Customizing pdf output - css or xsl-fo?

[AnnetteSo]

Hi, we need to customize our pdf output - insert company logo on the front page, add headers/footers, style tables etc.
Your doc talks about using css or XSL-FO. How do we choose between them?
https://www.oxygenxml.com/doc/versions/ ... intro.html

[julien_lacour]

Hello,

It mainly depends on your knowledge: if you don't have any of CSS or XSLT knowledge you should prefer the CSS transformation which is easier to learn. The XSL-FO transformation on the other side allow a more advanced customization but is harder to create.
Besides that, if you are transforming DITA files, you can use Oxygen Styles Basket as a starting point to create a custom publishing template with its own custom CSS stylesheet. This publishing template can be used on both PDF and WebHelp Responsive outputs.
From the needs you have detailed above, the CSS scenario covers all your needs.

You can also find a lot of use-cases and how to resolve them in our user-guide (if Oxygen Styles Basket isn't enough):

• For the Cover Page
• For the Page Headers and Footers
• For the Tables
• etc.

There are also 2 series of webinars containing basis on CSS to PDF customization:

• Transforming XML and HTML documents to PDF using CSS
• Transforming DITA documents to PDF using CSS

Regards,
Julien

[AnnetteSo]

Thanks very much for your reply, we'll try the Oxygen styles basket.