[originally posted on 4/7/09]
I almost but not quite found the solution to yesterday’s problem.
Starting with XSL Formatter version 3.x, the ability exists to inline EPS files in a PDF generated directly from XSL Formatter, eliminating the need to go through Distiller, and thus solving the problem of not having figure tagging in the PostScript output. Well, almost. There’s always a catch, isn’t there?
The 3.x+ EPS inclusion functionality relies on an external processing tool, either Ghostscript or Distiller, to turn the EPS into a PDF, which XSL Formatter then inlines into the PDF it’s outputting. Unfortuantely, XSL Formatter can’t do this with tagging turned on:
jp.co.antenna.XfoJavaCtl.XfoException: PDF output error. (3106) TaggedPDF fails because of importing pdf
So, despite being tantalizingly close to a solution, this one isn’t quite going to work.
The next step is going to be to see if the EPS can’t be manually inlined. A little hokey, I know, but less hokey than a pre- or post-processing step that would try to associate figures in the FO with objects in the PS or PDF output and tag them there.