Extract text from XSL Formatting Objects documents (FO)
To convert FO documents to another format, you need Apache FOP or other Page Layout software.
To convert other file formats to the "XSL-FO Document" file type, you need software like Apache FOP or a similar tool.
A .FO file is an XSL Formatting Objects document, typically structured in XML. It defines the page layout, text formatting, and styling of documents intended for print or screen rendering. Processors like Apache FOP read these files and render them into target formats. You can learn more about it on the XSL Formatting Objects Wikipedia page.
The .FO format is highly specialized and purely a transitional format. It is not natively supported by standard web browsers, document viewers, or word processors. It requires specific formatting engines to parse and execute the layout instructions. This makes raw .FO files practically useless for end-users or clients who just want to read the content without installing complex developer tools.
Because of this, .FO files must almost always be converted to PDF for distribution and printing. Alternatively, converting to HTML or XML can help in extracting the raw text and basic structure. Be aware that converting away from the native processing engine might cause exact pagination rules (like orphans and widows) to be lost or approximated.
This file format is difficult to open or convert directly because standard online converters usually fail to process it as it is an instruction set rather than a static visual document. Often only the original software can properly read or export the data. If our analysis detects a supported underlying or embedded format, viewing or conversion may still be possible.
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 "XML 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 "XML 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.