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Name | Synopsis | Description | Options | Usage | Font installation | Exit status | Environment | Files | Authors | See also | COLOPHON |
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gropdf(1) General Commands Manual gropdf(1)
gropdf - groff output driver for Portable Document Format
gropdf [-delsW] [{-f|--format-options} bit-vector] [-F font-
directory] [-I inclusion-directory] [-p paper-format]
[--pdfver {1.4|1.7}] [-u [cmap-file]] [-y foundry]
[file ...]
gropdf --help
gropdf -v
gropdf --version
The GNU roff PDF output driver translates the output of troff(1)
into Portable Document Format. Normally, gropdf is invoked by
groff(1) when the latter is given the “-T pdf” option. (In this
installation, ps is the default output device.) Use groff's -P
option to pass any options shown above to gropdf. If no file
arguments are given, or if file is “-”, gropdf reads the standard
input stream. It writes to the standard output stream.
See section “Font installation” below for a guide to installing
fonts for gropdf.
--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show
version information; all exit afterward.
-d Include debug information as comments within the PDF. Also
produces an uncompressed PDF.
-e Forces gropdf to embed all fonts (even the 14 base PDF
fonts).
--format-options bit-vector
-f bit-vector
Specify advanced options for gropdf. Familiarity with the
ISO 32000 PDF standard ⟨https://www.pdfa-inc.org/product/
iso-32000-2-pdf-2-0-bundle-sponsored-access/⟩ is helpful.
The bit-vector argument is an integer that configures
characteristics of the generated PDF. Add the following
values to combine them.
Value Meaning
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 Subset included Type 1 fonts.
2 Use more compact format for text by
including space as a character. Fonts that
do not include space as a glyph may conflict
with this feature.
4 Compress all data streams.
8 Don't embed font files. (A font required by
the document is not embedded; usually not
useful.)
The default feature combination is 7. To mimic what gropdf
from groff 1.23 produced, specify “6” to turn off
subsetting.
-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 Search the directory dir for files named in \X'pdf: pdfpic'
device extension commands. -I may be specified more than
once; each dir is searched in the given order. To search
the current working directory before others, add “-I .” at
the desired place; it is otherwise searched last.
-l Orient the document in landscape format.
-p paper-format
Set the physical dimensions of the output medium. This
overrides the papersize, paperlength, and paperwidth
directives in the DESC file; it accepts the same arguments
as the papersize directive. See groff_font(5) for details.
--pdfver {1.4|1.7}
PDF version 1.7 introduced a more compact object format;
this is now the default. If you require the original
format (as produced by gropdf 1.23) set the version to 1.4.
-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 [cmap-file]
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 ligatures. You
can include your own CMap by specifying a cmap-file or have
no CMap at all by omitting the argument.
-W Exit with failure status if any warnings are issued.
-y foundry
Set the foundry to use for selecting fonts of the same
name.
gropdf's input must be in the format produced by troff(1) and
described in groff_out(5). Further, its device and font
description files must meet certain requirements. The device
resolution must be an integer multiple of 72 times sizescale. By
default, gropdf uses a resolution of 72000 and a sizescale of
1000. A valid paper format is mandatory; see groff_font(5).
While the PDF standard allows several font file formats (like
TrueType), at present gropdf accepts only the same Type 1 Adobe
PostScript format as grops(1). Fewer Type 1 fonts are supported
natively in PDF documents than the standard 35 fonts supported by
grops and PostScript printers, but all are available since gropdf
automatically embeds any that aren't specified by the PDF
standard.
gropdf supports foundries that permit multiple providers to supply
the same groff font names. groff's compilation process attempts
to locate Type 1 fonts on the system, populates a Foundry file
with their locations, and generates font description files
corresponding to them. Font description files can also be added
after installation. Each such file must contain a directive
internalname psname
that maps the groff font name (such as “TR”) to a PostScript name
(such as “Times-Roman”). Lines starting with # and blank lines
are ignored. The code for each character given in the font file
must correspond 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 it lacks a special character name.
