1.1 Why texi2html and not makeinfo?

You would like to produce HTML files from your existing Texinfo files? There are two programs you can use to do this. The first is makeinfo (see (texinfo)Generating HTML section `Generating HTML' in GNU Texinfo). The second is texi2html.

The design goal of makeinfo's HTML output was to produce readable HTML output. It is now possible to use CSS for HTML customization. Another possibility is to use intermediate formats, like docbook or makeinfo XML and XSL stylesheets to customize the resulting document. Still the output produced by makeinfo isn't customizable.

The current development of texi2html tries to provide for producing the more interesting and sophisticated HTML pages that today's Internet users have come to expect. The goal behind texi2html is to generate attractive HTML by default but also to allow users considerable freedom to affect the final style and design of the output HTML pages. This is achieved via command line options and flexible configuration files.

In contrast to the HTML produced by makeinfo --html (the makeinfo program is part of the Texinfo distribution), the texi2html program, among other differences, allows for the customization of the entire page layout, including headers, footers, style sheets, etc., allows for customization of the low level HTML formatting, provides for splitting documents at various levels, and provides for using the latex2html program to convert @tex sections of the Texinfo source.

The focus on HTML is still present but with the help of the customization files it is now possible to use texi2html to produce other formats as well. texi2html may for example be turned into a texinfo to roff translator with the help of a customization file provided with the distribution.

texi2html should reasonably convert all Texinfo 4.8 constructs. If you find it does not, please send a bug report to the texi2html-bug@nongnu.org email list.

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