1GROPDF(1) General Commands Manual GROPDF(1)
2
6 gropdf - PDF driver for groff
7
9 gropdf [-dels] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-p paper-size] [-u [cmapfile]]
10 [-y foundry] [file ...]
11 gropdf -v
13 gropdf --version
14
16 gropdf translates the output of GNU troff to PDF. Normally gropdf
17 should be invoked by using the groff command with a -Tpdf option. If
18 no files are given, gropdf reads the standard input. A filename of -
19 also causes gropdf to read the standard input. PDF output is written
20 to the standard output. When gropdf is run by groff options can be
21 passed to gropdf using groff's -P option.
22 See section “Font Installation” below for a guide how to install fonts
24 for gropdf.
25
27 Whitespace is permitted between a command-line option and its argument.
28 -d Include debug information as comments within the PDF. Also pro‐
30 duces an uncompressed PDF.
31 -e Forces gropdf to embed all fonts (even the 14 base PDF fonts).
33 -F dir Prepend directory dir/devname to the search path for font, and
35 device description files; name is the name of the device, usu‐
36 ally pdf.
37 -I dir This option may be used to add a directory to the search path
39 for files named in \X'pdf: pdfpic' escape. The current direc‐
40 tory is always searched first. This option may be specified
41 more than once; the directories are then searched in the order
42 specified.
43 No directory search is performed for files with an absolute file
45 name.
46 -l Orient the document in landscape format.
48 -p paper-size
50 Set physical dimension of output medium. This overrides the pa‐
51 persize, paperlength, and paperwidth commands in the DESC file;
52 it accepts the same arguments as the papersize command. See
53 groff_font(5) for details.
54 -s Append a comment line to end of PDF showing statistics, i.e.
56 number of pages in document. Ghostscript's ps2pdf complains
57 about this line if it is included, but works anyway.
58 -u [cmapfile]
60 Gropdf normally includes a ToUnicode CMap with any font created
61 using text.enc as the encoding file, this makes it easier to
62 search for words which contain ligatures. You can include your
63 own CMap by specifying a cmapfile or have no CMap at all by
64 omitting the argument.
65 -v
67 --version
68 Print the version number and exit.
69 -y foundry
71 Set the foundry to use for selecting fonts of the same name.
72
74 The input to gropdf must be in the format output by troff(1). This is
75 described in groff_out(5).
76 In addition, the device and font description files for the device used
78 must meet certain requirements: The resolution must be an integer mul‐
79 tiple of 72 times the sizescale. The pdf device uses a resolution of
80 72000 and a sizescale of 1000.
81 The device description file must contain a valid paper size; see
83 groff_font(5) for more information. gropdf uses the same Type 1 Adobe
84 PostScript fonts as the grops device driver. Although the PDF Standard
85 allows the use of other font types (like TrueType) this implementation
86 only accepts the Type 1 PostScript font. Fewer Type 1 fonts are sup‐
87 ported natively in PDF documents than the standard 35 fonts supported
88 by grops and all PostScript printers, but all the fonts are available
89 since any which aren't supported natively are automatically embedded in
90 the PDF.
91 gropdf supports the concept of foundries, that is different versions of
93 basically the same font. During install a Foundry file controls where
94 fonts are found and builds groff fonts from the files it discovers on
95 your system.
96 Each font description file must contain a command
98 internalname psname
100 which says that the PostScript name of the font is psname. Lines
102 starting with # and blank lines are ignored. The code for each charac‐
103 ter given in the font file must correspond to the code in the default
104 encoding for the font. This code can be used with the \N escape se‐
105 quence in troff to select the character, even if the character does not
106 have a groff name. Every character in the font file must exist in the
107 PostScript font, and the widths given in the font file must match the
108 widths used in the PostScript font.
109 Note that gropdf is currently only able to display the first 256 glyphs
111 in any font. This restriction will be lifted in a later version.