Every character in the font description must exist in the font
file, and the widths given in the description must match those
used in the font file. See groff_font(5).
gropdf can automatically embed any downloadable fonts necessary to
print the document. Any fonts thus required must be listed in the
file /usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/download, which
should comprise lines of the form
foundry font file-name
where foundry is the foundry name, or blank for the default
foundry; font is the PostScript name of the font, and file-name is
the name of the PFA or PFB font file, and can be a pathname (can
contain slashes). Any lines beginning with # and blank lines are
ignored; fields must be separated by tabs (spaces are not
allowed); if file-name is not a pathname, it is sought using the
same mechanism as that used for font metric files. The download
file itself is also sought using this mechanism. Foundry names
are usually a single character (such as ‘U’ for the URW foundry)
or empty for the default foundry. This default uses the same
fonts as Ghostscript uses when it embeds fonts in a PDF file.
The default stroke and fill colors are black.
Typefaces
Styles called R, I, B, and BI mounted at font positions 1 to 4.
Text fonts are grouped into families A, BM, C, H, HN, N, P, and T,
each 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
Another text font is not a member of a family.
ZCMI ZapfChancery-MediumItalic
Special fonts include S, the PostScript Symbol font; SS, a subset
of S with slanted lowercase Greek letters; EURO, which offers a
Euro glyph in several styles for use with old devices lacking it;
and ZD, Zapf Dingbats. In contrast to grops, gropdf does not
require a reversed variant of it (ZDR); the “hand pointing left”
glyph (\[lh]) is available nevertheless, since pdf.tmac defines it
using the \X'pdf: xrev' device extension command (see below).
Some glyphs in these fonts are unnamed and must be accessed as
indexed characters, using the \N escape sequence.
The fonts corresponding to EURO and SS are unknown to the PDF
standard; groff therefore provides their AFM files (font metrics)
and PFA or PFB files so that they can be used with other software
and embedded in PDF output.
Feature service levels and URW font support
The traditional PostScript Type 1 fonts are limited in their glyph
repertoire, and the original versions from the Adobe foundry are
not free software. Historically, because their presence was
mandated by the PostScript standard, one could expect to find
support for them in any conforming device or software PostScript
renderer. PostScript (“Level 1”) initially standardized 14
typefaces: Times, Helvetica, and Courier each in four styles
(which groff groups into “families”); a symbol font; and a
dingbats font. PostScript Level 2 increased the number to 35,
adding the families Avant Garde, Bookman, Helvetica Narrow, New
Century Schoolbook, and Palatino; and a text font in one style,
Zapf Chancery medium italic. A document could be small because it
did not need to embed font resources unless it had unusual (for
the time) glyph or typeface requirements. This situation carried
over into the early years of PostScript's successor page
description language, PDF. Nowadays, it is common to embed fonts
in PDFs, and authorities widely recommend this practice, which
increases the reliability of document rendering, and many free
software fonts are available with much greater glyph coverage than
Adobe's Type 1 fonts for PostScript.
gropdf attempts to work in variety of scenarios, and delivers
better results when configured with supporting digital font files
(for embedding) and font metrics files describing those fonts to
the formatter.
• Full service is available when gropdf can locate all 35 fonts
of the PostScript Level 2 standard on the file system along
with their corresponding font metrics (AFM) files. The Adobe-
compatible unnamed (default) foundry supports up to 256 glyphs
in each typeface. Fonts from the URW foundry (“U”) are
compatible extensions of the Adobe fonts with extended glyph
coverage, including support for Cyrillic script. groff's build
process uses afmtodit(1) to generate font description files
from the URW foundry's AFM files; see section “Files” below.
• Intermediate service is available when gropdf can locate all 35
fonts of the PostScript Level 2 standard but not their
corresponding font metrics (AFM) files. groff's build process
copies the font description files from those for the grops(1)
driver, reusing them for gropdf; this reduces glyph coverage to
256 glyphs maximum from each face, and the “U” foundry is
unavailable.
• Basic service results when gropdf cannot locate all 35 fonts of
the PostScript Level 2 standard. Only the base 14 fonts of the
PDF standard are available, and only in the sense that the
formatter can use their metrics (copied from grops() font
descriptions as described above). Use of the -e option to
embed fonts in the generated PDF results in an error.
Device extension commands
gropdf supports many device extensions, accessed with the groff
request device or roff \X escape sequence. First, it understands
many of the device extensions supported by grops(1).
\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 pic(1).
\X'ps: exec grestore'
Used by pic(1) to restore state 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
gropdf also supports a subset of the commands introduced in
gpresent's present.tmac.
PAUSE
BLOCKS
BLOCKE
These allow you to create presentation 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
“\X'pdf: transition'” below). Equivalently, .pdfpause is
available as a macro.
\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 package already integrates 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.
gropdf also recognizes a device extension used by the DVI driver.
\X'papersize=width,length'
Set the page dimensions in centimeters to width by length.
If the -l option was specified, these dimensions are
swapped. Changes to the paper dimensions should occur
prior to the first page, or during page ejection before
starting a subsequent one.
Caution: the ordering of dimensions differs from that used
by papersize.tmac and troff(1)'s “-d paper” option.
\X'pdf: markstart /ANN-definition'
\X'pdf: markend'
Macros that support PDF features use these extension
commands internally to bracket hotspot text (a hyperlink).
User documents should call the .pdfhref macro instead.
Their application is found in other macro packages (like
groff_man(7) or groff_mdoc(7)) that call .pdfhref with a -S
argument, then indicate the end of hotspot text with
\X'pdf: markend'\m[\*[pdf:curcol]].
\X'pdf: xrev'
Toggle the reversal of glyph direction. This feature works
by reversing all following text. Each separate letter is
also mirrored. One application is the reversal of glyphs
in the Zapf Dingbats font. To restore the normal glyph
orientation, repeat the command.
gropdf supports several more device extensions using the pdf: tag.
The following have counterpart convenience macros that take the
same arguments and behave equivalently.
.pdfbackground cmd left top right bottom weight
.pdfbackground off
.pdfbackground footnote bottom
\X'pdf: background cmd left top right bottom weight'
\X'pdf: background off'
\X'pdf: background footnote bottom'
Produce a background rectangle on the page.
cmd is the command, which can be any of “page|fill|box”
in combination. Thus, “pagefill” would draw a
rectangle which covers the whole current page size
(in which case the rest of the parameters can be
omitted because the box dimensions are taken from
the current media size). “boxfill”, on the other
hand, requires the given dimensions to place the
box. Including “fill” in the command paints the
rectangle with the current fill colour (as with
\M[]) and including “box” gives the rectangle a
border in the current stroke colour (as with \m[]).
cmd may also be “off” on its own, which terminates
drawing the current box. If you have specified a
page colour with “pagefill”, it is always the first
box in the stack, and if you specify it again, it
replaces the first entry. Be aware that the
“pagefill” box renders the page opaque, so tools
that “watermark” PDF pages are unlikely to be
successful. To return the background to
transparent, issue an “off” command with no other
boxes open.
Finally, cmd may be “footnote” followed by a new
value for bottom, which is used for all open boxes
on the current page. This is to allow room for
footnote areas that grow while a page is processed
(to accommodate multiple footnotes, for instance).
(If the value is negative, it is used as an offset
from the bottom of the page.)
left
top
right
bottom are the coordinates of the box. The top and bottom
coordinates are the minimum and maximum for the box,
since the actual start of the box is groff's drawing
position when you issue the command, and the bottom
of the box is the point where you turn the box
“off”. The top and bottom coordinates are used only
if the box drawing extends onto the next page;
ordinarily, they would be set to the header and
footer margins.
weight provides the line width for the border if “box” is
included in the command.
An sboxes macro file is also available; see groff_tmac(5).
.pdfmarksuspend
.pdfmarkrestart
\X'pdf: marksuspend'
\X'pdf: markrestart'
If you use a page location trap to produce a header or
footer, or otherwise interrupt a document's text, you need
to use these commands if a PDF hotspot crosses a trap
boundary; otherwise any text output by the trap will be
marked as part of the hotspot. To prevent this error,
place these device extension escape sequences or their
corresponding convenience macros .pdfmarksuspend and
.pdfmarkrestart at the start and end of the trap macro,
respectively.
.pdfpagename name
\X'pdf: pagename name'
Assign the current page a name. All documents bear two
default names, ‘top’ and ‘bottom’.
.pdfpagenumbering type prefix start
\X'pdf: pagenumbering type prefix start'
Control the page numbering shown in a PDF reader's outline
(which also contains bookmarks). Normally, the page number
associated with each bookmark is its sequence number in the
file, but this might not match the desired numbering
scheme. A document may bear a cover sheet (which has no
page number); front matter (possibly including a table of
contents) that uses lowercase roman numerals; the main
matter, which uses arabic numerals; and back matter, which
may include appendices that are each prefixed with a letter
and independently numbered. Place this command prior to
breaking the page to which the new numbering scheme is to
apply. It then persists until changed again.
type specifies the numbering system to use. It should be
one of “Decimal”, “Roman”, “roman”, “Alpha”, or
“alpha”. This parameter may be abbreviated to the
first letter, whose lettercase determines that used
for the numbers where applicable. The ordering used
by the alphabetic numbering systems is A-Z ... AA-AZ
... ZA-ZZ. type can also be “.”, which selects no
numbering system; you may still provide a prefix.
prefix specifies text to precede the page number. For
example, to number the pages of an appendix “A-1”,
“A-2”, and so forth, use a prefix of “A-” and a type
of “Decimal”.
start determines the page number. It defaults to 1.
