Recommendations and reasons for choosing Native PDF vs DITA-OT outputs

[james-mke]

Hello community,

We are working on developing output templates and would like to get feedback and hopefully some documentation from this community about why we should consider using either Native PDF or DITA-OT frameworks for PDF generation. 

I have not found many non-Adobe references that highlights the benefits of one method versus the other. If anyone has links to reference material that would be great, as would any insights or stories about what technology you are using to generate PDFs.

Thank you!

[punagpal]

@james-mke  This quick table could answer this 

Feature	DITA OT PDF	AEM Guides Native PDF
Functionality	Complex structures, customization	Streamlined PDF generation, user-friendly extendable templates
Design & Styling	DITA stylesheets, transformations (complex)	(Low code/No code) W3C CSS3, CSS paged media, pre-built templates
Ease of Use	Technical expertise required	User-friendly interface
Integration	Flexible, open-source standards	Tightly integrated with AEM
Summary	Complex DITA customization, open-source	Ease of use, pre-built templates

-Pulkit

[FrankRalf]

In addition to the overview table by @punagpal you should check whether advanced DITA mechanisms are supported by the respective publication pipeline, especially the indirect referencing mechanisms:

• key references
• conrefs
• conkeyrefs
• profiling

I have not yet tested the Native PDF pipeline in detail but I am not sure all of these DITA features are supported, as opposed to using the DITA-OT.

HTH
Frank

[sschnelbach · Accepted solution]

Key references and conrefs work in both DITA-OT and Native PDF Publishing. I haven't tried conkeyrefs yet. Variables (keydefs) work fine in both DITA-OT and Native PDF.

DITA-OT has always supported use-by-reference footnotes, but I understand that v4.4 of AEM Guides has fixed that oversight in Native PDF Publishing. I cannot confirm since we haven't upgraded to 4.4 yet.

DITA-OT does require more technical/code expertise. Native PDF is MUCH easier to create output templates for and there are several things I've been able to do in Native PDF Publishing that I could not in DITA-OT (outputclass to wrap text around selected images; outputclass to reduce the font size selected text). It was also much easier to design and implement front and back covers in Native PDF Publishing.

I have not yet figured out a way to suppress table frames/lines on command for select tables in Native PDF Publishing, and you could do that in DITA-OT. 

Numbering heading levels in DITA-OT required a lot of programming. It was "relatively" easier in Native PDF Publishing, but that also took some time and experimentation. It just took a lot LESS time in Native PDF Publishing.

Having used DITA-OT, FrameMaker Publishing Server, and Native PDF Publishing, Native PDF Publishing wins hands-down. It is so much easier.

But, if your DITA-OT output templates are already designed, there's no reason not to implement those as well.

[FrankRalf]

Hi Susan,

Many thanks for this thorough information!

Best regards,
Frank