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GROPDF(1) General Commands Manual GROPDF(1)
NAME
gropdf - PDF driver for groff
SYNOPSIS
gropdf [-dels] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-p paper-size] [-u [cmapfile]] [-y foundry] [file ...]
gropdf -v
gropdf --version
DESCRIPTION
gropdf translates the output of GNU troff to PDF. Normally gropdf should be invoked by
using the groff command with a -Tpdf option. If no files are given, gropdf reads the
standard input. A filename of - also causes gropdf to read the standard input. PDF out-
put is written to the standard output. When gropdf is run by groff options can be passed
to gropdf using groff's -P option.
See section "Font Installation" below for a guide how to install fonts for gropdf.
OPTIONS
Whitespace is permitted between a command-line option and its argument.
-d Include debug information as comments within the PDF. Also produces an uncom-
pressed PDF.
-e Forces gropdf to embed all fonts (even the 14 base PDF fonts).
-F dir Prepend directory dir/devname to the search path for font, and device description
files; name is the name of the device, usually pdf.
-I dir This option may be used to add a directory to the search path for files named in
\X'pdf: pdfpic' escape. The current directory is always searched first. This op-
tion may be specified more than once; the directories are then searched in the or-
der specified.
No directory search is performed for files with an absolute file name.
-l Orient the document in landscape format.
-p paper-size
Set physical dimension of output medium. This overrides the papersize, paper-
length, and paperwidth commands in the DESC file; it accepts the same arguments as
the papersize command. See groff_font(5) for details.
-s Append a comment line to end of PDF showing statistics, i.e. number of pages in
document. Ghostscript's ps2pdf complains about this line if it is included, but
works anyway.
-u [cmapfile]
Gropdf normally includes a ToUnicode CMap with any font created using text.enc as
the encoding file, this makes it easier to search for words which contain liga-
tures. You can include your own CMap by specifying a cmapfile or have no CMap at
all by omitting the argument.
-v
--version
Print the version number and exit.
-y foundry
Set the foundry to use for selecting fonts of the same name.
USAGE
The input to gropdf must be in the format output by troff(1). This is described in
groff_out(5).
In addition, the device and font description files for the device used must meet certain
requirements: The resolution must be an integer multiple of 72 times the sizescale. The
pdf device uses a resolution of 72000 and a sizescale of 1000.
The device description file must contain a valid paper size; see groff_font(5) for more
information. gropdf uses the same Type 1 Adobe PostScript fonts as the grops device
driver. Although the PDF Standard allows the use of other font types (like TrueType) this
implementation only accepts the Type 1 PostScript font. Fewer Type 1 fonts are supported
natively in PDF documents than the standard 35 fonts supported by grops and all PostScript
printers, but all the fonts are available since any which aren't supported natively are
automatically embedded in the PDF.
gropdf supports the concept of foundries, that is different versions of basically the same
font. During install a Foundry file controls where fonts are found and builds groff fonts
from the files it discovers on your system.
Each font description file must contain a command
internalname psname
which says that the PostScript name of the font is psname. Lines starting with # and
blank lines are ignored. The code for each character given in the font file must corre-
spond to the code in the default encoding for the font. This code can be used with the \N
escape sequence in troff to select the character, even if the character does not have a
groff name. Every character in the font file must exist in the PostScript font, and the
widths given in the font file must match the widths used in the PostScript font.
Note that gropdf is currently only able to display the first 256 glyphs in any font. This
restriction will be lifted in a later version.
gropdf can automatically include the downloadable fonts necessary to print the document.
Fonts may be in PFA or PFB format.
Any downloadable fonts which should, when required, be included by gropdf must be listed
in the file /usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/download; this should consist of lines of
the form
foundry font filename
where foundry is the foundry name or blank for the default foundry. font is the Post-
Script name of the font, and filename is the name of the file containing the font; lines
beginning with # and blank lines are ignored; fields must be separated by tabs (spaces are
not allowed); filename is searched for using the same mechanism that is used for groff
font metric files. The download file itself is also searched for using this mechanism;
currently, only the first found file in the font path is used. Foundry names are usually
a single character (such as 'U' for the URW Foundry) or blank for the default foundry.
This default uses the same fonts as ghostscript uses when it embeds fonts in a PDF file.
