About DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture)

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based, end-to-end architecture for authoring, producing, and delivering information (often called content) as discrete, typed topics. Typical information delivered using the DITA architecture is technical or scientific in nature and published as online help, through product support portals, or as print-ready PDF files.

DITA originated and is extensively used in the IBM Corporation; in 2005 it was adopted as an Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) standard. DITA is currently used in many organizations world-wide, and is supported by an ever-growing list of commercial and open-source tools. DITA is actively being extended and enhanced under the direction of the OASIS DITA Technical Committee.

The DITA architecture, along with appropriate tools, is used to: