The Apache XML project have started the new year with style by releasing an updated version of FOP, their XSL-FO processor.

The 0.16 release contains several significant additions including column support, hyphenation and the ability to compress PDFs.

The announcement message also outlines the short term goals for the FOP developers:

...work continues on filling in the gaps between the XSL Candidate Recommendation and FOP. We anticipate a production release which has at least Basic conformance in all areas by early-mid spring of this year. FOP is moving to TRAX for interfacing with XSLT processors, has active cooperation with Batik SVG..., and has a number of initiatives underway to field new fo:instream-foreign-object content processors and back-end renderers.

Recent Stories:

• FOP 0.15.0 on the tracks to XSL Basic Conformance
• XSL reaches Candidate Recommendation
• Apache releases SVG toolkit