In the default setup there are styles called R, I, B, and BI mounted at font positions 1
to 4. The fonts are grouped into families A, BM, C, H, HN, N, P, and T having members in
each of these styles:
AR AvantGarde-Book
AI AvantGarde-BookOblique
AB AvantGarde-Demi
ABI AvantGarde-DemiOblique
BMR Bookman-Light
BMI Bookman-LightItalic
BMB Bookman-Demi
BMBI Bookman-DemiItalic
CR Courier
CI Courier-Oblique
CB Courier-Bold
CBI Courier-BoldOblique
HR Helvetica
HI Helvetica-Oblique
HB Helvetica-Bold
HBI Helvetica-BoldOblique
HNR Helvetica-Narrow
HNI Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique
HNB Helvetica-Narrow-Bold
HNBI Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique
NR NewCenturySchlbk-Roman
NI NewCenturySchlbk-Italic
NB NewCenturySchlbk-Bold
NBI NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic
PR Palatino-Roman
PI Palatino-Italic
PB Palatino-Bold
PBI Palatino-BoldItalic
TR Times-Roman
TI Times-Italic
TB Times-Bold
TBI Times-BoldItalic
There is also the following font which is not a member of a family:
ZCMI ZapfChancery-MediumItalic
There are also some special fonts called S for the PS Symbol font. The lower case greek
characters are automatically slanted (to match the SymbolSlanted font (SS) available to
PostScript). Zapf Dingbats is available as ZD, the "hand pointing left" glyph (\[lh]) is
available since it has been defined using the \X'pdf: xrev' extension which reverses the
direction of letters within words.
The default color for \m and \M is black.
gropdf understands some of the X commands produced using the \X escape sequences supported
by grops. Specifically, the following is supported.
\X'ps: invis'
Suppress output.
\X'ps: endinvis'
Stop suppressing output.
\X'ps: exec gsave currentpoint 2 copy translate n rotate neg exch neg exch translate'
where n is the angle of rotation. This is to support the align command in gpic.
\X'ps: exec grestore'
Again used by gpic to restore after rotation.
\X'ps: exec n setlinejoin'
where n can be one of the following values.
0 = Miter join
1 = Round join
2 = Bevel join
\X'ps: exec n setlinecap'
where n can be one of the following values.
0 = Butt cap
1 = Round cap, and
2 = Projecting square cap
\X'ps: ... pdfmark'
All the pdfmark macros installed by using -m pdfmark or -m mspdf (see documentation
in pdfmark.pdf). A subset of these macros are installed automatically when you use
-Tpdf so you should not need to use '-m pdfmark' for using most of the PDF func-
tionality.
gropdf also supports a subset of the commands introduced in present.tmac. Specifically it
supports:-
PAUSE
BLOCKS
BLOCKE
Which allows you to create presentation type PDFs. Many of the other commands are already
available in other macro packages.
These commands are implemented with groff X commands:-
\X'ps: exec %%%%PAUSE
The section before this is treated as a block and is introduced using the current
BLOCK transition setting (see 'pdf: transition' below). This command can be intro-
duced using the macro .pdfpause.
\X'ps: exec %%%%BEGINONCE
Any text following this command (up to %%%%ENDONCE) is shown only once, the next
%%%%PAUSE will remove it. If producing a non presentation pdf, i.e. ignoring the
pauses, see GROPDF_NOSLIDE below, this text is ignored.
\X'ps: exec %%%%ENDONCE
This terminates the block defined by %%%%BEGINONCE. This pair of commands is what
implements the .BLOCKS Once/.BLOCKE commands in present.tmac.
The mom macro set already has integration with these extensions so you can build slides
with mom.
If you use present.tmac with gropdf there is no need to run the program presentps(1) since
the output will already be a presentation pdf.
All other ps: tags are silently ignored.
One \X special used by the DVI driver is also recognised:
\X'papersize=paper-size'
where the paper-size parameter is the same as the papersize command. See
groff_font(5) for details. This means that you can alter the page size at will
within the PDF file being created by gropdf. If you do want to change the paper
size, it must be done before you start creating the page.
In addition, gropdf supports its own suite of pdf: tags. The following tags are sup-
ported:
\X'pdf: pdfpic file alignment width height line-length'
Place an image of the specified width containing the PDF drawing from file file of
desired width and height (if height is missing or zero then it is scaled propor-
tionally). If alignment is -L the drawing is left aligned. If it is -C or -R a
linelength greater than the width of the drawing is required as well. If width is
specified as zero then the width is scaled in proportion to the height.
