The DocBook XSL stylesheets are a set of XSLT

XSLT

XSLT is a declarative, XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one. The new document may be serialized by the processor in standard XML syntax or in another format,...

 stylesheets for the XML

XML

Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....

-based DocBook

DocBook

DocBook is a semantic markup language for technical documentation. It was originally intended for writing technical documents related to computer hardware and software but it can be used for any other sort of documentation....

 language.

Purpose

DocBook is a semantic markup language. That is, it specifies the meaning of the elements in a document, not how they are intended to be presented to the end user. It provides separation between the content of the document and the visual representation

Separation of presentation and content

Separation of presentation and content is a common idiom, a design philosophy, and a methodology applied in the context of various publishing technology disciplines, including information retrieval, template processing, web design, web development, word processing, desktop publishing,...

. While DocBook is a readable markup language, it is not intended to be read by end-users in its DocBook form.

The purpose of DocBook XSL is to provide a standard set of transformations from DocBook to several presentational formats.

Output Formats

DocBook XSL provides for transforms into the following formats:

• HTML
  HTML
  HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
  
  , both as single pages and in a "chunked" format that outputs sections to different pages.
• XHTML
  XHTML
  XHTML is a family of XML markup languages that mirror or extend versions of the widely-used Hypertext Markup Language , the language in which web pages are written....
  
  
• XSL-FO
  XSL Formatting Objects
  XSL Formatting Objects, or XSL-FO, is a markup language for XML document formatting which is most often used to generate PDFs. XSL-FO is part of XSL , a set of W3C technologies designed for the transformation and formatting of XML data. The other parts of XSL are XSLT and XPath...
  
  , and from there, usually PDF
• Man Pages
  Manual page (Unix)
  Man pages are the extensive documentation that comes preinstalled with almost all substantial Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The Unix command used to display them is man. Each page is a self-contained document.- Usage :...
  
  

DocBook XSL also has transformations to slide-like formats for HTML and XSL-FO. EPUB

EPUB

EPUB is a free and open e-book standard by the International Digital Publishing Forum...

support is currently experimental.

Configuration

DocBook XSL's stylesheets are highly configurable. Each of the different formats has a number of XSLT parameters available for simple customization. For example, the XSL-FO transforms allow the user to define the size of the pages. Additionally, the XSLT documents themselves are modular; it is possible for the user to add, change, or replace particular levels of functionality. This can allow DocBook XSL to process new documentation tags added to the standard DocBook, or to simply change how the XSLT's generate the resulting format.

External links

• DocBook Project - Sourceforge project maintaining the DocBook XSL and DSSSL transforms.
• DocBook XSL Reference - Reference documentation for DocBook XSL transforms.
• DocBook XSL: The Complete Guide - HTML edition of book explaining the use of DocBook XSL.
• Docbkx Maven Plugin - A Maven plugin based on the DocBook XSL Stylesheets, packaging everything required to target multiple output formats.