.pdfpic file alignment width height line-length
\X'pdf: pdfpic file alignment width height line-length'
Place an image from file file of desired width and height
(if height is missing or zero then it is scaled
proportionally). If alignment is -L the drawing is left-
aligned. If it is -C or -R a line-length 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. If both width and height are non-zero the
image is scaled to ‘best fit’.
The availability of other software on the system, such as
PerlMagick, influences the types of image files gropdf can
embed in its output.
┌───────┬──────┬─────────┬─────────────┬────────────────────┐
│ │ none │ file(1) │ identify(1) │ Image::Magick(3pm) │
├───────┼──────┼─────────┼─────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ .pdf │ ✓ │ ✓ │ ✓ │ ✓ │
├───────┼──────┼─────────┼─────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ .jpg │ ✗ │ ✓ │ ✓ │ ✓ │
├───────┼──────┼─────────┼─────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ .jp2 │ ✗ │ ✗ │ ✓ │ ✓ │
├───────┼──────┼─────────┼─────────────┼────────────────────┤
│ other │ ✗ │ ✗ │ ✗ │ ✓ │
└───────┴──────┴─────────┴─────────────┴────────────────────┘
See groff_tmac(5) for a description of the PDFPIC macro,
which provides a convenient high-level interface for
inclusion of various graphic file formats.
.pdfswitchtopage when name
\X'pdf: switchtopage when name'
Normally each new page is appended to the end of the
document, this command allows following pages to be
inserted at a ‘named’ position within the document (see
pagename command above). ‘when’ can be either ‘after’ or
‘before’. If it is omitted it defaults to ‘before’. It
should be used at the end of the page before you want the
switch to happen. This allows pages such as a TOC to be
moved to elsewhere in the document, but more esoteric uses
are possible.
.pdftransition scope mode duration dimension motion direction
scale bool
\X'pdf: transition scope mode duration dimension motion direction
scale bool'
Configure the style of page transitions, as used in
“slides” (or “foils”). scope can be either SLIDE or BLOCK.
SLIDE applies the transition when a new slide is introduced
to the screen; BLOCK applies it to the individual blocks
making 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 - As 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 direction
specified by the direction entry.
R - The new page simply replaces the old one with no
special transition effect; 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 motion 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.
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.
Macros
gropdf's support macros in pdf.tmac define the convenience macros
described above. Some features have no direct device extension
escape sequence counterpart.
.pdfbookmark [-T tag-name] level text
Mark the nearest page location as a bookmark, and
optionally a named destination as well. Bookmarks populate
the outline pane of the reader. They are organized into a
hierarchical tree; each level of the tree is numbered,
starting at 1, and named as text in the outline. Named
destinations permit hyperlink-style navigation within the
document. Specifying -T followed by tag-name creates a
named destination making the page location eligible as a
target named by “.pdfhref L ...”.
.pdfhref L -D dest [-S] [-P prefix-text] [-A suffix-text] [link-
text]
Create a hotspot link to dest, (the tag-name) which a
“.pdfbookmark ...” or “.pdfhref M ...” call elsewhere in
the document should define. (If the document employs
forward references, it must be processed twice; see
pdfmom(1).) If link-text is omitted the text associated
with dest, when it was created, is formatted as the link
text. The -P and -A arguments format their successors as
text before and after the link text, respectively, without
intervening space. Specifying -S prevents pdfhref from
“closing” the hotspot, requiring the document (or macro
package wrapping pdfhref) to do so itself with “\X'pdf:
markend'\m[\*[pdf:curcol]]”.
.pdfhref M [-E] [-N tag-name] dest
Mark the nearest page location as a destination named (the
first word of) dest, which should be unique within a
document. Specifying -T followed by tag-name overrides
this default. Specifying -E formats dest as text in the
document as well.
