European Digital Sovereignty in Product Documentation
A white paper by 9to5 Media Services

Martin Post

Executive Summary

This white paper addresses an urgent strategic challenge for European consumer goods brands: the overreliance on U.S.-based digital tools for creating and publishing product literature (manuals, quick guides, setup and safety instructions).

Against the backdrop of escalating transatlantic tensions and rising calls for digital sovereignty, European businesses face increasing risks to operational continuity, data privacy, and compliance.

Currently, most product documentation workflows depend on proprietary software and U.S. cloud services, exposing brands to vulnerabilities such as unexpected service restrictions, data access by foreign governments, and rising licensing costs.

These dependencies undermine both legal compliance under EU regulations (like GDPR) and strategic autonomy, threatening brand resilience.

In response, this paper proposes an alternative, fully European / open-source stack for authoring, translating, and publishing product manuals and support content.

This approach leverages open-source, EU-based technologies to enable brands to regain control over their documentation workflows while enhancing efficiency and user experience.

Key components include Markdown for lightweight, vendor-neutral content authoring; Pandoc for single-source, multi-format publishing; DeepL for high-quality EU-based translation; and HTML/CSS for responsive, accessible web delivery.

Hosting on EU servers using open-source platforms further ensures data residency and legal compliance.

Beyond mitigating geopolitical and compliance risks, adopting this sovereign approach brings additional benefits: lower operating costs, improved maintainability, streamlined translation processes, and a superior customer experience through modern, web-first manuals.

The result is documentation that is not only legally robust and future-proof but also a strategic brand asset — reinforcing trust, enabling self-service support, and boosting discoverability through SEO and AI-readiness.

Embracing this European alternative aligns with broader EU initiatives such as the EuroStack vision, supporting technological independence, open standards, and environmental sustainability.

It positions brands to proactively adapt to evolving digital landscapes and strengthen market competitiveness.

In short, transitioning to a sovereign, open, and streamlined documentation stack empowers European consumer goods brands to protect their operations, reduce costs, improve user satisfaction, and contribute to Europe’s digital autonomy.

This paper provides a detailed roadmap for implementing such a transition effectively and sustainably.

Introduction and Context

Transatlantic relations have entered a tense chapter in early 2025. The United States, under President Donald Trump, has adopted tariffs and export restrictions on European goods and services, a move widely perceived in the EU as isolationist or even hostile ¹. In one notable step, the Trump administration announced import tariffs of at least 10% on most goods, with a punitive 20% rate specifically applied to products from the European Union.

EU leaders, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, have called these tariffs “a heavy blow to the global economy” and vowed that Europe “will not hesitate to react” with countermeasures ². Among the responses now on the table in Brussels are new duties or taxes targeting U.S. digital platforms and tech services.

European officials have debated, largely behind closed doors, the wisdom of imposing tariffs on at big U.S. tech firms in retaliation for Trump’s trade measures.

In short, Europe’s drive for digital autonomy is colliding with Washington’s aggressive trade tactics, forcing EU policymakers and businesses alike to reassess their reliance on American technology infrastructure^{3 4}. This geopolitical rift is not just a policy concern — it’s spilling into boardrooms across Europe.

With open hostility coming from the highest levels of the U.S. government and the persistent threat of extraterritorial U.S. laws, European businesses face a growing need for “digital sovereignty”.

Many EU-based companies, particularly consumer goods manufacturers, are concerned that their heavy reliance on U.S. digital platforms and software could become a significant vulnerability.

The scenario is unprecedented:

Decades of globalization have made tools like Microsoft Office, Adobe Creative Suite, Google’s cloud services, and U.S.-hosted content management systems (CMS) the de facto standards in product development and marketing.

Now, those same tools are potential choke points in a transatlantic tech standoff.

“Europe finds itself a quasi-colony across all layers of our critical digital infrastructure.

This almost complete dependence on non-European technologies has created security and economic risks that also hurt our growth prospects.”

European institutions are responding with urgency.

The European Commission has floated the idea of digital platform tariffs – essentially, special levies or regulations on services from Silicon Valley giants like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, and others – as part of a broader countermeasure package.

Such steps signal to European industry that the operating environment for U.S. tech services in Europe may fundamentally change.

Implications for European Businesses

EU-based consumer goods brands, in particular, find themselves in a precarious position.

Many have deeply integrated U.S. software and cloud platforms into their product literature workflows – the processes by which they create, translate, and publish manuals, catalogs, and other customer-facing documents.

These firms are asking a sobering question:

“Could our business function without U.S. tech?”⁵. Andy Yen, CEO of Swiss company Proton, characterizes Europe as “a quasi-colony across all layers of our critical digital infrastructure” due to near-total dependence on non-European tech.

This dependence, he warns, has created security and economic risks that hurt Europe’s growth prospects.

Ulrich Ahle, CEO of the EU’s GAIA-X cloud initiative, similarly notes that over-reliance on U.S. providers – from cloud hosting down to everyday productivity tools – carries significant risks for the sovereign control of data.

Those risks range from compliance headaches (e.g. U.S. Cloud Act data demands on European data) to simple availability: an extreme but not unthinkable scenario is a U.S. executive order or export rule that suddenly cuts off or limits European access to crucial software updates or cloud services in a trade dispute.

Against this backdrop, European institutions and industry leaders are rallying around the concept of technological sovereignty.

The “EuroStack” initiative, for example, is a policy vision proposing a European alternative technology stack at all layers – from chips and cloud infrastructure to software and AI – to reclaim control of Europe’s digital future ⁶. EuroStack’s proponents argue that without decisive action, Europe risks a form of “digital colonialism” where its industries are hollowed out and its citizens’ data governed by foreign powers.

While that language is strong, it underscores the stakes:

Europe’s leaders now see open-source ecosystems and homegrown alternatives as strategic necessities, not just idealism.

A recent open letter to the European Commission (signed by firms like Airbus) bluntly stated Europe “cannot regulate itself out of its laggard position” and must “become more technologically independent across all layers of its critical digital infrastructure” ⁷. In this context, the dependency of Europe’s consumer goods sector on U.S. content and publishing software is a microcosm of a larger sovereignty problem – one that this white paper will address with a concrete solution.

The Problem: Dependence on U.S. Tools for Product Literature

Product Literature Workflows Today

Consumer goods manufacturers routinely produce a range of product literature – user manuals, installation guides, product brochures, technical specifications, and packaging content – often in multiple languages for different markets.

Over the past three decades, the workflows for creating these materials have gravitated toward proprietary, U.S.-based software and platforms.

A typical scenario might look like this:

Authoring and Editing: Microsoft Word, Google Docs

Writers and product managers draft content in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.

These familiar word processors are U.S.-developed (Microsoft in Washington state, Google in California) and often cloud-backed.

Drafts may be circulated via email or cloud links, and final text is stored in formats such as .docx (a Microsoft proprietary format).

Graphic Design and Layout: Adobe InDesign

For richly formatted manuals or brochures, companies rely on Adobe’s Creative Suite – primarily Adobe InDesign for page layout, with Adobe Illustrator / Photoshop for graphics.

Adobe is a California-based firm, and its Creative Cloud software now runs on a subscription model authenticated through U.S. servers.

Alternative desktop publishing (DTP) software exists, but Adobe dominates professional publishing.

An alternative to Adobe’s Creative Suite, the “Affinity Suite” (Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher), is developed and distributed by the British software company Serif Europe, which was acquired by the Australian company Canva in 2024.

Translation: Google Translate

Many consumer brands need manuals in 5, 10, or even 30 languages.

For speed and cost efficiency, teams often turn to machine translation to assist human translators.

The go-to has been Google Translate (or its enterprise API) – a cloud service by Google that sends text to Google’s U.S.-based data centers for translation.

Some brands also use Microsoft’s Translator or cloud services, likewise U.S.-operated.

Sensitive or not – documents translated through these services leave European jurisdiction when processed.

Content Management and Publishing: AEM, WordPress

After layout and translation, product literature is usually printed, rendered in PDF format, and then uploaded to a company website, which is usually built on a content management system (CMS).

Popular CMS choices include Adobe Experience Manager, HubSpot CMS, Squarespace, or WordPress.com – all services either owned by U.S. companies or hosted on U.S. cloud infrastructure.

Even “self-hosted” websites often run on hosting providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) or Google Cloud, unless a conscious choice is made to use EU-based hosts.

In short:

The end platform delivering the manual to customers is frequently under U.S. control or subject to U.S. laws.

This toolchain has been favored because it is familiar and has mature capabilities.

However, it comes with significant hidden costs and risks, which recent events have thrown into sharp relief.

Hidden Costs and Risks of Current Product Literature Publishing Workflows

Vendor Lock-In and Cost Escalation

Relying on proprietary formats (such as Word .docx or Adobe’s .indd InDesign files) can lock companies into those tools.

Licensing costs for Microsoft 365 or Adobe Creative Cloud can be substantial, especially for small and medium enterprises, and those costs can rise unpredictably.

More critically, if a trade conflict worsens, the U.S. government could pressure these providers (or they could decide on their own) to restrict services.

This is not speculative:

European governments have started to worry that “with the advent of Trump 2.0, it has become clear that this is not something you can harmlessly sign off on”, as Bert Hubert, a Dutch technology expert, put it regarding cloud contracts ⁸. If Washington can influence or shut down a tech platform, dependency becomes a dangerous issue.

Data Sovereignty and Privacy

Using U.S. cloud services means European companies’ data (draft documents, translation texts, published manuals, user data on CMS platforms) may fall under U.S. jurisdiction.

U.S. law (e.g. the CLOUD Act, FISA) potentially allows American authorities to access data stored by U.S. providers, even if the data is in Europe ⁹. For European firms, especially those handling customer data or sensitive product information, this raises compliance issues with EU privacy regulations and the principle of keeping data under EU control.

Geopolitical Risk of Service Disruption

The current trade tensions illustrate a new kind of supply chain vulnerability: digital supply chains.

Just as tariffs can choke off physical components, export restrictions or sanctions could disrupt access to software.

Imagine if updates to Adobe or Word were temporarily embargoed or if API access to Google Translate were curtailed as part of a sanctions package.

European companies would scramble to find replacements, potentially halting documentation updates.

The European Commission’s recent planning reflects this risk, as it considers limiting government use of American services and even imposing tariffs on digital services to pressure U.S. tech giants in trade negotiations.

In effect, the EU is acknowledging that U.S. tech firms are now strategic leverage points, which is exactly why companies want to minimize their exposure.

Loss of Control and Autonomy

Beyond political risks, there is a strategic concern that Europe’s heavy reliance on foreign tech stunts its own tech ecosystem.

As Andy Yen pointed out, Europe’s near-complete dependence on non-European tech “has created security and economic risks that also hurt our growth prospects” ¹⁰.

In practical terms, when European teams default to U.S. software for every task, European alternatives struggle to gain traction, and innovation suffers as a result.

This impact on Europe’s potential for innovation was emphasized by the EuroStack initiative, noting that over 80% of critical digital technologies used in Europe come from outside the continent, which leaves Europe’s “technological sovereignty fragile” ¹¹. For documentation workflows specifically, this means European software developers have had little chance to compete in a space dominated by Word and Adobe.

The result is a lack of homegrown options and a sense that “we’re stuck with whatever Silicon Valley provides” – whether or not it perfectly suits our needs.

Urgent Calls for Change

The vulnerabilities outlined here are not just theoretical.

European governments are acting on them.

In March 2025, the Netherlands’ Parliament approved motions urging the government to reduce dependence on U.S. software, including development of a Dutch-controlled cloud platform and favoring European software in public procurement ¹². Lawmakers explicitly cited “changing relations with the U.S. under the presidency of Donald Trump” as giving fresh urgency to this effort.

One Dutch MP (Marieke Koekkoek / Volt party) asked pointedly:

“The question we as Europeans must ask ourselves is:

Do we feel comfortable with people like Trump, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and X owner Elon Musk ruling over our data?”

The answer was clearly no.

Similarly, Germany’s armed forces (Bundeswehr) have recently commissioned the development of an open-source platform to replace Microsoft 365, through the government-owned Zentrum Digitale Souveränität (Center for Digital Sovereignty) ¹³. These examples illustrate a broader European sentiment:

The status quo is no longer acceptable.

What started as IT concerns (security, privacy) have become strategic concerns (autonomy, resilience) at national and corporate levels.

For brand and product managers in the EU consumer goods sector, the message is clear.

It is time to reassess the software and services behind something as fundamental as your product documentation.

Manuals and product guides may not seem geopolitically sensitive at first glance.

But if the tools to produce them are controlled elsewhere, your business could be caught flat-footed in a geopolitical crossfire or simply be at the mercy of a foreign vendor’s policies.

There is a growing consensus that Europe must build and adopt its own alternatives where feasible – not out of protectionism, but to ensure continuity, compliance, and control.

The next section of this white paper proposes a concrete solution: a European alternative “stack” for product literature workflows, designed around the principles of openness, sovereignty, and simplicity.

An Alternative European Stack: Open, Sovereign, and Simple

To address the vulnerabilities identified above, we propose a European alternative stack (or even multiple, competing stacks) for creating, translating, and publishing product documentation.

This stack emphasizes …

• open-source tools,

• open standards, and

• European-based services to ensure that European companies can operate independently of geopolitical whims and confidently within European legal frameworks The goal here is not to reinvent the wheel in every case, but to assemble a practical workflow using proven technologies that align with Europe’s values of transparency, privacy, and interoperability.

Crucially, this approach also strives for simplicity.

Many product manuals don’t require the ornate features of enterprise DTP software or the complexity of a database-driven CMS.

By leveraging lightweight formats and tools, companies can reduce complexity and focus on delivering high-quality content.

Key Components of the proposed stack:

• Markdown for content authoring (writing and basic formatting of text and images).

• Pandoc for single-source format conversion (transforming Markdown into required output formats like PDF or Word, and especially into HTML).

• DeepL (or a similar EU-based AI translation service) for language translation of content.

• Lightweight HTML / CSS for final output (web-based manuals that are responsive and accessible, optionally printable).

• Open-source web server or content management system hosted in the EU for content delivery (examples include Apache or Nginx).

Below, we detail each component and how it replaces or complements the U.S.-based tools currently in use.

We also provide real-world examples and references to demonstrate the viability of this approach.

Markdown – Lightweight Markup for Authoring

What it is

Markdown is a lightweight markup language for creating formatted text using plain text syntax.

In essence, it allows anyone to write content in a simple text file with basic annotations (such as “ _” for bold, “-” for bullet points, and “#” for headings), which can then be converted into richly formatted documents (HTML, PDF, etc.).

Created by technology blogger John Gruber in 2004, Markdown’s design goal was readability and ease of use – a way for writers to format text without needing proprietary software.

Markdown files typically have the extension .md and can be opened with any text editor.

How it works

When a user has written a Markdown file, he can use a Markdown processor (software) to convert it into the desired output, usually HTML for web or PDF for print.

There are hundreds of Markdown editors and processors available, from minimal desktop apps to integrated writing environments that preview the formatted result in real time.

Despite their differences, all Markdown tools essentially do the same thing:

They transform the plain text and visible markers into formatted output (commonly by first converting to HTML and then, if needed, to PDF or other formats).

Markdown Is Not Something You Own, but Something You Know

Markdown deliberately omits many of the features found in Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign.

It was never intended as a WYSIWYG environment for creating visually rich, complex documents.

As a file format, Markdown doesn’t embed fonts or provide tools and instructions for complex page layouts on its own.

However, for the purposes of most consumer product manuals, Markdown is more than sufficient.

It handles headings, paragraphs, bullet lists, numbered steps, links, images, tables, and basic styling (bold, italics) easily, which covers the majority of content in typical manuals.

As one guide notes, Markdown is “fast and easy” for creating content for web or print, and it’s sufficient for basic documents like reports or letters.

Critically, because Markdown is just text, anyone can learn the basics in an hour and start writing.

There’s no need for expensive licenses or a powerful computer – a simple text editor (or one of many free Markdown editors) will do.

This flexibility makes the writing process more accessible and collaborative.

Team members can even edit Markdown in a shared repository simultaneously using version control, without worrying about software compatibility.

From a sovereignty perspective, Markdown is an open standard.

It’s not owned by any company; multiple implementations exist.

This means that content is stored in a future-proof format.

A Markdown file from 2025 will likely still be readable and convertible in 2045, using whatever tools exist at that time, because it’s plain text.

Content creators are not tied to a single vendor’s software version or file format to retrieve their own content.

As Collabora (a European open-source company) put it, depending too heavily on technology that can’t be inspected or understood is dangerous.

Markdown, by contrast, can be opened and inspected in any text editor – nothing is hidden.

User-Friendliness and Focus on Content

A concern for non-technical teams might be: Is Markdown too “techy” or arcane for everyday use?

In practice, many find it easier than using complex word processors once initial training is complete.

There are WYSIWYG-style Markdown editors (some look similar to Microsoft Word but produce Markdown “under the hood”).

Moreover, writing in Markdown encourages a focus on content over formatting.

Writers do not need not fiddle with page margins or font styles (which often consumes time and creates redundancies in traditional word processors), they simply mark a section as a heading or a list, and move on.

Consistency is assured by design.

As an example of success, several organizations have adopted Markdown for internal documentation and handbooks.

GitLab, a DevOps platform company, famously uses a Markdown-based system for its entire company handbook, allowing hundreds of staff to contribute to documents without fear of formatting issues.

In the realm of product documentation, many open-source software projects use Markdown to write user guides, which are then published to the web or as PDFs.

If software engineers and laypeople contributing to open-source projects can easily handle Markdown for documentation, so can product teams in consumer goods companies.

Finally, Markdown supports multilingual content well because it’s plain text.

Technical writing departments can maintain separate files per language or even use tools to manage translations (for instance, keeping paragraphs aligned across languages in version control).

There are emerging conventions for pairing Markdown with translation memory systems or embedding comments for translators, making it quite flexible.

Translation management systems, such as the Czech-based Phrase, already support the handling of Markdown-formatted content.

Pandoc – Single-Source Publishing and Format Conversion

What it is

Pandoc is an open-source universal document converter created by John MacFarlane.

It’s often referred to as the Swiss army knife of document conversion.

Pandoc can take a file in one format (say, Markdown, Word, HTML, or LaTeX) and convert it into dozens of other formats.

In our proposed stack, Pandoc plays a pivotal role, enabling single-source publishing.

This means you can write your content once (in Markdown) and then automatically generate the desired output – including web pages, PDF manuals, Word documents, eBooks, and more.

It ensures that adopting Markdown doesn’t mean losing compatibility with the outside world; you can still produce a polished PDF or a Word file for a business partner if required.

Pandoc is free and open-source software released under the GPL license ¹⁴. It has been widely adopted as a backend for publishing workflows across academia, government, and industry.

In fact, Pandoc is widely used as a writing tool and as a basis for publishing workflows at many organizations.

It’s known to support an extensive array of formats beyond just Markdown and HTML, including reStructuredText, DocBook XML, EPUB, and Microsoft Word’s DOCX, to name a few.

This means Pandoc can also serve as a migration aid:

If an organization has legacy documentation in formats such as Microsoft Word, Pandoc can convert it into Markdown (or another manageable format), so you won’t be locked out of your legacy content ¹⁵.

How It Fits in the Stack

In a simplified workflow, once a Markdown document (or set of documents) is ready, Pandoc is used to do the following:

• Generate an HTML version of the content, applying a template for consistent styling.

• Optionally, generate a PDF.

Pandoc can create PDFs via LaTeX, by leveraging browser engines or using other HTML-to-PDF conversion tools such as Prince XML by YesLogic Pty Ltd, a company based in Melbourne, Australia.

This is useful if physical printed manuals or downloadable PDFs are still needed alongside the web version.

• Generate other formats as needed (for example, DOCX if a partner or regulator insists on that format, or an EPUB e-book version).

Pandoc thus replaces the role of Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word’s export features in traditional workflows.

Instead of manually laying out pages in InDesign for print and then creating HTML pages for the web separately, Pandoc can output both from the same source.

This not only saves labor but ensures consistency – the content is identical across formats, and updates only need to be made in one place.

This principle of a “single source of truth” is a modern best practice in documentation.

Open, Free, and Transparent

Being open-source, Pandoc’s conversion process is well-documented and tweakable.

Developers and writers with a basic understanding of HTML can customize templates – for example by adding metadata such as author names and dates to all rendered documents.

This contrasts with proprietary tools, where users are often limited to predefined export options and black-box behavior.

Automation

Pandoc can be scripted.

For instance, a company could set up an automated pipeline (using simple scripts or makefiles) where every time a Markdown file is updated, Pandoc regenerates HTML / PDF outputs.

This is essentially bringing continuous integration to documentation – a modern, efficient practice.

It eliminates repetitive manual export steps and reduces the likelihood of human error.

Conversion Accuracy

Over the years, Pandoc has become very robust in converting between formats.

It is continually improved by a community of contributors.

While no converter is 100% perfect, Pandoc’s support for Word, for example, means even if a colleague still wants to write in Word, you could incorporate their DOCX into your workflow and convert it to Markdown, or vice versa, with minimal loss.

Usage in Industry

Many organizations trust Pandoc.

For instance, the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) at one point used Pandoc in a toolkit for converting policy documents.

Scholarly publishers utilize Pandoc to generate multiple output formats from a single manuscript.

The very existence of 36 companies identified on a single tech stack listing that use Pandoc (with names spanning the US and Europe) attests to its utility.

It might not be a household name for managers, but it’s a quiet workhorse in content conversion.

In summary, Pandoc provides the technical “glue” that enables a lightweight format like Markdown to integrate seamlessly with traditional deliverables.

It ensures that adopting a sovereign, open toolchain does not mean sacrificing output quality or compatibility.

As a free open-source tool, Pandoc also eliminates licensing costs from this stage of the workflow and removes yet another dependency on a single vendor’s ecosystem.

DeepL – High-Quality Translation within Europe

What it is

DeepL is a neural machine translation service launched by a European company (DeepL GmbH, based in Cologne, Germany).

It has gained a reputation in recent years for delivering translation quality often perceived as superior to that of Google Translate, especially for many European language pairs.

DeepL’s service can be accessed via a web interface, desktop apps, or an API for programmatic translation.

Notably, DeepL operates its data centers in Europe and is subject to EU data protection laws, which can provide reassurance for European businesses wary of sending data to U.S. servers for translation.

If companies today rely on Google Translate, switching to DeepL can yield multiple benefits:

Quality

Numerous independent evaluations and user comparisons have found that DeepL’s translations sound more natural and accurate for languages such as German, French, Spanish, and Italian.

In one blind test analysis, DeepL was rated as the most precise translator, even “beating out Google Translate” in many scenarios.

For example, French-to-English research showed that DeepL had 99% correct translations, compared to Google’s 84%.

DeepL is particularly strong in technical and formal writing, which is exactly what product manuals often are.

One review concluded:

“DeepL is generally rated as having higher-quality translations… if you want the most accurate and natural-sounding translations, DeepL is usually the best option ¹⁶.”

Better initial machine translations mean less post-editing work for human translators, speeding up the workflow.

European Data Sovereignty

Using DeepL keeps the translation data within the European Union.

This reduces compliance risk.

Companies handling sensitive product information or user data in documentation can be more confident in using DeepL under GDPR guidelines than in using a U.S. service, where data might be mined or subject to U.S. government access.

DeepL’s privacy policy is geared towards enterprise needs (it does not store texts long-term when you use the Pro version).

Features

DeepL offers features like formality level choice (formal/informal tone), which can be helpful in tailoring customer-facing text in languages that have politeness levels.

It also supports glossaries (ensuring product names or specific terms are translated consistently).

These features are very relevant for producing a professional manual.

Google Translate has improved, but it still sometimes struggles with context, whereas DeepL often preserves context better, making fewer egregious mistakes in user manuals (like mixing up technical terms).

Integration

DeepL provides an API.

This means our workflow can integrate translation into the pipeline.

For instance, after writing the English content in Markdown, a script could send the text to DeepL’s API to get translations for, say, German and French, and produce corresponding Markdown files or inserts.

This can be semi-automated, then reviewed by human translators or native speakers for fine-tuning.

The idea is augmentation, not full replacement of human translation when high accuracy is needed, but providing a strong starting point.

Many translation agencies themselves utilize DeepL as part of their process, as it enhances productivity.

It’s worth noting that DeepL supports a wide array of European languages (and some Asian languages).

As of 2025, DeepL supports more than 30 languages, including all official EU languages and additional languages such as Chinese and Japanese ¹⁷. While DeepL may not yet support some low-demand languages, it covers the vast majority of languages that European consumer goods firms require for their documentation.

If a language is not supported, one can fall back on other translation methods for those specific cases.

However, for most EU market needs, DeepL is sufficient.

Comparison to Google Cloud Translate in Practice

Cost-wise, DeepL’s API is somewhat pricier than Google’s (e.g., roughly 25 USD per million characters for DeepL vs. 20 USD for Google Translate).

However, the difference is often justified by quality.

For typical documentation (let’s say a manual containing 10,000 words ≈ 60,000 characters), the cost difference is negligible for a one-time translation.

Even when scaling up to translate millions of characters, the quality gain can reduce the need for costly human revision, thereby balancing out the expense.

Moreover, by using DeepL strategically (e.g. for translating only the new or changed text in updates), companies can keep costs efficient.

The focus here is also on sovereignty:

Knowing that you pay a European provider, which handles your data under EU law, might itself be worth the slight premium.

DeepL’s success story is a testament to Europe’s potential in AI – an example of a homegrown, globally leading service.

By adopting it, European companies not only secure better translations but also support the European AI industry, aligning with the broader strategic goal of not ceding every digital service to foreign giants.

HTML & CSS – Accessible, Lightweight Web Manuals

What it is

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are the core building blocks of the web.

HTML defines the structure and content of a page (headings, paragraphs, lists, images, etc.), while CSS defines how that content is presented (layout, colors, fonts, etc.).

Together, HTML and CSS enable the creation of flexible, responsive, and accessible documents that can be viewed on any device with a web browser.

Unlike a PDF or a printed page, an HTML-based document naturally adapts to different screen sizes (a feature called responsiveness) and can incorporate interactive features or multimedia.

Using HTML and CSS for Product Documentation

In the proposed stack, we generate an HTML version of the manual and style it with CSS to match the company’s branding and readability needs.

This replaces the need for a platform like Squarespace or a heavy CMS to display content.

The output is essentially a static website (which could be as simple as a single-page manual or an extensive collection of interlinked pages for different products, manual sections, and languages).

There are several advantages to distributing manuals as HTML / CSS web content:

Universal Access

Anyone with a web browser can read the manual – be it on a desktop PC, a Mac, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Users do not need to download a PDF reader or worry about file compatibility.

For example, if a customer scans a QR code on a product package to get the manual, an HTML web manual will open instantly in their phone browser.

Ease of Updates

If a typo or error is found in the manual, updating an HTML page on the server is instantaneous, and users always see the latest version.

Compare this to a PDF, where users may have downloaded an outdated version and not realize an update has been made.

Interactive Content and Multimedia Capabilities

HTML manuals are not limited to static text.

They can embed how-to videos, interactive diagrams, or even simple scripts for widgets such as product configuration calculators.

Many modern consumers prefer a rich media experience when learning about a product, which HTML can deliver (whereas a paper manual obviously cannot, and a PDF is static and bulky, with no reliable mechanism for embedding audio or video files).

Accessibility

Web standards provide strong support for accessibility (e.g., screen readers for the visually impaired).

If properly structured, an HTML manual can be far more accessible than a PDF or printed booklet.

Images can be made accessible by providing alternative text.

High-contrast modes can use CSS to improve visibility.

Text can also be resized by using browser controls or style switchers.

All these features are essential for compliance with accessibility regulations.

The European Accessibility Act, for instance, requires accessible documentation for many product groups ¹⁸. Delivering in HTML / CSS can simplify meeting those requirements.

Localization and Language Toggle

For multilingual manuals, a web version can provide easy switching between languages (e.g., a drop-down menu), and the structure can be identical across languages for consistency.

This is a very user-friendly approach, especially when compared to juggling multiple PDFs.

Performance and lightweight nature

HTML / CSS manuals, especially if mostly text and some images, are very lightweight to load.

Instead of forcing a user to download a 5 MB PDF, an HTML page might be only a few hundred KB (plus images, which can be optimized).

This matters for users with slow connections or on mobile data.

It also reduces server load and costs (bandwidth).

Styling and professionalism

An obvious concern for many consumer brands is design and corporate design compliance.

Can an HTML manual look as good as a professionally typeset PDF or printed manual?

With modern CSS, the answer is “yes” for the vast majority of use cases.

Companies can create a style guide in CSS to ensure their web manuals have the correct fonts, colors, spacing, and even mimic print layouts if desired.

Techniques like CSS print style sheets make it possible to set up rules that ensure an HTML page will look great when printing or saving a PDF locally.

Media queries enable designers to create distinct design rules for print media, allowing them to add or omit elements that are not relevant in print.

In fact, HTML / CSS is so capable now that some digital publishing systems use it “under the hood” to produce PDFs.

Additionally, consistent branding (logos, corporate colors) can be “baked” into documentation templates.

Hence, every manual chapter or release note automatically adheres to the company’s identity guidelines, eliminating the need for designers to manually adjust each document as they would in a traditional publishing workflow.

Real-world trend

Many companies have already moved their documentation to web platforms – we see it with software documentation, but also hardware.

For example, large tech companies often maintain online “knowledge bases” for their products instead of solely relying on printed manuals.

The concept of a “docs-as-code” approach (treating documentation similar to code, using text formats and version control) has gained popularity for its efficiency and reliability.

Our suggested Markdown→HTML pipeline is a variant of docs-as-code, and it produces a site that can be hosted on the company’s domain.

In summary, delivering manuals as responsive HTML pages, styled to perfection, is not only feasible – it is increasingly expected by users who are accustomed to finding information online.

It aligns with the principles of simplicity and modern user experience, while freeing the content from proprietary constraints.

And importantly for our theme, an HTML manual hosted in Europe keeps the distribution under European control (no dependency on a U.S.- based document hosting service).

EU-Based Open-Source Hosting and Delivery

What it is

Once a brand has created product literature in the HTML / CSS format, this product literature has to be made available to end users, which requires web hosting.

A web hosting solution makes content (usually HTML pages and linked media) available over the World Wide Web; it does not necessarily require a complex content management system.

Here we advocate using open-source web servers or CMS solutions hosted on servers within the EU.

The two most common web servers worldwide are Apache HTTP Server and Nginx, both open-source (with Apache initially developed by a U.S.-led open community, and Nginx by Russian developer Igor Sysoev, but both are now global projects with heavy European usage).

There are also lightweight options such as Caddy and lighttpd.

The key is that the software running the server is open-source (inspected, secure, no backdoors) and that the physical hosting is done in an EU data center or cloud.

For a simple approach, a company could use any EU-based hosting provider to host static files – many hosts in Europe can serve static websites very cheaply.

If some interactivity or a content management interface is desired for non-technical staff, an open-source flat-file CMS such as MkDocs or Wiki.js could be installed on an EU server.

These tools offer friendly user interfaces, but they store data in Markdown and serve content as HTML.

Sovereignty and legal jurisdiction

Hosting within the EU ensures that European data protection laws (e.g., GDPR) fully apply and that the content isn’t subject to foreign subpoenas or surveillance to the extent it would be if hosted in the U.S. Hosting in Europe also avoids potential export restriction issues – it is unlikely that the EU would ever sanction itself or restrict its own companies from accessing their data.

This means that hosting product literature on an EU server is a way to “firewall” the documentation against international disputes.

This is one reason Dutch lawmakers specifically pushed for a “cloud services platform under Dutch control” in 2025 – to ensure critical services can continue regardless of U.S. policy shifts ¹⁹.

Reliability and Control

Open-source web servers are known for their reliability and performance.

Over 40% of the world’s websites are served by Apache or Nginx.

By using one of these server applications, a company isn’t tied to a specific vendor’s hosting stack.

If one hosting provider has issues, the whole site can be moved to another provider with minimal hassle (no proprietary dependencies).

This elasticity is good business continuity practice.

It also allows for integration with European content delivery networks (CDNs) if needed for global performance, while still maintaining control over where content is stored and cached.

Security

One might wonder if leaving branded hosting solutions means losing security.

In reality, open-source servers are rigorously tested by the global community.

Patches for vulnerabilities are quickly available and can be applied by your admins.

Moreover, since our proposed stack is relatively simple (static or flat-file content), the attack surface is smaller compared to a complex dynamic CMS.

Less complexity often means fewer security holes and easier maintenance ²⁰.

Example: Nextcloud for Internal Collaboration

Although the focus in this document is on publishing consumer product literature, it’s worth mentioning that for internal file sharing and collaboration (which often goes hand-in-hand with documentation creation), there are European open-source alternatives like Nextcloud (a German-developed file sharing and collaboration platform, often dubbed an alternative to Google Drive / Dropbox).

Nextcloud enables teams to share and edit files on servers they own and control.

A company could use Nextcloud, for instance, to store its Markdown files or to allow multiple stakeholders to review content.

This ensures draft content doesn’t sit on Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.

Nextcloud has been adopted by many European institutions (cities, universities) for precisely the sovereignty reasons discussed in previous sections of this document.

While not a part of the “publishing” pipeline per se, it fits into the broader picture of replacing each link in the chain with a sovereign alternative.

Preparing for the worst to avoid systemic shocks

During previous geopolitical events (for instance, U.S. sanctions on specific countries, or the Russia-Ukraine conflict, leading companies to avoid Russian software), businesses have had to scramble to replace tools.

European companies watching these developments have started preemptively diversifying.

A hypothetical but instructive scenario:

If a European company had all its product literature on a U.S.-based web service and that service became unavailable due to a tariff or legal issue, migrating in crisis is painful.

Migrating or at least duplicating content before a crisis is a reasonable strategy, and a model based on open formats and products ensures that one form of dependency isn’t replaced by another one.

A Stack With No “Kill Switch” Outside of Europe

Following the principles outlined in this document, by the time the content reaches the user, every layer – from the code that generated it (Pandoc, open-source) to the server that delivers it (Apache / Nginx, open-source) – operates on principles of transparency and local control.

Companies that implement the proposed (or a similar) stack will own the entire documentation value chain.

No foreign entity can “flip a switch” to turn off a documentation site; no abrupt policy change can render their publishing software unusable; and no external jurisdiction can easily dictate the terms of service for publishing product literature.

Comparison of Current vs. Proposed Stacks

To crystallize the differences between the traditional U.S.-centric documentation toolchain and the proposed EU-sovereign stack, the following table provides a side-by-side comparison of key components.

The new stack emphasizes open standards, open-source tools, and EU-based services that reduce dependency on foreign entities while maintaining functionality and quality.

Benefits of the Sovereign Open-Source Stack

Implementing this European-focused documentation stack yields numerous benefits for companies in the EU, especially in the consumer goods sector where documentation needs are frequent but not highly specialized (unlike, say, aviation manuals).

We outline the key advantages below.

Independence and Control

Perhaps the most immediate benefit is regained independence.

Companies are no longer tightly bound to the policies or fate of any single foreign vendor.

You control the software and the servers that are part of your workflow.

Strategic Autonomy

If transatlantic relations worsen or new laws appear, documentation pipelines remain untouched.

No U.S. executive order can stop anyone from using Markdown or Pandoc – they are not services but tools you possess.

Websites hosted on EU servers are subject to EU law and are immune to any U.S. mandates.

This autonomy was precisely the outcome envisioned by European policymakers pushing for “reducing dependency” on non-European software.

It’s a tangible step away from what some have called Europe’s status as a digital “colony”.

Data Ownership

All content (source Markdown, images, translation files, etc.) remains in physical files owned by European brands, on infrastructure they choose.

Brands are no longer entrusting their intellectual property to cloud terms of service that can change at any time.

As a result, the risk of data lockout is eliminated.

For instance, if a company ever decides to change hosting providers, they can simply move their files – they are not stuck in someone else’s content management system.

No Vendor Lock-in

The tools being open-source means that if one of them doesn’t meet a company’s needs, it can migrate to other tools with minimal friction.

Markdown, being plain text, can be converted or even directly opened by numerous free or affordable programs.

This contrasts with, say, an Adobe InDesign file, which requires Adobe software to open correctly.

The open nature “guarantees that Europe’s critical digital infrastructure is under European jurisdiction” and protected by design – an ethos aligning with EuroStack’s core principles of sovereignty ²¹.

Simplicity and Efficiency

By stripping down the workflow to essential, modern tools, we also achieve simplicity, which translates to efficiency and cost savings:

Streamlined Process

The Markdown / Pandoc approach consolidates multiple steps (drafting, layout, multi-format export) into a single, continuous flow.

The time from content creation to having a web-ready and print-ready manual is dramatically reduced.

There is less “busy work” in reformatting or copying content between systems.

This frees up staff to focus on content quality and accuracy, rather than wrestling with software.

Learning Curve

Surprisingly, many writers find that once they become accustomed to Markdown (which takes only a few days of practice), they often prefer it to complex Word templates or InDesign interfaces.

The cognitive load is lower – the writer only needs to worry about one thing at a time (writing the text) instead of myriad formatting options.

As one user manual project lead noted, making the process “as easy and intuitive as possible” for the team is crucial, and a well-designed Markdown toolchain achieves that.

There are fewer “mystery issues” (like a Word template style behaving oddly) because of Markdown’s inherent transparency.

Automation & Consistency

With Pandoc and conversion scripting, many errors that creep in with manual handling are eliminated.

For example, all headings will be consistently styled the same way, all cross-references can be auto-checked, and so on.

Consistency is crucial in manuals for maintaining a consistent brand and professional image.

Maintenance

Over the long term, maintaining this stack is simpler.

Open-source tools have active communities that continually update code and documentation.

There’s no forced upgrade cycle with changed user interfaces or formats (unlike, say, Office or Adobe upgrades, which can be disruptive).

And the output being static HTML means fewer “moving parts” on the website – minimal maintenance compared to a dynamic database-driven site.

Cost Reduction

Direct costs drop by removing proprietary software subscriptions.

Adobe InDesign/ Creative Cloud licenses will cost hundreds of Euros per year per user.

Replacing these with open-source saves money.

The only significant cost might be DeepL’s subscription for heavy use, but even that can be scaled per need and is likely far less than hiring extra translators or paying for enterprise localization software.

Web hosting in the EU for static sites is very inexpensive – and many companies already have servers or cloud instances they can use for product literature.

In effect, this model is moving documentation from an opex model (ongoing license fees and vendor costs) to a capex model (invest some time in setting up the system and templates).

Quality and Modernization

Adopting the stack outlined in this document can improve the quality of documentation and bring a company’s practices up to date with modern digital standards:

Improved Translation Quality

As discussed, DeepL’s translation quality promises clearer, more accurate manuals for end users.

Companies with a limited translation budget can offer their customers a larger target language set.

Fewer awkward phrasings or errors make it through, which improves customer satisfaction and reduces the need for support calls.

Additionally, controlling the scope and quality of the glossary ensures that brand terms and product names are handled correctly in every language.

Better User Experience

HTML manuals offer a better user experience than static PDFs.

They are searchable and linkable.

A support specialist can send a URL pointing to a specific section of a document to a customer.

Brands can also incorporate user feedback loops (e.g., a “Was this page helpful?” survey at the bottom).

This is aligned with modern customer support.

Younger consumers in particular expect to find information online quickly.

Meeting their expectations enhances the product’s perceived value and fosters brand loyalty.

Accessibility & Inclusivity

As noted, HTML / CSS manuals can be made accessible in ways PDFs often are not.

This not only widens your audience (customers with disabilities can access the content), but it may also be necessary for legal compliance.

Designing with accessibility in mind is a quality booster that proprietary workflows often neglect.

(In Adobe InDesign, tagging a PDF for accessibility is an extra, sometimes complicated step.

In an HTML approach, it can be part of the “natural” output when set up properly).

Future-proofing and Innovation

The proposed solution aligns with future trends, such as integration with voice-assisted technologies (imagine your HTML manual being parsed by a voice assistant to answer a user’s question) or augmented reality (an HTML-based help that could be embedded in an AR overlay for a product).

By contrast, static or proprietary formats might not adapt as well.

Moreover, should the company later adopt other systems (such as a headless content management system or a central knowledge base), having content in Markdown / HTML makes migration or integration much easier than having to import content locked in siloed, proprietary files.

This approach also signals innovation to stakeholders.

It shows that the company is leveraging modern tools and not clinging to outdated processes just because “that’s how it was always done. ”

Alignment with European Values and Initiatives

By adopting this stack, companies aren’t just solving their own problem – they are contributing to a larger movement in Europe:

Digital Sovereignty

By implementing a modern, OSS-based solution as outlined here, companies would be heeding the call that European leaders and experts are making for industry to reduce reliance on non-EU tech.

It’s one thing to discuss sovereignty in abstract terms, but implementing it in your documentation pipeline makes it concrete.

Moving in this direction, not under pressure but as a voluntary step towards open solutions, ensures that European companies aren’t, as Proton CEO Andy Yen put it, “economically exploited and politically neutered” by foreign tech dominance ²². It may seem like a small piece, but documentation is both a fundamental business process and a highly visible deliverable.

Reclaiming it sets an example.

Open-Source Ecosystem Growth

Using and possibly contributing to open-source tools strengthens those projects.

The more companies adopt open formats and tools, such as Markdown and Pandoc, the more those tools can be improved, potentially through collaboration with European developers.

This aligns with Europe’s goal to cultivate its own open-source communities as strategic assets.

The EuroStack report highlights Europe’s “huge but fragmented open-source community” and calls for coalescing these efforts.

By standardizing on open tools, companies can more easily share knowledge and even code.

(For example, a Pandoc template for manuals specific to EU regulatory formatting could be shared across companies.)

Environmental and Green IT aspects

“Lightweight” software tools and static hosting have smaller carbon footprints than heavy all-in-one enterprise software and always-on dynamic servers.

Considering Europe’s commitments to green tech, this is a bonus point that can be mentioned in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) contexts or funding proposals (open-source solutions can extend hardware lifecycles and reduce waste by not requiring constant upgrades).

Compliance and Legal Clarity

Utilizing EU-based solutions can simplify legal compliance.

For instance, storing customer-related documentation data on EU servers helps ensure GDPR compliance without needing special clauses or US cloud addendums.

If user-facing content made available by brands includes any personal data or usage data (for example, in scenarios where they track what documentation pages users visit), this will avoid the Schrems II issue (which invalidated Privacy Shield and complicates EU-US data transfers).

Essentially, a brand can sidestep a lot of transatlantic legal uncertainty by keeping things domestic.

Also, as EU regulations on tech (like the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act) come into play, being less tied to “Big Tech” could save them from sudden changes.

For example, if Google turned off certain tracking or integration features due to new laws, a “stand-alone” setup would be unaffected.

Challenges and Mitigation

No transition is without challenges, and in the spirit of a rational, non-sensationalist discussion, it’s worth acknowledging them and how they can be mitigated.

Team Training and Change Management

Staff accustomed to Microsoft Word or Adobe InDesign may be initially resistant or anxious about new tools.

This can be addressed through practical training sessions and the implementation of pilot projects.

Emphasize that the new tools are easier in many ways: no more wrestling with template formatting or software crashes with huge files.

Show quick wins – for example, how fast a small change propagates to web and print using the new system.

Complex Documents Edge Cases

There might be certain documents that truly need complex layouts (product leaflets or catalogs with intricate design, or perhaps an installation guide with particular formatting).

For these, an open-source DTP like Scribus can serve as a fallback for print, or one might decide to keep a single Adobe license for a design specialist in those niche cases.

However, such content can often still be made available on the web via HTML for consistency.

Over time, as web technologies advance (with CSS grid, etc., even complex layouts are increasingly doable in HTML), the need for separate print “siloes” and labor-intensive layout work will diminish.

IT Support

Using open-source means you don’t have vendor support to call.

But many open-source vendors can provide paid support if needed.

Additionally, many issues can be resolved through community forums, as the user base is global.

Ensuring internal IT is on board and perhaps designating a tech-savvy documentation owner will smooth the transition.

Initial Setup Effort

Building the template logic and presentation layer is a one-time investment.

Companies may hire an external expert or allocate some developer time for this purpose.

It’s important not to underestimate this – but also essential to realize it’s a finite project, not an ongoing cost.

Once set up, such a system based on open-source content, editable templates and style sheets can run for years with minor tweaks.

Real-World Implementation Examples

To reinforce the viability of the lightweight documentation approach, let’s examine some real or emerging examples that incorporate elements of our proposed stack.

