I have implemented a simple Saxon extension function,
renderedTextLength(), that lets you calculate the composed length of
short text strings in XSLT. This is intended primarily to enable crude
text fitting in FO-generating XSLTs. The accuracy is inherently limited
because there's no way for my code to account for the effects of
kerning, text sequeezing, justification, and so on, but it's good enough
to allow, for example, setting the width of list labels to the length of
the longest term in a definition list.
The files are provided under the GNU LGPL license.
The materials are available at:
http://www.innodata-isogen.com/resources/tools_downloads/saxon_extensions
(This may require you to register on the Web site, for which I
appologize in advance.)
Cheers,
Eliot
--
W. Eliot Kimber
Professional Services
Innodata Isogen
9030 Research Blvd, #410
Austin, TX 78758
(512) 372-8122
eliot(_at_)innodata-isogen(_dot_)com
www.innodata-isogen.com