.pdfhref W -D uri [-S] [-P prefix-text] [-A suffix-text] link-text
Create a hotspot link to uri, a World Wide Web Universal
Resource Identifier (URI). The -P and -A arguments format
their successors as text before and after the link text,
respectively, without intervening space. Specifying -S
prevents pdfhref from “closing” the hotspot, requiring the
document (or macro package wrapping pdfhref) to do so
itself with “\X'pdf: markend'\m[\*[pdf:curcol]]”.
.pdfinfo /field content ...
Define PDF metadata. field may be one of Title, Author,
Subject, Keywords, or another datum supported by the PDF
standard or your reader. field must be prefixed with a
slash.
.pdfnote [-T title] text
Create an annotation in the document. Reader support for
this feature varies. Some place an icon at the current
position on the page; hovering over the icon reveals any
title, while clicking on the icon pops up a window
containing text.
Parameters
The following parameters, shown as roff control lines, affect the
operation of gropdf.
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Parameter Purpose Default │
├────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ .nr PDFNOTE.WIDTH Set width of 1c │
│ annotation icon. │
│ .nr PDFNOTE.HEIGHT Set height of 1c │
│ annotation icon. │
│ .ds PDFNOTE.COLOR Set RGB color of 1.00 1.00 0.00 │
│ annotation icon │
│ (RGB) │
│ .ds PDFNOTE.OPACITY Set opacity of 0.6 │
│ annotation icon │
│ (decimal value in │
│ [0, 1]). │
│ .nr PDFOUTLINE.FOLDLEVEL Set depth of 10000 │
│ visible bookmark │
│ hierarchy. │
│ .nr PDFHREF.VIEW.LEADING Set position 5p │
│ adjustment when │
│ clicking bookmark │
│ or internal │
│ hotspot. │
│ .nr PDFHREF.LEADING Configure size of 2.0p │
│ increased │
│ clickable area │
│ around a hotspot. │
│ .ds PDFHREF.BORDER Configure the 0 0 0 │
│ border width │
│ around a hotspot │
│ by specifying two │
│ zeroes followed by │
│ the desired width │
│ in points. Do not │
│ use a scaling │
│ unit. │
│ .ds PDFHREF.COLOR Set RGB color of 0.00 0.35 0.60 │
│ link text. │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
In the foregoing, you can also spell “COLOR” in string names as
“COLOUR”.
Importing PDF graphics
If you are importing an image as a PDF file, it must be a single
page and the drawing must just fit inside the media size of the
PDF file. In inkscape(1) or gimp(1), for example, make sure the
canvas size just fits the image.
The PDF parser gropdf implements has not been rigorously tested
with all applications that produce PDF. If you find a single-page
PDF which fails to import properly, try processing it with the
pdftk(1) program.
pdftk existing-file output new-file
You may find that new-file imports successfully.
TrueType and other font formats
gropdf does not yet support any font formats besides Adobe Type 1
(PFA or PFB).
For your convenience, groff offers install-font.bash, a shell
script that interactively assists the configuration of fonts for
use with the GNU troff formatter and the gropdf output driver.
See section “Files” below.
The following is a step-by-step font installation guide for
gropdf.
• Convert your font to something groff understands. This is a
PostScript Type 1 font in PFA or PFB format, together with an
AFM file. A PFA file begins as follows.
%!PS-AdobeFont-1.0:
A PFB file contains this string as well, preceded by some non-
printing bytes. In the following steps, we will consider the
use of CTAN's BrushScriptX-Italic
⟨https://ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/brushscr⟩ font in PFA
format.
• Convert the AFM file to a groff font description file with the
afmtodit(1) program. For instance,
$ afmtodit BrushScriptX-Italic.afm text.map BSI
converts the Adobe Font Metric file BrushScriptX-Italic.afm to
the groff font description file BSI.
If you have a font family which provides regular upright
(roman), bold, italic, and bold-italic styles, (where “italic”
may be “oblique” or “slanted”), we recommend using R, B, I, and
BI, respectively, as suffixes to the groff font family name to
enable groff's font family and style selection features. An
example is groff's built-in support for Times: the font family
name is abbreviated as T, and the groff font names are
therefore TR, TB, TI, and TBI. In our example, however, the
BrushScriptX font is available in a single style only, italic.
• Install the groff font description file(s) in a devpdf
subdirectory in the search path that groff uses for device and
font file descriptions. See the GROFF_FONT_PATH entry in
section “Environment” of troff(1) for the current value of the
font search path. While groff doesn't directly use AFM files,
it is a good idea to store them alongside its font description
files.
