----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Shimmin" <shimmin@uiuc.edu>

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TEI -> PDF: this one has the most "weirdness"

If I recall correctly, this has been done up to now by converting TEI to TeX (a good feature, in any case), and then using other people's software to do TeX to PDF. For my edification, do the troubles show up in the conversion to TeX, or the second conversion to PDF?

Yes, that is exactly how the process goes (Marcello can probably dig into the nitty-gritty better than I). The problem is that a table marked up like this: <table colums="1"> <row> <cell>A REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLYREALLY LONG TEXT STRING</cell> </row> </table> The TEI -> HTML just creates a normal HTML table and the browser will wrap the cell to the width it has to work with. The TEI -> Text will line wrap pretty well on its own, too (I believe the tbl processor in groff handles this?) The TEI -> PDF will just run the table off the edge of the page. You can add a rend attribute to the table with some LaTeX table commands that will help, but the conversion doesn't try to line wrap automatically. Also, the LaTeX table formatting requires you to put the width that you want the cell to be in the table, which requires you to do a lot more thinking and preparing on each table. For some of the monster table texts in DP, this exercise would quickly make a grown man cry with boredom and frustration. Josh