Apache Fop (http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/) is a print formatter driven by XSL formatting objects (XSL-FO). The aim of the project is to implement the fo:float formatting object in Fop. This element is used to generate two kinds of floats: before-floats for positioning objects in a separate area at the beginning of a page, and side-floats for positioning objects on one side of the page, with normal content flowing around it.

Before-floats are typically used to render figures, images, tables and so on. Such objects are frequent in book-like documents: they often carry additional information which is not required to understand the reading, and to which the reader may want to further refer. As Fop is often used as a print backend to render DocBook documents, many users would benefit from the implementation of before-floats.

Side-floats may be used to achieve various effects, such as drop capitals (displaying the first letter of a paragraph in a large size, spanning several lines of the paragraph), margin notes, illustrating images integrated in the content with text flowing around, etc.

This project will give me the opportunity to work in the field of high-quality typography. My work will be based on the results of the research from Donald Knuth and Michael Plass, which they have applied to the TeX typesetting system.

More informations on the project proposal: http://wiki.apache.org/xmlgraphics-fop/GoogleSummerOfCode2006/ImplementingFloats

To follow the progress of my work: http://wiki.apache.org/xmlgraphics-fop/GoogleSummerOfCode2006/FloatsImplementationProgress