\X'pdf: xrev'
This toggles a flag which reverses the direction of printing letter by letter,
i.e., each separate letter is reversed, not the entire word. This is useful for
reversing the direction of glyphs in the Dingbats font. To return to normal print-
ing repeat the command again.
\X'pdf: markstart /ANN definition'
The macros which support PDF Bookmarks use this call internally to start the defi-
nition of bookmark hotspot (user will have called '.pdfhref L' with the text which
will become the 'hot spot' region). Normally this is never used except from within
the pdfmark macros.
\X'pdf: markend'
The macros which support PDF Bookmarks use this call internally to stop the defini-
tion of bookmark hotspot (user will have called '.pdfhref L' with the text which
will become the 'hot spot' region). Normally this is never used except from within
the pdfmark macros.
\X'pdf: marksuspend'
\X'pdf: markrestart'
If you are using page traps to produce headings, footings, etc., you need to use
these in case a 'hot spot' crosses a page boundary, otherwise any text output by
the heading or footing macro will be marked as part of the 'hot spot'. To stop
this happening just place '.pdfmarksuspend' and '.pdfmarkrestart' at the start and
end of the page trap macro, respectively. (These are just convenience macros which
emit the \X code. These macros must only be used within page traps.)
\X'pdf: transition'feature mode duration dimension motion direction scale bool
where
feature can be either SLIDE or BLOCK. When it is SLIDE the transition is used when
a new slide is introduced to the screen, if BLOCK then this transition is used for
the individual blocks which make up the slide.
mode is the transition type between slides:-
Split - Two lines sweep across the screen, revealing the new page. The
lines may be either horizontal or vertical and may move inward from the
edges of the page or outward from the center, as specified by the dimension
and motion entries, respectively.
Blinds - Multiple lines, evenly spaced across the screen, synchronously
sweep in the same direction to reveal the new page. The lines may be either
horizontal or vertical, as specified by the dimension
entry. Horizontal lines move downward; vertical lines move to the right.
Box - A rectangular box sweeps inward from the edges of the page or outward
from the center, as specified by the motion entry, revealing the new page.
Wipe - A single line sweeps across the screen from one edge to the other in
the direction specified by the direction entry, revealing the new page.
Dissolve - The old page dissolves gradually to reveal the new one.
Glitter - Similar to Dissolve, except that the effect sweeps across the page
in a wide band moving from one side of the screen to the other in the direc-
tion specified by the direction entry.
R - The new page simply replaces the old one with no special transition ef-
fect; the direction entry shall be ignored.
Fly - (PDF 1.5) Changes are flown out or in (as specified by motion), in the
direction specified by direction, to or from a location that is offscreen
except when direction is None.
Push - (PDF 1.5) The old page slides off the screen while the new page
slides in, pushing the old page out in the direction specified by direction.
Cover - (PDF 1.5) The new page slides on to the screen in the direction
specified by direction, covering the old page.
Uncover - (PDF 1.5) The old page slides off the screen in the direction
specified by direction, uncovering the new page in the direction specified
by direction.
Fade - (PDF 1.5) The new page gradually becomes visible through the old one.
duration is the length of the transition in seconds (default 1).
dimension (Optional; Split and Blinds transition styles only) The dimension in
which the specified transition effect shall occur: H Horizontal, or V Vertical.
motion (Optional; Split, Box and Fly transition styles only) The direction of mo-
tion for the specified transition effect: I Inward from the edges of the page, or O
Outward from the center of the page.
direction (Optional; Wipe, Glitter, Fly, Cover, Uncover and Push transition styles
only) The direction in which the specified transition effect shall moves, expressed
in degrees counterclockwise starting from a left-to-right direction. If the value
is a number, it shall be one of: 0 = Left to right, 90 = Bottom to top (Wipe only),
180 = Right to left (Wipe only), 270 = Top to bottom, 315 = Top-left to bottom-
right (Glitter only) The value can be None, which is relevant only for the Fly
transition when the value of scale is not 1.0.
scale (Optional; PDF 1.5; Fly transition style only) The starting or ending scale
at which the changes shall be drawn. If motion specifies an inward transition, the
scale of the changes drawn shall progress from scale to 1.0 over the course of the
transition. If motion specifies an outward transition, the scale of the changes
drawn shall progress from 1.0 to scale over the course of the transition
bool (Optional; PDF 1.5; Fly transition style only) If true, the area that shall be
flown in is rectangular and opaque.
