it by your guides, it works, but the logo is placed in the center of the cover page, I edited the custom.xls file, but not work.
I want the logo placed at the top-left or top-right.

• add additional information

Information like address, contact, release version, etc.

Thanks for your help.

[bogdan]

Hi Catherine,

One of my colleagues wrote a small example that customizes a PDF cover page (background image, logo, and title), so you can use this as a starting point for your project:

• Go to https://github.com/radu-pisoi/com.oxyge ... ion.sample and download the sample project as a zip file.
• Extract the archive anywhere on your computer.
• Load your DITA project in the DITA Maps Manager View.
• Press the Configure Transformation Scenario button, choose the DITA Map PDF - WISIWYG scenario, then press the Edit button.
• Switch to the Parameters tab and set the args.css parameter to point to the p-dita-customization.css file extracted in the second step. Make sure that the value of this parameter is a URL (such as file:///C:/myfile.css), not a file path.
• Apply the transformation scenario.

If the scenario is executed correctly, you will get a PDF output file with a customized cover page. Please note that the CSS rules from this customization project apply on top of the CSS styles used for rendering the topics in Oxygen Author mode. If you want to change this default set of CSS styles, look for the Styles drop-down box and choose a style that suits your needs.

If you want to further customize the cover page, edit the p-front-page.css file that contains several rules to style specific elements of the front page.

Best Regards,
Bogdan

[catherine]

Thanks, bogdan
I am using Oxygen 18, seems this version doesn't support Oxygen PDF chemistry.
The css processor type has two choices: prince and antenna-house, but no PDF chemistry.

[catherine]

Hi, I am not familar with PrinceXML.
I just choose prince css processor type and followed by your suggested steps.
The Oxygen XML said "transformation successfully", but I didnt get the PDF output.

So, what should I do with the PrinceXML?

[bogdan]

Hi Catherine,

Prince XML (as well as Antenna House) is a third-party PDF processor that you can use with our built-in WYSIWYG transformation scenario, but if you want to use either of them, I suggest that you contact them directly and ask for details regarding pricing, licensing, and usage.

Since you posted in the Oxygen PDF Chemistry section of this forum, I assumed that you want to use the Oxygen PDF Chemistry processor, a tool developed by Oxygen, and was made available in Oxygen XML Editor/Author starting with version 19.0.

To sum up, if you want to use Chemistry you need to upgrade your version of Oxygen to the latest version. If you want to try it out before making a purchasing decision, you could request a trial license key.

Best regards,
Bogdan Goreci

[hedyhan]

Hi ,

1. If I use the "DITA Map PDF" transformation, how can I do?
2. When I use the "DITA Map PDF - WYSIWYG" , the transformation failed, because, cannot find the Prince XML executable :"prince.exe". How can I do to solve it.
If the method 1 cannot be achieved, please reply the question 2.

[Dan]

Hello,

If you intend to use the WYSIWYG transformation scenario and you do not have installed a Prince XML PDF CSS processor on your system, please upgrade to the latest Oxygen version.
This comes with the Oxygen Chemistry PDF CSS processor embedded and this can be selected from the transformation scenario.

To customize your output please read the documentation for the WYSIWYG transfromation scenario:
https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-editor ... f-css.html
https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-editor ... zation_css
https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/ug-editor ... image.html

Best regrads,
Dan

[hedyhan]

If I use the "DITA Map PDF" transformation, how can I do?

[Radu]

Hi,

For the classic DITA to PDF output maybe this will help:

https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... ation.html

there is also a book called "DITA For Print" which can be bought and contains lots of customization examples.
And there is also the PDF plugin generator created by Jarno Elovirta:

http://dita-generator.elovirta.com/

Regards,
Radu