What role does stylesheet customization play in IT document formatting with DITA?

November 10, 2023
|By Bryan Tipper

Stylesheet customization plays a crucial role in formatting IT documents using DITA. DITA provides a structured and semantic way to organize content, but the presentation of this content often requires customization to meet specific formatting and branding requirements. This is where stylesheet customization comes into play.

With DITA, you can define stylesheets that control how content is rendered in different output formats, including HTML, PDF, and more. Stylesheets can be used to customize fonts, colors, page layouts, headers, footers, and other visual aspects of the document. IT organizations can tailor the appearance of documents to match their corporate design and ensure a consistent look and feel across all technical materials.

Example:

Below is a simplified example of how stylesheet customization is applied to DITA content:


<topic id="customization-example">
  <title>Stylesheet Customization Example</title>
  <body>
    <p>This is a sample DITA topic with customized styles.</p>
  </body>
</topic>


/* Custom CSS styles in an external stylesheet */
#customization-example {
  font-family: Arial, sans-serif; /* Customize font family */
  background-color: #f0f0f0; /* Customize background color */
  margin: 1em 0; /* Customize margins */
}

In this example, a custom stylesheet is applied to the DITA content with the ID “customization-example.” It customizes the font family, background color, and margins, resulting in a visually distinct presentation.