Inline elements allow XSL-FO developers to specify attributes for individual pieces of inline content (text and images), instead of the whole block.

 

In the example below, a fragment of text is filled with red, and it's font weight is set to bold:

 

<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">

  <fo:layout-master-set>

       <fo:simple-page-master master-name="LetterPage" page-width="5in"

                                                               page-height="1in">

               <fo:region-body region-name="PageBody" margin="0.2in"/>

       </fo:simple-page-master>

  </fo:layout-master-set>

  <fo:page-sequence master-reference="LetterPage">

       <fo:flow flow-name="PageBody">

               <fo:block font="14pt Arial">

                       Some <fo:inline font-weight="bold" color="red">

                                       inline text</fo:inline> formatting.(1)

               </fo:block>

       </fo:flow>

  </fo:page-sequence>

</fo:root>

 

The result of rendering is displayed in following figure:

 

 Figure 8.

Things to notice:

(1) The fo:inline element wraps the fragment "inline text" and sets font-weight to bold. The text color is set to red using color attribute.

 

Any color can be described using either a standard color value (see Colors) or by using it's red, green and blue components. The following notations are equivalent:

 

       

       <fo:inline color="red">Hello</fo:inline>

       <fo:inline color="rgb(255,0,0)">Hello</fo:inline>

 

 

Subscripts and Superscripts

Inline elements also allow creation of sub-scripts of super-scripts:

 

<fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format">

  <fo:layout-master-set>

       <fo:simple-page-master master-name="LetterPage" page-width="5in"

                                                       page-height="1.6in">

               <fo:region-body region-name="PageBody" margin="0.2in"/>

       </fo:simple-page-master>

  </fo:layout-master-set>

  <fo:page-sequence master-reference="LetterPage">

       <fo:flow flow-name="PageBody" font="10pt Arial">

               <fo:block>

                       Normal text

                       <fo:inline baseline-shift="sub"

                       background="rgb(66,165,255)">sub-script</fo:inline>

                       normal text

                       <fo:inline baseline-shift="super"

                       background="rgb(66,165,255)">super-script</fo:inline>

                       normal text.

               </fo:block>

               <fo:block>

                       Normal text

                       <fo:inline baseline-shift="-50%"

                               background="rgb(66,165,255)">-50%</fo:inline>

                       normal text

                       <fo:inline baseline-shift="50%"

                               background="rgb(66,165,255)">+50%</fo:inline>

                       normal text.

               </fo:block>

               <fo:block>

                       Normal text

                       <fo:inline baseline-shift="-5pt"

                               background="rgb(66,165,255)">-5pt</fo:inline>

                       normal text

                       <fo:inline baseline-shift="5pt"

                               background="rgb(66,165,255)">5pt</fo:inline>

                       normal text.

               </fo:block>

       </fo:flow>

  </fo:page-sequence>

</fo:root>

 

The rendering result is displayed in the next figure:

 Figure 9.

The property that controls the alignment of an inline element vertically within it's parent line is baseline-shift.

As you can see in this example, the text can be shifted vertically using either "sub" or "super" which will use font metrics to determine the subscript or superscript positions.

You can also use a percentual or absolute value.