I just came across this great post entitled DITA Backlash? on Anne Rockley’s excellent blog. In the post Anne makes an excellent point.

Free tools are not always the best tools – output

Your job is to produce user guides, help systems, training material, etc. It is not merely to produce topics. The tools you use to create PDF and CHM files is as important as the authoring tool you use.

This paragraph had a particular resonance for me as I’ve not long finished authoring a white paper on just this very subject. The paper, “DITA PUBLISHING: The true costs of taking your DITA content online”, is scheduled to be released at the upcoming CMS/DITA Conference in Santa Clara in April, but if any readers of this blog would like an advance copy, just drop me an email (aporter@webworks.com) and I’d be happy to send it your way.