Stylus Studio XML Editor

Table of contents

Appendices

6.5 Block-level Formatting Objects

Block-level Formatting Objects

Introduction[top]

Introduction

The fo:block formatting object is used for formatting paragraphs, titles, figure captions, table titles, etc. The following example illustrates the usage of the fo:block in a stylesheet.

Example[top]

Example
Chapter and Section Titles, Paragraphs[top]
Chapter and Section Titles, Paragraphs

Input sample:

<doc>
  <chapter>
    <title>Chapter title</title>
    <section>
      <title>First section title</title>
      <paragraph>Section one's first paragraph.</paragraph>
      <paragraph>Section one's second paragraph.</paragraph>
    </section>
    <section>
      <title>Second section title</title>
      <paragraph>Section two's only paragraph.</paragraph>
    </section>
  </chapter>
</doc>

In this example the chapter title appears at the top of the page (its "space-before" is discarded).

Space between chapter title and first section title is (8pt,8pt,8pt): the chapter title's "space-after" has a higher precedence than the section title's "space-before" (which takes on the initial value of zero), so the latter is discarded.

Space between the first section title and section one's first paragraph is (6pt,6pt,6pt): the section title's "space-after" has higher precedence than the paragraph's "space-before", so the latter is discarded.

Space between the two paragraphs is (6pt,8pt,10pt): the "space-after" the first paragraph is discarded because its precedence is equal to that of the "space-before" the next paragraph, and the optimum of the "space-after" of the first paragraph is greater than the optimum of the "space-before" of the second paragraph.

Space between the second paragraph of the first section and the title of the second section is (12pt,12pt,12pt): the "space-after" the paragraph is discarded because its precedence is equal to that of the "space-before" of the section title, and the optimum of the "space-after" of the paragraph is less than the optimum of the "space-before" of the section title.

The indent on the first line of the first paragraph in section one and the only paragraph in section two is zero; the indent on the first line of the second paragraph in section one is 2pc.

XSL Stylesheet:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<xsl:stylesheet
    xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
    xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">

<xsl:template match="chapter">
  <fo:block break-before="page">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="chapter/title">
  <fo:block text-align="center" space-after="8pt"
            space-before="16pt" space-after.precedence="3">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="section">
  <xsl:apply-templates/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="section/title">
  <fo:block text-align="center" space-after="6pt"
            space-before="12pt" space-before.precedence="0"
            space-after.precedence="3">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="paragraph[1]" priority="1">
  <fo:block text-indent="0pc" space-after="7pt"
            space-before.minimum="6pt" space-before.optimum="8pt"
            space-before.maximum="10pt">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="paragraph">
  <fo:block text-indent="2pc" space-after="7pt"
            space-before.minimum="6pt" space-before.optimum="8pt"
            space-before.maximum="10pt">
    <xsl:apply-templates/>
  </fo:block>
</xsl:template>

</xsl:stylesheet>

Result Instance: elements and attributes in the fo: namespace

<fo:block break-before="page">

  <fo:block text-align="center" space-after="8pt"
    space-before="16pt"
    space-after.precedence="3">Chapter title
  </fo:block>

  <fo:block text-align="center" space-after="6pt"
    space-before="12pt" space-before.precedence="0"
    space-after.precedence="3">First section title
  </fo:block>

  <fo:block text-indent="0pc" space-after="7pt"
    space-before.minimum="6pt" space-before.optimum="8pt"
    space-before.maximum="10pt">Section one's first paragraph.
  </fo:block>

  <fo:block text-indent="2pc" space-after="7pt"
    space-before.minimum="6pt" space-before.optimum="8pt"
    space-before.maximum="10pt">Section one's second paragraph.
  </fo:block>

  <fo:block text-align="center" space-after="6pt"
    space-before="12pt" space-before.precedence="0"
    space-after.precedence="3">Second section title
  </fo:block>

  <fo:block text-indent="0pc" space-after="7pt"
    space-before.minimum="6pt" space-before.optimum="8pt"
    space-before.maximum="10pt">Section two's only paragraph.
  </fo:block>

</fo:block>

fo:block[top]

fo:block

Common Usage:

The fo:block formatting object is commonly used for formatting paragraphs, titles, headlines, figure and table captions, etc.

Areas:

The fo:block formatting object generates one or more normal block-areas. The fo:block returns these areas, any page-level-out-of-line areas, and any reference-level-out-of-line areas returned by the children of the fo:block. The fo:block also generates zero or more line-areas as children of the normal block-areas it returns, in accordance with [area-linebuild] .

Trait Derivation:

The .minimum, .optimum, and .maximum components of the half-leading trait are set to 1/2 the difference of the computed value of the line-height property and the computed value of the sum of the text-altitude and text-depth properties. The .precedence and .conditionality components are copied from the line-height property.

NOTE: 

The usage of the half-leading is described in [area-line] .

Constraints:

No area may have more than one normal child area returned by the same fo:block formatting object.

The children of each normal area generated by an fo:block must satisfy the constraints specified in [area-linebuild] .

In addition the constraints imposed by the traits derived from the properties applicable to this formatting object must be satisfied. The geometric constraints are rigorously defined in [area_model] .

Contents: 

(#PCDATA|%inline;|%block;)*

In addition this formatting object may have a sequence of zero or more fo:markers as its initial children, optionally followed by an fo:initial-property-set.

The following properties apply to this formatting object:

fo:block-container[top]

fo:block-container

Common Usage:

The fo:block-container flow object is used to generate a block-level reference-area, typically containing text blocks with a different writing-mode. In addition, it can also be used with a different reference-orientation to rotate its content.

NOTE: 

The use of this flow object is not required for changing the inline-progression-direction only; in that case the Unicode BIDI algorithm and the fo:bidi-override are sufficient.

Areas:

The fo:block-container formatting object generates one or more viewport/reference pairs. The fo:block-container returns these areas and any page-level-out-of-line areas returned by the children of the fo:block-container.

Trait Derivation:

The areas generated by the fo:block-container formatting object have a value of "true" for the is-reference-area.

The size of the viewport-area and the reference-area has to be fixed in the inline-progression-direction. It must be specified unless the inline-progression-direction is parallel to the inline-progression-direction of the reference-area into which the areas generated by this flow object are placed.

Constraints:

The children of each reference-area generated by an fo:block-container formatting object must be normal block-areas returned by the children of the fo:block-container, must be properly stacked, and must be properly ordered.

Any reference-level-out-of-line areas returned by the children of the fo:block-container are handled as described in [fo_float] .

Contents: 

(%block;)+

In addition an fo:block-container that does not generate an absolutely positioned area may have a sequence of zero or more fo:markers as its initial children.

The following properties apply to this formatting object: