XSL-FO Regions

XSL-FO uses rectangular frames (regions) to display the output.

XSL-FO Regions

The XSL formatting model defines a series of rectangular (region) frames to display the output.

All output will be formatted into these frames and then displayed or printed to a target medium.

Let's study the following areas below:

  • Pages (pages)
  • Regions (regions)
  • Block areas (block areas)
  • Line areas (line areas)
  • Inline areas (inline areas)

XSL-FO Pages (Pages)

XSL-FO output will be formatted into the page. Print output usually enters into many divided pages. Browser output often becomes a long page.

XSL-FO pages contain regions (Region).

XSL-FO Regions (Regions)

Each XSL-FO page contains a series of Regions (Regions):

  • region-body (Page Body)
  • region-before (Page Header)
  • region-after (Page Footer)
  • region-start (Left Sidebar)
  • region-end (Right Sidebar)

XSL-FO Regions contain block areas (Block Area).

XSL-FO Block Areas (Block Areas)

XSL-FO Block Areas can define small block elements (usually starting with a new line), such as paragraphs, tables, and lists.

XSL-FO Block Areas can contain other block areas, but most of the time they contain line areas (Line Area).

XSL-FO Line Areas (Line Areas)

XSL-FO Line Areas define text lines within block areas.

XSL-FO Line Areas contain inline areas (Inline Area).

XSL-FO Inline Areas (Line Areas)

XSL-FO Inline Areas define the text within the line (emphasized characters, single characters, and images, etc.).