112 gropdf can automatically include the downloadable fonts necessary to
114 print the document. Fonts may be in PFA or PFB format.
115 Any downloadable fonts which should, when required, be included by
117 gropdf must be listed in the file /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/de‐
118 vpdf/download; this should consist of lines of the form
119 foundry font filename
121 where foundry is the foundry name or blank for the default foundry.
123 font is the PostScript name of the font, and filename is the name of
124 the file containing the font; lines beginning with # and blank lines
125 are ignored; fields must be separated by tabs (spaces are not allowed);
126 filename is searched for using the same mechanism that is used for
127 groff font metric files. The download file itself is also searched for
128 using this mechanism; currently, only the first found file in the font
129 path is used. Foundry names are usually a single character (such as
130 ‘U’ for the URW Foundry) or blank for the default foundry. This de‐
131 fault uses the same fonts as ghostscript uses when it embeds fonts in a
132 PDF file.
133 In the default setup there are styles called R, I, B, and BI mounted at
135 font positions 1 to 4. The fonts are grouped into families A, BM, C,
136 H, HN, N, P, and T having members in each of these styles:
137 AR AvantGarde-Book
139 AI AvantGarde-BookOblique
140 AB AvantGarde-Demi
141 ABI AvantGarde-DemiOblique
142 BMR Bookman-Light
143 BMI Bookman-LightItalic
144 BMB Bookman-Demi
145 BMBI Bookman-DemiItalic
146 CR Courier
147 CI Courier-Oblique
148 CB Courier-Bold
149 CBI Courier-BoldOblique
150 HR Helvetica
151 HI Helvetica-Oblique
152 HB Helvetica-Bold
153 HBI Helvetica-BoldOblique
154 HNR Helvetica-Narrow
155 HNI Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique
156 HNB Helvetica-Narrow-Bold
157 HNBI Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique
158 NR NewCenturySchlbk-Roman
159 NI NewCenturySchlbk-Italic
160 NB NewCenturySchlbk-Bold
161 NBI NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic
162 PR Palatino-Roman
163 PI Palatino-Italic
164 PB Palatino-Bold
165 PBI Palatino-BoldItalic
166 TR Times-Roman
167 TI Times-Italic
168 TB Times-Bold
169 TBI Times-BoldItalic
170 There is also the following font which is not a member of a family:
172 ZCMI ZapfChancery-MediumItalic
174 There are also some special fonts called S for the PS Symbol font. The
176 lower case greek characters are automatically slanted (to match the
177 SymbolSlanted font (SS) available to PostScript). Zapf Dingbats is
178 available as ZD, the "hand pointing left" glyph (\[lh]) is available
179 since it has been defined using the \X'pdf: xrev' extension which re‐
180 verses the direction of letters within words.
181 The default color for \m and \M is black.
183 gropdf understands some of the X commands produced using the \X escape
185 sequences supported by grops. Specifically, the following is sup‐
186 ported.
187 \X'ps: invis'
189 Suppress output.
190 \X'ps: endinvis'
192 Stop suppressing output.
193 \X'ps: exec gsave currentpoint 2 copy translate n rotate neg exch neg
195 exch translate'
196 where n is the angle of rotation. This is to support the align
197 command in gpic.
198 \X'ps: exec grestore'
200 Again used by gpic to restore after rotation.
201 \X'ps: exec n setlinejoin'
203 where n can be one of the following values.
204 0 = Miter join
206 1 = Round join
207 2 = Bevel join
208 \X'ps: exec n setlinecap'
210 where n can be one of the following values.
211 0 = Butt cap
213 1 = Round cap, and
214 2 = Projecting square cap
215 \X'ps: ... pdfmark'
217 All the pdfmark macros installed by using -m pdfmark or -m mspdf
218 (see documentation in pdfmark.pdf). A subset of these macros
219 are installed automatically when you use -Tpdf so you should not
220 need to use ‘-m pdfmark’ for using most of the PDF functional‐
221 ity.
222 gropdf also supports a subset of the commands introduced in
224 present.tmac. Specifically it supports:-
225 PAUSE
227 BLOCKS
228 BLOCKE
229 Which allows you to create presentation type PDFs. Many of the other
231 commands are already available in other macro packages.
232 These commands are implemented with groff X commands:-
234 \X'ps: exec %%%%PAUSE
236 The section before this is treated as a block and is introduced
237 using the current BLOCK transition setting (see ‘pdf: transi‐
238 tion’ below). This command can be introduced using the macro
239 .pdfpause.
240 \X'ps: exec %%%%BEGINONCE
242 Any text following this command (up to %%%%ENDONCE) is shown
243 only once, the next %%%%PAUSE will remove it. If producing a
244 non presentation pdf, i.e. ignoring the pauses, see
245 GROPDF_NOSLIDE below, this text is ignored.
246 \X'ps: exec %%%%ENDONCE
248 This terminates the block defined by %%%%BEGINONCE. This pair
249 of commands is what implements the .BLOCKS Once/.BLOCKE commands
250 in present.tmac.
251 The mom macro set already has integration with these extensions so you
253 can build slides with mom.
254 If you use present.tmac with gropdf there is no need to run the program
256 presentps(1) since the output will already be a presentation pdf.
257 All other ps: tags are silently ignored.
259 One \X special used by the DVI driver is also recognised:
261 \X'papersize=paper-size'
263 where the paper-size parameter is the same as the papersize com‐
264 mand. See groff_font(5) for details. This means that you can
265 alter the page size at will within the PDF file being created by
266 gropdf. If you do want to change the paper size, it must be
267 done before you start creating the page.
268 In addition, gropdf supports its own suite of pdf: tags. The following
270 tags are supported:
271 \X'pdf: pdfpic file alignment width height line-length'
273 Place an image of the specified width containing the PDF drawing
274 from file file of desired width and height (if height is missing
275 or zero then it is scaled proportionally). If alignment is -L
276 the drawing is left aligned. If it is -C or -R a linelength
277 greater than the width of the drawing is required as well. If
278 width is specified as zero then the width is scaled in propor‐
279 tion to the height.
280 \X'pdf: xrev'
282 This toggles a flag which reverses the direction of printing
283 letter by letter, i.e., each separate letter is reversed, not
284 the entire word. This is useful for reversing the direction of
285 glyphs in the Dingbats font. To return to normal printing re‐
286 peat the command again.
287 \X'pdf: markstart /ANN definition'
289 The macros which support PDF Bookmarks use this call internally
290 to start the definition of bookmark hotspot (user will have
291 called ‘.pdfhref L’ with the text which will become the ‘hot
292 spot’ region). Normally this is never used except from within
293 the pdfmark macros.
294 \X'pdf: markend'
296 The macros which support PDF Bookmarks use this call internally
297 to stop the definition of bookmark hotspot (user will have
298 called ‘.pdfhref L’ with the text which will become the ‘hot
299 spot’ region). Normally this is never used except from within
300 the pdfmark macros.
301 \X'pdf: marksuspend'
303 \X'pdf: markrestart'
304 If you are using page traps to produce headings, footings, etc.,
305 you need to use these in case a ‘hot spot’ crosses a page bound‐
306 ary, otherwise any text output by the heading or footing macro
307 will be marked as part of the ‘hot spot’. To stop this happen‐
308 ing just place ‘.pdfmarksuspend’ and ‘.pdfmarkrestart’ at the
309 start and end of the page trap macro, respectively. (These are
310 just convenience macros which emit the \X code. These macros
311 must only be used within page traps.)
312 \X'pdf: transition'feature mode duration dimension motion direction
314 scale bool
315 where
316 feature can be either SLIDE or BLOCK. When it is SLIDE the
318 transition is used when a new slide is introduced to the screen,
319 if BLOCK then this transition is used for the individual blocks
320 which make up the slide.
321 mode is the transition type between slides:-
322 Split - Two lines sweep across the screen, revealing the
324 new page. The lines may be either horizontal or vertical
325 and may move inward from the edges of the page or outward
326 from the center, as specified by the dimension and motion
327 entries, respectively.
328 Blinds - Multiple lines, evenly spaced across the screen,
329 synchronously sweep in the same direction to reveal the
330 new page. The lines may be either horizontal or verti‐
331 cal, as specified by the dimension
332 entry. Horizontal lines move downward; vertical lines
333 move to the right.
334 Box - A rectangular box sweeps inward from the edges of
335 the page or outward from the center, as specified by the
336 motion entry, revealing the new page.
337 Wipe - A single line sweeps across the screen from one
338 edge to the other in the direction specified by the di‐
339 rection entry, revealing the new page.
340 Dissolve - The old page dissolves gradually to reveal the
341 new one.
342 Glitter - Similar to Dissolve, except that the effect
343 sweeps across the page in a wide band moving from one
344 side of the screen to the other in the direction speci‐
345 fied by the direction entry.
346 R - The new page simply replaces the old one with no spe‐
347 cial transition effect; the direction entry shall be ig‐
348 nored.
349 Fly - (PDF 1.5) Changes are flown out or in (as specified
350 by motion), in the direction specified by direction, to
351 or from a location that is offscreen except when direc‐
352 tion is None.
353 Push - (PDF 1.5) The old page slides off the screen while
354 the new page slides in, pushing the old page out in the
355 direction specified by direction.
356 Cover - (PDF 1.5) The new page slides on to the screen in
357 the direction specified by direction, covering the old
358 page.
359 Uncover - (PDF 1.5) The old page slides off the screen in
360 the direction specified by direction, uncovering the new
361 page in the direction specified by direction.
362 Fade - (PDF 1.5) The new page gradually becomes visible
363 through the old one.
364 duration is the length of the transition in seconds (default 1).
366 dimension (Optional; Split and Blinds transition styles only)
368 The dimension in which the specified transition effect shall oc‐
369 cur: H Horizontal, or V Vertical.
370 motion (Optional; Split, Box and Fly transition styles only) The
372 direction of motion for the specified transition effect: I In‐
373 ward from the edges of the page, or O Outward from the center of
374 the page.
375 direction (Optional; Wipe, Glitter, Fly, Cover, Uncover and Push
377 transition styles only) The direction in which the specified
378 transition effect shall moves, expressed in degrees counter‐
379 clockwise starting from a left-to-right direction. If the value
380 is a number, it shall be one of: 0 = Left to right, 90 = Bottom
381 to top (Wipe only), 180 = Right to left (Wipe only), 270 = Top
382 to bottom, 315 = Top-left to bottom-right (Glitter only) The
383 value can be None, which is relevant only for the Fly transition
384 when the value of scale is not 1.0.
385 scale (Optional; PDF 1.5; Fly transition style only) The start‐
387 ing or ending scale at which the changes shall be drawn. If mo‐
388 tion specifies an inward transition, the scale of the changes
389 drawn shall progress from scale to 1.0 over the course of the
390 transition. If motion specifies an outward transition, the
391 scale of the changes drawn shall progress from 1.0 to scale over
392 the course of the transition
393 bool (Optional; PDF 1.5; Fly transition style only) If true, the
395 area that shall be flown in is rectangular and opaque.
396 This command can be used by calling the macro .pdftransition us‐
398 ing the parameters described above. Any of the parameters may
399 be replaced with a "." which signifies the parameter retains its
400 previous value, also any trailing missing parameters are ig‐
401 nored.
402 Note: not all PDF Readers support any or all these transitions.
404 Importing graphics
406 gropdf only supports importing other PDF files as graphics. But that
407 PDF file may contain any of the graphic formats supported by the PDF
408 standard (such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.). So any application which out‐
409 puts PDF can be used as an embedded file in gropdf. The PDF file you
410 wish to insert must be a single page and the drawing must just fit in‐
411 side the media size of the PDF file. So, in inkscape(1) or gimp(1)
412 (for example) make sure the canvas size just fits the image.
413 The PDF parser used in gropdf has not been rigorously tested with all
415 possible applications which produce PDFs. If you find a single page
416 PDF which fails to import properly, it is worth running it through the
417 pdftk(1) program by issuing the command:
418 pdftk oldfile.pdf output newfile.pdf
420 You may find that newfile.pdf will now load successfully.
422 TrueType and other font formats
424 gropdf does not support any other fonts except Adobe Type 1 (PFA or
425 PFB).
426
428 This section gives a summary of the above explanations; it can serve as
429 a step-by-step font installation guide for gropdf.
430 • Convert your font to something groff understands. This is either a
432 PostScript Type 1 font in either PFA or PFB, together with an AFM
433 file.
434 The very first line in a PFA/PFB file contains this:
436 %!PS-AdobeFont-1.0:
438 A PFB file has this also in the first line, but the string is pre‐
440 ceded with some binary bytes.
441 • Convert the AFM file to a groff font description file with the
443 afmtodit(1) program. An example call is
444 afmtodit Foo-Bar-Bold.afm map/textmap FBB
446 which converts the metric file ‘Foo-Bar-Bold.afm’ to the groff font
448 ‘FBB’. If you have a font family which comes with normal, bold,
449 italic, and bold italic faces, it is recommended to use the letters
450 R, B, I, and BI, respectively, as postfixes in the groff font names
451 to make groff's ‘.fam’ request work. An example is groff's built-
452 in Times-Roman font: The font family name is T, and the groff font
453 names are TR, TB, TI, and TBI.
454 • Install both the groff font description files and the fonts in a
456 ‘devpdf’ subdirectory of the font path which groff finds. See sec‐
457 tion “Environment” in troff(1) for the actual value of the font
458 path. Note that groff doesn't use the AFM files (but it is a good
459 idea to store them anyway).
460 • Register all fonts which must be downloaded to the printer in the
462 devpdf/download file. Only the first occurrence of this file in
463 the font path is read. This means that you should copy the default
464 download file to the first directory in your font path and add your
465 fonts there. To continue the above example we assume that the PS
466 font name for Foo-Bar-Bold.pfa is ‘XY-Foo-Bar-Bold’ (the PS font
467 name is stored in the internalname field in the FBB file) and be‐
468 longs to foundry ‘F’ thus the following line should be added to
469 download:
470 F XY-Foo-Bar-Bold Foo-Bar-Bold.pfa
472 Use a tab character to separate the fields, and the ‘foundry’ field
474 should be null for the default foundry.
475
477 GROFF_FONT_PATH
478 A list of directories in which to search for the devname direc‐
479 tory in addition to the default ones. If, in the download file,
480 the font file has been specified with a full path, no directo‐
481 ries are searched. See troff(1) and groff_font(5) for more de‐
482 tails.
483 GROPDF_NOSLIDE
485 If this is set true, gropdf will ignore all commands which pro‐
486 duce a presentation pdf, and produce a normal pdf instead.
487 SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
489 A timestamp (expressed as seconds since the Unix epoch) to use
490 as the creation timestamp in place of the current time.
491
493 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/DESC
494 Device description file.
495 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/F
497 Font description file for font F.
498 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/U-F
500 Font description file for font F (using foundry U rather than
501 the default foundry).
502 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/download
504 List of downloadable fonts.
505 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/Foundry
507 A Perl script used during install to locate suitable fonts.
508 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/enc/text.enc
510 Encoding used for text fonts.
511 /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/pdf.tmac
513 Macros for use with gropdf; automatically loaded by troffrc.
514
516 afmtodit(1), groff(1), troff(1), groff_font(5), groff_out(5)
517groff 1.22.4 19 January 2023 GROPDF(1)