Extract text from FO files
To convert your FO file to another format, you need Apache FOP or other Page Layout software.
To convert other file formats to the "XML Page Description" file type, you need software like Apache FOP or a similar tool.
A .FO file is an XSL Formatting Objects document, an XML-based format used to define page layouts and text styling for print or digital output. These files serve as an intermediate step in a publishing pipeline: raw data (XML) is transformed via XSLT into a .FO file, which describes precisely how content should be paginated, styled, and positioned.
The real problem with .FO files is that they are not designed for direct viewing. Unlike a PDF or DOCX, you cannot simply double-click a .FO file to see the final report or invoice; opening it in a text editor like Notepad++ or Visual Studio Code only reveals verbose XML code tags. To visualize the document, the file must be processed by a specific formatting engine, such as Apache FOP, RenderX XEP, or Antenna House Formatter.
For practical use, you almost always need to convert .FO files. The standard target is PDF for archiving and distribution, as this renders the layout instructions into a fixed visual format. For legacy editing workflows, converting to RTF allows import into Microsoft Word, though complex pagination often breaks.
Convert.Guru analyzes your FO file, detects the exact format, and lets you read the text inside.
Users also converted XSLFO, FOP, F0, XSL, XML, ZFO, TXT, JPEG, DOCX, PDF, JPG, LAN and CO files.
If you want to convert FO file to PDF, LAN, CO, CSV, JSON, XML, YAML, YML, TOML, INI, CFG or CONF, you can use Apache FOP or similar software from the "Page Layout Definition" category. In the File menu, look for Save As… or Export….
To convert DBF, XML, SQLITE, XLSX, SQL, TSV, ACCDB, YAML, MDB, CSV, ODS or JSON files to FO, try Apache FOP or another comparable tool in the "Page Layout Definition" category.
The history of Convert.Guru began over 25 years ago in California with Tom Simondi’s file-format database. A former contributor to Space Shuttle development and a software pioneer of the 1980s, Simondi established a trusted resource for file type analysis that was even referenced by Microsoft Windows XP. Today, we use modern technology to process and convert thousands of file formats while continually improving our FO converter.