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Frequently Asked Questions |
A few things people often ask about DITA and DITA Open Toolkit. {: .lead}
DITA is the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, an XML standard for authoring modular documents with an emphasis on reuse, maintained by the DITA Technical Committee at OASIS.
DITA Open Toolkit (DITA-OT) is an open-source publishing tool used to convert DITA content from XML into various output formats.
You can download, install and build output on the command line for free using the dita command.
If you prefer a graphical user interface, many of the best-known XML editors, enterprise authoring solutions and commercial content management systems rely on DITA-OT to publish XML content.
For example, Oxygen XML Editor provides a visual means to run the bundled DITA-OT using a concept called transformation scenarios.
In most cases, you should [download the latest release][8]: DITA-OT {{ site.version }}.
If you’re using other software that hasn’t yet been updated for the latest version, earlier versions are also available on the Download page.
The default transformations include several HTML-based formats, PDF, and Markdown.
The toolkit’s extensible plug-in mechanism allows you to add your own transformations and install additional formats from the plug-in registry at [dita-ot.org/plugins][9].
DITA Open Toolkit uses [Ant][10], [XSLT][11], and Java libraries to transform DITA maps and topics into different deliverable formats. The modular [pipeline-based architecture][12] allows processing to be extended via plug-ins.
All of the default output formats are implemented as plug-ins, and you can create new plug-ins to add new publishing capabilities or customize processing without modifying the core code.
Plug-ins allow you to extend the toolkit in a way that is consistent, easy to share, and safe to upgrade. Plug-ins can [customize publishing stages][13], [add new formats][14], or [extend an XML catalog][15] to support new specializations and document-type shells. A wide range of [extension points][16] allow you to integrate your changes into the core code.
Once you have [created][17] a plug-in, you can install it using the [automated installation procedure][18].
For simple branded HTML pages, you can adjust the look and feel of the default output to match your company style by [setting parameters][19] to include [custom CSS][20], [header and footer branding][21], or [table-of-contents navigation][22]. (These changes do not require a custom plug-in.)
In addition to the basic modifications that can be made with parameter settings alone, you can create [custom HTML plug-ins][23] that bundle custom fonts, JavaScript, and stylesheets; modify the HTML markup, or override other aspects of HTML processing.
DITA-OT includes a free PDF plug-in that converts the original DITA content to XSL-FO and generates a PDF file using [Apache FOP][24]. You can also install and use commercial PDF processors like [Antenna House][25] or [RenderX XEP][26].
You can [adjust various aspects of the default PDF output][27] by changing parameter settings.
As of DITA-OT 4.0, you can easily customize PDF output using [theme files][28]. The --theme option takes a path to a theme file and changes the styling of the PDF output without requiring changes to XSLT stylesheets.
For more complex customizations, you can create [custom PDF plug-ins][29].
[8]: https://github.com/dita-ot/dita-ot/releases/download/{{ site.version }}/dita-ot-{{ site.version }}.zip [9]: https://www.dita-ot.org/plugins [10]: https://ant.apache.org/ [11]: https://www.w3.org/TR/xslt20/ [12]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/reference/architecture [13]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/plugin-use-cases [14]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/plugin-newtranstype [15]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/plugin-xmlcatalog [16]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/extension-points/plugin-extension-points [17]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/custom-plugins [18]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/plugins-installing [19]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/parameters/parameters-base-html [20]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/html-customization-css [21]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/html-customization-header [22]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/html-customization-navigation [23]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/html-customization-plugins [24]: https://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/ [25]: https://www.antennahouse.com/ [26]: https://www.renderx.com/ [27]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/pdf-customization [28]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/pdf-themes [29]: https://www.dita-ot.org/dev/topics/pdf-customization-plugins