• Register fonts in the devpdf/download file so they can be
located for embedding in PDF files gropdf generates. Only the
first download file encountered in the font search path is
read. If in doubt, copy the default download file (see section
“Files” below) to the first directory in the font search path
and add your fonts there. The PostScript font name used by
gropdf is stored in the internalname field in the groff font
description file. (This name does not necessarily resemble the
font's file name.) If the font in our example had originated
from a foundry named Z, we would add the following line to
download.
Z→BrushScriptX-Italic→BrushScriptX-Italic.pfa
A tab character, depicted as →, separates the fields. The
default foundry has no name: its field is empty and entries
corresponding to it start with a tab character, as will the one
in our example.
• Test the selection and embedding of the new font.
printf "\\f[BSI]Hello, world!\n" | groff -T pdf -P -e >hello.pdf
see hello.pdf
0 gropdf successfully produced a PDF document.
1 gropdf experienced a critical error, or warnings were
emitted and the -W option was specified.
2 gropdf could not interpret its command-line arguments.
GROFF_FONT_PATH
A list of directories in which to seek the selected output
device's directory of device and font description files.
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).
GROPDF_NOSLIDE
If set and evaluates to a true value (to Perl), gropdf
ignores commands specific to presentation PDFs, producing a
normal PDF instead.
GROPDF_OPTIONS
gropdf interprets the contents of this environment variable
as a space-separated list of command-line options.
Explicit command-line options override any settings from
this environment variable.
SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
A timestamp (expressed as seconds since the Unix epoch) to
use as the output creation timestamp in place of the
current time. The time is converted to human-readable form
using Perl's gmtime() function and recorded in a PDF
comment.
TZ The time zone to use when converting the current time to
human-readable form; see tzset(3). If SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH is
used, it is always converted to human-readable form using
UTC.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/DESC
describes the pdf output device.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/F
describes the font known as F on device pdf.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/U-F
describes the font from the URW foundry (versus the Adobe
default) known as F on device pdf.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/download
lists fonts available for embedding within the PDF document
(by analogy to the ps device's downloadable font support).
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/Foundry
is a data file used by the groff build system to locate
PostScript Type 1 fonts.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/symbolsl.afm
provides metrics for the slanted symbol font known to groff
as SS. These data facilitate use of the font with non-
groff software.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/symbolsl.pfb
supplies the slanted symbol font known to groff as SS.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/enc/text.enc
describes the encoding scheme used by most PostScript
Type 1 fonts; the encoding directive of font description
files for the pdf device refers to it.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/generate/symbolsl.sfd
is the source form of the symbolsl.pfb font, in spline font
database (SFD) format.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/pdf.tmac
defines macros for use with the pdf output device. It is
automatically loaded by troffrc when the pdf output device
is selected.
/usr/local/share/groff/1.24.1/tmac/pdfpic.tmac
defines the PDFPIC macro for embedding images in a
document; see groff_tmac(5). It is automatically loaded by
troffrc.
/usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/examples/install-font.bash
This script, contributed by mom macro package author Peter
Schaffter and long available at his web site, assists with
making TrueType (.ttf), OpenType (.otf), and PostScript
Type 1 (.pfa, .pfb) fonts available to groff.
Change to its directory and run “bash install-font.bash -H”
for a man page-like description of its features and
operation.
gropdf was written and is maintained by Deri James ⟨deri@
chuzzlewit.myzen.co.uk⟩.
/usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/sboxes/msboxes.ms
/usr/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/sboxes/msboxes.pdf
“Using PDF boxes with groff and the ms macros”, by Deri
James.
present.tmac
is part of gpresent
⟨https://bob.diertens.org/corner/useful/gpresent/⟩, a
software package by Bob Diertens that works with groff to
produce presentations (“foils”, or “slide decks”).
afmtodit(1), groff(1), troff(1), groff_font(5), groff_out(5)
This page is part of the groff (GNU troff) project. Information
about the project can be found at
⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩. If you have a bug report for
this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩. This
page was obtained from the tarball groff-1.24.1.tar.gz fetched
from ⟨https://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/⟩ on 2026-05-24. If you
discover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page,
or you believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the
page, or you have corrections or improvements to the information
in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page),
send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
groff 1.24.1 2026-03-14 gropdf(1)
Pages that refer to this page: pdfman(1)
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