What's New in Oxygen PDF Chemistry 21.0
February 22, 2019
Related version: 21.1
The release of version 21 of Oxygen PDF Chemistry adds numerous new features, updates, and improvements to the CSS-based processor used for obtaining PDF output from HTML or XML. The primary focus for this major release was to evaluate user requests for improvements and additions, and implement as many of them as possible.
Oxygen PDF Chemistry comes bundled with Oxygen XML Author, Oxygen XML Editor, and Oxygen XML Developer distributions.
Chemistry
Support for oxy_xpath Function
The oxy_xpath CSS function can be used in the content property
of the page margin boxes. This provides the ability to extract/compute text and values from the document and show it in the headers or
footers. You can also use it in any of the page rule properties. For example, you could
set the page size as an attribute on the root element of the document, then you could
retrieve it with an oxy_xpath function and use it in the
"size" property.
Support for min-height CSS Property
The min-height CSS property is now supported for inline blocks
and code blocks, so that you can now define the minimum height for elements that are used
for code snippets.
Support for oxy_label Constructor to Style Fragments
You can style fragments of your static text from the content or the page
headers and footers using the
oxy_label CSS extension. This allows you to combine different
colors and fonts in the same page margin box.
Control the Column Breaking Algorithm
You can now control the column breaking algorithm by using the following extension properties: -oxy-coumn-break-inside,
-oxy-coumn-break-before, and -oxy-coumn-break-after.
For example, you can use these properties to force or prevent column breaks at certain
locations.
Support for Named Destinations Using a URL Anchor
The generated PDF uses the id attributes set on DITA elements
for named destinations (anchors). In web browsers, you can open the PDF
at a specific location by using an anchor in the URL (the '#' character following by the
id value).
Support for 'alignment-baseline' Property
The middle value for the alignment-baseline
property is now supported. It is helpful for aligning images in the middle of the
line.
Comments and Tracked Changes can be Displayed as Sticky Notes
Comments and tracked changes can be made visible in the PDF output by setting
the show.changes.and.comments transformation parameter to
yes. By default, they are shown as PDF text annotations (Sticky Notes).
Comments marked as 'Done' also appear with a check mark to indicate a completed
status.
Environment Variable for Reading an XML Catalog List
An XML Catalog list can be passed to Chemistry by using the
XML_CATALOG_FILES environment variable.
Synthetically Style Fonts
Chemistry can simulate different variants of a regular font
and use them in other fonts. For example, you can generate italic or bold styles for
Chinese fonts. For more information, see Using
Simulated (Synthetic) Styles.
Use Dynamic Images in Headers or Footers
You can use the url() CSS function in
string-set definitions to generate dynamic graphics in the headers or
footers for each particular chapter or section. The graphics are always centered
vertically. For more information, see How to Use Dynamic
Images in Headers and Footers.