  The pion electromagnetic form factor has been calculated for the first time
from the solutions of the Bethe-Salpeter equation, obtained directly in
Minkowski space by using the Nakanishi integral representation of the
Bethe-Salpeter amplitude. The one-gluon exchange kernel contains as inputs the
quark and gluon masses, as well as a scale parameter featuring the extended
quark-gluon vertex. The range of variability of these parameters is suggested
by lattice calculations. After presenting a very successful comparison with the
existing data in the whole range of the momentum transfer, we show how
inserting the light-front (LF) formalism in our approach allows to achieve
further interesting results, like the evaluation of the LF valence form factor
and a first investigation of the end-points effects.
