There has been renewed interest in transforming XML to print ready formats. One emerging way to achieve this is by use of XSL formatting objects and a choice of several available formatters.

Although the XSL formatting objects specification is still subject to change, it is possible to turn XML into PDF and TeX output formats with the available tools.

James Tauber's FOP program was the first XSL print formatter. It accepts a DOM tree or SAX events as input, as well as straight XML documents.

Sebastian Rahtz, a UK TeX expert, has created Passive TeX, which formats XSL via use of the TeX typesetting system. Passive TeX has good support for MathML, the mathematical markup vocabulary.

RenderX are working on a commercial XSL FO formatter.

• James Tauber has just announced a new mailing list for FOP development. Subscription is via the URL: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe/fop-dev.