This command can be used by calling the macro .pdftransition using the parameters
described above. Any of the parameters may be replaced with a "." which signifies
the parameter retains its previous value, also any trailing missing parameters are
ignored.
Note: not all PDF Readers support any or all these transitions.
Importing graphics
gropdf only supports importing other PDF files as graphics. But that PDF file may contain
any of the graphic formats supported by the PDF standard (such as JPEG, PNG, GIF, etc.).
So any application which outputs PDF can be used as an embedded file in gropdf. The PDF
file you wish to insert must be a single page and the drawing must just fit inside the me-
dia size of the PDF file. So, in inkscape(1) or gimp(1) (for example) make sure the can-
vas size just fits the image.
The PDF parser used in gropdf has not been rigorously tested with all possible applica-
tions which produce PDFs. If you find a single page PDF which fails to import properly,
it is worth running it through the pdftk(1) program by issuing the command:
pdftk oldfile.pdf output newfile.pdf
You may find that newfile.pdf will now load successfully.
TrueType and other font formats
gropdf does not support any other fonts except Adobe Type 1 (PFA or PFB).
FONT INSTALLATION
This section gives a summary of the above explanations; it can serve as a step-by-step
font installation guide for gropdf.
o Convert your font to something groff understands. This is either a PostScript Type 1
font in either PFA or PFB, together with an AFM file.
The very first line in a PFA/PFB file contains this:
%!PS-AdobeFont-1.0:
A PFB file has this also in the first line, but the string is preceded with some bi-
nary bytes.
o Convert the AFM file to a groff font description file with the afmtodit(1) program.
An example call is
afmtodit Foo-Bar-Bold.afm map/textmap FBB
which converts the metric file 'Foo-Bar-Bold.afm' to the groff font 'FBB'. If you
have a font family which comes with normal, bold, italic, and bold italic faces, it is
recommended to use the letters R, B, I, and BI, respectively, as postfixes in the
groff font names to make groff's '.fam' request work. An example is groff's built-in
Times-Roman font: The font family name is T, and the groff font names are TR, TB, TI,
and TBI.
o Install both the groff font description files and the fonts in a 'devpdf' subdirectory
of the font path which groff finds. See section "Environment" in troff(1) for the ac-
tual value of the font path. Note that groff doesn't use the AFM files (but it is a
good idea to store them anyway).
o Register all fonts which must be downloaded to the printer in the devpdf/download
file. Only the first occurrence of this file in the font path is read. This means
that you should copy the default download file to the first directory in your font
path and add your fonts there. To continue the above example we assume that the PS
font name for Foo-Bar-Bold.pfa is 'XY-Foo-Bar-Bold' (the PS font name is stored in the
internalname field in the FBB file) and belongs to foundry 'F' thus the following line
should be added to download:
F XY-Foo-Bar-Bold Foo-Bar-Bold.pfa
Use a tab character to separate the fields, and the 'foundry' field should be null for
the default foundry.
ENVIRONMENT
GROFF_FONT_PATH
A list of directories in which to search for the devname directory in addition to
the default ones. If, in the download file, the font file has been specified with
a full path, no directories are searched. See troff(1) and groff_font(5) for more
details.
GROPDF_NOSLIDE
If this is set true, gropdf will ignore all commands which produce a presentation
pdf, and produce a normal pdf instead.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
A timestamp (expressed as seconds since the Unix epoch) to use as the creation
timestamp in place of the current time.
FILES
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/DESC
Device description file.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/F
Font description file for font F.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/U-F
Font description file for font F (using foundry U rather than the default foundry).
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/download
List of downloadable fonts.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/Foundry
A Perl script used during install to locate suitable fonts.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/font/devpdf/enc/text.enc
Encoding used for text fonts.
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/pdf.tmac
Macros for use with gropdf; automatically loaded by troffrc.
SEE ALSO
afmtodit(1), groff(1), troff(1), groff_font(5), groff_out(5)
groff 1.22.4 23 March 2022 GROPDF(1)
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