XSLT - Add some spacing before punctuation

Question

I use Apache FOP version 2.8 with saxonHE12 available.

Is there a way in XSLT to add an additional space BEFORE the punctuation character when punctuating (, ? ! etc)?

I have seen that there is something from Antennahouse axf:space-before-punctuation but as far as I know I can't use it as FOP user.

Is there any other way to add, for example, an extra space of say 0.2 cm before each comma?

Example:

The sun was setting, casting a warm golden glow over the horizon.

Output after adding some spacing:

The sun was setting<spacing of 0.2 cm>, casting a warm golden glow over the horizon<spacing of 0.2 cm>.

Answer 1

As your output format is HTML, you can enclose the punctuation characters in span elements and style them with CSS:

<xsl:template match="text()">
  <xsl:analyze-string select="." regex="[,.!?]">
    <xsl:matching-substring>
      <span style="padding-left:2px"><xsl:value-of select="."/></span>
    </xsl:matching-substring>
    <xsl:non-matching-substring>
      <xsl:value-of select="."/>
    </xsl:non-matching-substring>
  </xsl:analyze-string>
</xsl:template>

^{remark: It's my first time making use of xsl:analyze-string}

The output would be something like:

The sun was setting<span style="padding-left:2px">,</span> casting a warm golden glow over the horizon<span style="padding-left:2px">.</span>