Public Sector Documentation Projects

The Dutch Parliament’s call ²³ and the German Bundeswehr’s ZDI project ²⁴ (mentioned earlier) show institutional backing for moving to open, sovereign solutions in documentation and office tools.

While these are large entities, the technologies they gravitate toward (open document formats, Nextcloud, OnlyOffice / Collabora for office docs, etc.) align with the philosophy of the technologystack outlined in this paper.

A mid-size business can mirror these moves at its own scale.

Collabora Office and Open Document Format (ODF)

Some European organizations have switched from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice or Collabora Office – open-source office suites that use the Open Document Format.

For example, the city of Barcelona and parts of the French government have piloted this technology set for general documents ²⁵.

This is relevant because it demonstrates the willingness to leave the Microsoft ecosystem when viable alternatives are available.

In our case, we are focusing on a narrower use (documentation) where a switch to a different format (Markdown) is even more justifiable.

Industry Knowledge Bases

Many companies have their customer support documentation online – some use proprietary solutions, but a notable number use static site generators.

For instance, the software company Stripe (though U.S.-based) created an in-house Markdown framework (Markdoc) for their documentation and open-sourced it ²⁶. This indicates a general industry acceptance that Markdown-driven docs are sustainable even for large, user-facing content.

Several API documentation sites and product docs (even for hardware gadgets) are essentially static sites because they are reliable and fast.

We can draw on these patterns.

European Commission Platforms

The EU has launched programs like the Open Source Observatory and has its own machine translation service eTranslation for EU institution use.

While eTranslation isn’t commercially oriented like DeepL, it’s a sign of the times – the EU built its own translation to reduce reliance on Google.

If needed, companies could even use eTranslation, which is free for European SMEs for specific uses, although DeepL tends to have the edge in quality for general use.

Nonetheless, the presence of multiple translation engines ensures that Europe is not out of options if one service were to degrade or become costly.

Business Continuity Stories

In short, every element of this stack is already in use by some organization (although not necessarily as a full solution for consumer product literature publishing).

What we propose is integrating these elements into a coherent workflow, which can be a showcase of European digital sovereignty in practice.

By doing so, a company not only safeguards its operations but also can publicize itself as a forward-thinking player aligning with Europe’s tech independence initiative.

This could be advantageous in marketing, showing customers that their data and the company’s processes are handled with European integrity, and in liaising with government or EU projects.

Conclusion

The global business environment in 2025 has underscored one truth for Europe:

Digital sovereignty is no longer a luxury but a necessity.

What might have seemed like an abstract principle a few years ago is now grounded in real economic and security calculations.

European consumer goods manufacturers, who might once have thought geopolitics had little to do with their product literature, have woken up to find that even documentation workflows are not immune to the currents of international tech policy.

The good news is that Europe is not helpless.

A rich ecosystem of open-source tools, coupled with European cloud services and innovation, is ready to be leveraged to replace vulnerable links in the chain with robust, sovereign alternatives.

The “European alternative stack” for product literature that we have outlined in this document is a prime example of turning high-level strategy into on-the-ground action.

By switching to Markdown, Pandoc, DeepL, and HTML / CSS on EU servers, companies can achieve a trifecta of independence, simplicity, and control.

They can ensure that the lifeblood of their customer communication – user manuals and product information – flows through channels governed by European values and laws.

They can also streamline their processes and reduce costs, demonstrating that prioritizing sovereignty can be aligned with operational excellence.

This stands in contrast to the common misconception that more control necessitates a sacrifice in quality or efficiency.

As we’ve detailed, the modern open-source approach can enhance quality and agility.

For brand and product managers, this transition is a strategic upgrade.

It’s akin to moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy in the tech sense – reducing dependence on an imported resource (foreign proprietary tech) and building on sustainable, local capabilities (open-source and EU tech).

This is a story that brand and product managers can proudly tell stakeholders: that your company anticipated risks and adapted, that you are part of Europe’s digital renewal rather than a passive consumer of overseas solutions.

In closing, as Europe pursues its “moonshot” of the EuroStack – a comprehensive stack of homegrown tech solutions – each company has the opportunity to align with that vision in ways that make practical sense.

For consumer goods companies, revamping the product literature workflow is a pragmatic step in that direction.

It’s a step that reduces risk, improves efficiency, and contributes to a larger cause.

In an era where trade policies can threaten to put high tariffs on European goods overnight, having complete control over how you communicate about those goods is simply prudent.

The European Union’s digital future will be built layer by layer, and documentation may well be one of those often overlooked layers.

By adopting an open, sovereign documentation stack, European brands not only protect themselves – they also send a message that Europe’s innovation, much like its values, can originate from within and shine globally.

The tools for a sovereign and modern documentation workflow are here, proven, and ready to be put to use.

It’s time for European businesses to turn the page – quite literally – to a new chapter of self-reliance and innovation in how they create and share knowledge about their products.

Glossary

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS is a language used to describe the presentation of a web page, including colors, fonts, and layout.

It separates the content of a document from its visual design, making websites easier to manage and update.

Eurostack

“Eurostack” refers to a proposed or conceptual “stack” of European technology companies or initiatives, aiming to create a robust and competitive digital ecosystem within the European Union.

It often implies a desire to reduce reliance on non-European tech giants and foster local innovation.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

HTML is the standard language for creating web pages and web applications.

It uses a system of “tags” to structure content, such as headings, paragraphs, and links, which web browsers then interpret and display.

Open-source software

Open-source software is computer software released under a license that allows anyone to use, change, and distribute it for any purpose.

Its source code is publicly accessible, encouraging collaboration and transparency in its development.

Lightweight Markup Language

A lightweight markup language is a simple and easy-to-read syntax used for formatting plain text documents, typically readable by humans and easily processed by software.

It uses common punctuation marks and characters to indicate structures such as headings, lists, and tables, which can then be easily converted into other document formats.

Markdown

Markdown is a specific example of a lightweight markup language that uses plain text formatting syntax.

Markdown is widely used for writing documentation, notes, and web content because of its simplicity and readability.

Pandoc

Pandoc is a universal document converter that can convert files from one markup format into another.

Pandoc is often used to convert documents between formats like Markdown, HTML, PDF, and Microsoft Word.

Proprietary software

Proprietary software is computer software that an individual or company owns, and its use, distribution, and modification are restricted by the owner or distributor.

Users typically purchase a license to use it, but do not have access to its source code.

Source code inspection and modification is often prohibited by the owner.

Sources

Colophon

Photos

TEXTMISSING

Font

IBM Plex Sans

Graphic Design

studio peter post x petra esveld

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