Prerequisite software

The prerequisite software that the DITA-OT requires depends on the type of distribution package that you intend to install and the types of transformations that you want to use.

Software required for core DITA-OT processing

The DITA-OT requires the following software applications:

JRE or JDK, version 6 or later: Provides the basic environment for the DITA-OT. You can download the Oracle JRE or JDK from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html. If you opt to use the full-easy-install package, this is the only prerequisite software that you need to install.
Ant, version 1.7.1 or later: Provides the standard setup and sequencing of processing steps. You can download Ant from http://ant.apache.org/.
XSLT processor: Provides the main transformation services. It must be compliant with XSLT 1.0. The DITA-OT is tested with both Saxon and Xalan-J. You can download Saxon, version 9.1 from http://saxon.sourceforge.net/ and Xalan-J, version 2.7.1 or later from http://xml.apache.org/xalan-j/downloads.html.

Software required for specific transformations

Depending on the type of output that you want to generate, you might need the following applications:

ICU for Java: ICU for Java is a cross-platform, Unicode-based, globalization library. It includes support for comparing locale-sensitive strings; formatting dates, times, numbers, currencies, and messages; detecting text boundaries; and converting character sets. You can download ICU for Java from http://www.icu-project.org/download/.
Microsoft Help Workshop: Required for generating HTML help. You can download the Help Workshop from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms669985%28v=vs.85%29.aspx.
XSL-FO processor: Required for generating PDF output. You can download FOP from http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/download.html; you also can use Antenna House Formatter or RenderX.

See Tested platforms and tools for detailed information about versions of the prerequisite applications that have been tested with the current DITA-OT release.