3B2 or Antenna House?
For around 30 years, we have been developing solutions using 3B2 or Arbortext Print Publisher, and more recently Arbortext Layout Developer. This software remains the only page layout software on the market that allows XML data to be imported, used to design pages interactive, and then exported unchanged or enriched after layout (XML last).
In the past, this led to the widespread use of 3B2, especially for sophisticated page design in conjunction with a high degree of automation. Since 1 January 2019, the software can no longer be purchased as a permanent licence, but must be rented at a comparatively high cost (approx. 6,000 euros net per licence, as of 1 January 2025). In conjunction with a very flat learning curve and a lack of experienced users, this has led to a sharp decline in active 3B2 installations.
Accessibility with 3B2
Amidst the general excitement surrounding accessible publications at the beginning of 2025, the question arose as to whether the requirements for accessible PDFs could be met with 3B2. In principle, this is possible, as 3B2 supports PDF tagging and can generate PDF/UA. Unfortunately, 3B2 uses a PDF library that only allows PDF/UA to be exported if it is largely error-free. Since the error messages during export are very rudimentary, developing suitable templates is extremely time-consuming. Combined with the high operating costs, generating accessible PDFs with 3B2 is hardly economical anymore.
According to PTC, the manufacturer of 3B2, there are plans to use a more suitable PDF library in the future, but this is not expected to happen before the end of 2029.
Alternatives to 3B2
This raised the question of a suitable alternative. For many years, XSL-FO, and Antenna House in particular, has been regarded as a powerful page layout programme. The key difference to 3B2 is that XSL-FO is a ‘black box’ formatter. This means that there is no way to interactively intervene in the generated layout. As a result, once a certain level of complexity is reached, any algorithm for controlling the layout will fail. This can usually be determined by the number of illustrations and tables within a work.
As part of an experiment, articles for a scientific journal were produced for one of our customers, which are quite complex. You can find a sample PDF here. Accessibility was not taken into account in this sample. A single-column layout would be more suitable for this purpose.
The most important finding from this experiment is that Antenna House enables very efficient placement of images and tables as so-called float elements, i.e. these elements are placed as close as possible to their reference in the XML stream, but are wrapped around by the text and, if necessary, broken across multiple columns. With 3B2, this is not possible in this form.
A significant advantage of Antenna House over 3B2 is the significantly lower purchase price. A permanent licence from Antenna House costs only a fraction of the annual rental fee for 3B2.
Accessibility with Antenna House
Unlike 3B2, Antenna House allows you to generate a faulty PDF/UA. This can be checked with PAC and the corresponding transformation corrected. This dramatically reduces the effort required to create a template. Our own tests have shown that the time required to develop a correct PDF/UA template with 3B2 is about ten times higher than with Antenna House.
Our customers therefore prefer to create their own accessible PDF files that do not correspond exactly to the printed work, but are designed to ensure good accessibility.
Conclusion
3B2 and Antenna House have a similar range of functions. The main difference is that only 3B2 allows interactive changes to the generated layout. Anyone wishing to switch from 3B2 to Antenna House will therefore have to deal with the automatic placement of images and tables. In addition, the layout in Antenna House can be controlled using additional attributes or processing instructions. Depending on the structure of the XML data, this can be quite tedious. Anyone who has ever searched for a specific cell in a large XML table will understand this.
Strictly speaking, Antenna House is not a genuine alternative to 3B2, and vice versa. Rather, it is important to find the most suitable solution, taking into account all aspects, especially workflow, complexity, costs and accessibility. Decision-makers should not stick to existing conventions, but should show sufficient flexibility in their search for a suitable solution. Then Antenna House can be set up as a cost-effective alternative.
|
Benefits |
Drawbacks |
|---|---|---|
Antenna House Formatter |
Creating PDF/UA with manageable effort |
No interactive layout changes |
Arbortext Layout Developer (3B2) |
Interactive pagination |
PDF/UA is very difficult to create |