Prince (software)

Prince
Original author(s) Michael Day[1]
Developer(s) YesLogic Pty Ltd
Initial release April 2003
Stable release
11 / July 2018 (2018-07)[2]
Written in Mercury
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, FreeBSD
Type converter
License Proprietary
Website princexml.com

Prince (formerly Prince XML) is a proprietary software program that converts XML and HTML documents into PDF files by applying Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). As technology, in electronic publishing and dynamic data-driven PDF generation, it enables the replacing of XSL-FO frameworks by CSS3 ones.

It is developed by YesLogic, a small company based in Melbourne, Australia. Marketed as a professional "XML+CSS3 to PDF" solution, it received positive reviews and was considered a unique product in the 2000s. [3]

History

In April 2003, Prince 1.0 was released, with basic support for XHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and arbitrary XML. This first version was a command-line program that supported Microsoft Windows and Linux; there was no graphical user interface for Windows yet.

In subsequent releases, CSS support was steadily extended until it was comparable with web browsers such as Opera and Mozilla Firefox. It has also been expanded to support additional platforms—the latest offering include packages for the Apple Mac, Freebsd, and Solaris platforms.

In December 2005, Prince 5.1 passed the Acid2 test from the Web Standards Project.[4] It was the third user agent to pass the test, after Safari and Konqueror.

Releases

  • Prince 12.1 - August 2018[5]
  • Prince 12.0 - June 2018
  • Prince 11.0 - December 2016
  • Prince 10.0 - May 2015
  • Prince 9.0 - June 2013
  • Prince 8.0 - September 2011
  • Prince 7.1 - May 2010
  • Prince 7.0 - October 2009
  • Prince 6.0 rev 8 - February 2009
  • Prince 6.0 rev 1 - May 2007
  • Prince 5.1 rev 15 - March 2007
  • Prince 5.1 - December 2005
  • Prince 5.0 rev 5 - December 2005
  • Prince 5.0 - October 2005
     
  • Prince 4.0 - October 2004
  • Prince 3.1 - May 2004
  • Prince 3.0 - December 2003
  • Prince 2.1 - June 2003
  • Prince 2.0 - May 2003
  • Prince 1.0 - April 2003

Technical summary

Prince was developed using the Mercury functional logic programming language.

The main driving force behind Prince is the standard CSS3-paged[6] that integrates paged media (including PDF) layout specification with any other W3C technologies: HTML4, HTML5, XHTML, and "free XML", working or not with JavaScript.

References

  1. ↑ Michael Day: I am the founder of YesLogic and the designer of Prince, software for getting web content onto paper.
  2. ↑ Prince forum post: Prince 12 released!
  3. ↑ PrinceXML Is Extremely Impressive Ryan Tomayko, February 3, 2008
  4. ↑ Prince 5.1 Passes Acid2 Web Standards Project announcement, December 10, 2005
  5. ↑ Release Notes for Prince 12
  6. ↑ CSS Paged Media Module Level 3, W3C

Other sources:

  • Steward, Sid. PDF Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00655-1.
  • Fitzgerald, Michael. XML Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools. O'Reilly. ISBN 0-596-00711-6.
  • Interview with Michael Day of Prince XML by Olimpiu Metiu, Page 33, Published at: June 28, 2010, Rails Magazine
  • Prince XML: Generating High Quality PDFs from HTML + CSS, 15 Nov 2007, GoogleTechTalks, YouTube Video
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