User Manual
Text & Styling
Text Formatting

Text Formatting

XTS gives you several ways to format text: XTS commands (<B>, <I>, <U>), HTML markup inside <HTML>, and CSS classes/styles. Use whichever fits your situation.

Bold, italic, underline

The most direct way to switch fonts is with the inline commands:

<PlaceObject>
  <TextBlock>
    <Paragraph>
      <Value>A wonderful </Value>
      <B><Value>serenity</Value></B>
      <Value> has taken possession </Value>
      <I><Value>of my</Value>
        <Value> </Value>
        <B><Value>entire soul,</Value></B>
      </I>
      <Value> like these sweet mornings.</Value>
    </Paragraph>
  </TextBlock>
</PlaceObject>

text markup in layout

Bold, italic, and nested bold-italic. Underline works with <U>.

These commands nest freely – <I><B>...</B></I> gives you bold italic.

HTML markup

If you prefer HTML-style formatting, use <HTML>:

<PlaceObject>
  <TextBlock>
    <Paragraph>
      <HTML>A wonderful <b>serenity</b>
          has taken possession
          <i>of my <b>entire soul,</b></i>
          like these sweet mornings.
      </HTML>
    </Paragraph>
  </TextBlock>
</PlaceObject>

The result is identical. You can also load HTML from your data file:

<HTML select="."/>

with data like:

<data>A wonderful <b>serenity</b> has taken possession
  <i>of my <b>entire soul,</b></i> like these sweet
  mornings.</data>

Tags can be uppercase (<B>) or lowercase (<b>).

ℹī¸
If your data contains raw HTML (not well-formed XML), use sd:decode-html() to interpret it: <HTML select="sd:decode-html(description)"/>

Paragraphs and text blocks

<TextBlock> is a rectangular area that holds one or more <Paragraph> elements. Text blocks don’t break across pages – they’re placed as a single unit. This makes them ideal for:

  • Page numbers and headers
  • Short descriptions and captions
  • Column titles

Each paragraph can have its own class or inline style:

<TextBlock>
  <Paragraph style="color: green">
    <Value>green text</Value>
  </Paragraph>
  <Paragraph>
    <Value>default text</Value>
  </Paragraph>
</TextBlock>

Spans

For inline styling within a paragraph, use <Span>:

<Paragraph>
    <Value>Regular text </Value>
    <Span class="highlight">
        <Value>highlighted</Value>
    </Span>
    <Value> and back to regular.</Value>
</Paragraph>

Spans support class, style, and id attributes, just like in HTML.

Line breaks

Force a line break with <Br/>:

<Paragraph>
    <Value>First line</Value>
    <Br/>
    <Value>Second line</Value>
</Paragraph>

CSS styling

All text elements support CSS styling via classes and inline styles. See CSS and HTML for the full story.

FontsCSS and HTML