As always, the best way to explain is by example... The following XSL-FO has a list-block with provisional-distance-between-starts defined. The list item inside it owns a table. For some reason, each cell in the table has a left-padding equal to the value of the enclosing provisional-distance-between-starts: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <fo:root xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"> <fo:layout-master-set> <fo:simple-page-master margin-left="0.75in" margin-right="0.75in" master-name="letter" page-height="11in" page-width="8.5in"> <fo:region-body margin-bottom="1.0cm" margin-top="0.5cm" /> </fo:simple-page-master> </fo:layout-master-set> <fo:page-sequence master-reference="letter"> <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body" font-size="9pt"> <fo:list-block provisional-distance-between-starts="3.0em" provisional-label-separation="0"> <fo:list-item space-before="1.0em"> <fo:list-item-label end-indent="label-end()"> <fo:block>1.</fo:block> </fo:list-item-label> <fo:list-item-body start-indent="body-start()"> <fo:block font-weight="bold">Item 1</fo:block> <fo:block font-size="0.8em" space-before="1.0em"> <fo:table table-layout="fixed" width="100%"> <fo:table-column border="thin solid black" column-width="100%" /> <fo:table-body> <fo:table-row> <fo:table-cell> <fo:block font-weight="bold" padding-bottom="1.0em">Title 1</fo:block> <fo:block>Text 1</fo:block> </fo:table-cell> </fo:table-row> </fo:table-body> </fo:table> </fo:block> </fo:list-item-body> </fo:list-item> </fo:list-block> </fo:flow> </fo:page-sequence> </fo:root> Expected result: Left-padding of the table-cells should be 0. The setting of provisional-distance-between-starts shouldn't affect the padding of the cells. Tested with rev-588275.
I'm afraid you've stepped into the indent-inheritance trap. The whole topic about indent inheritance is explained here: http://wiki.apache.org/xmlgraphics-fop/IndentInheritance For readers in a hurry: Simply reset start-indent and end-indent on the fo:table-body (and table-header/footer if necessary) element. A table creates reference areas and that's why it can appear that indents are applied twice. So, no, it's not a bug. The XSL-FO spec is a little peculiar in this aspect. Some commercial implementors have chosen a different path (which we support, too: see "break-indent-inheritance" in [1]) but it breaks the spec and therefore shouldn't be used in the interest of long-term interoperability. [1] http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/0.94/configuration.html#general-elements
batch transition to closed remaining pre-FOP1.0 resolved bugs