gropdf(1) General Commands Manual gropdf(1)
Name
gropdf - groff output driver for Portable Document Format
Synopsis
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
Description
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.
Options
--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.
Usage
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
/opt/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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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 annotation 1c |
| icon. |
|.nr PDFNOTE.HEIGHT Set height of annotation 1c |
| icon. |
|.ds PDFNOTE.COLOR Set RGB color of 1.00 1.00 0.00 |
| annotation icon (RGB) |
|.ds PDFNOTE.OPACITY Set opacity of annotation 0.6 |
| icon (decimal value in |
| [0, 1]). |
|.nr PDFOUTLINE.FOLDLEVEL Set depth of visible 10000 |
| bookmark hierarchy. |
|.nr PDFHREF.VIEW.LEADING Set position adjustment 5p |
| 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 border 0 0 0 |
| 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 link 0.00 0.35 0.60 |
| 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).
Font installation
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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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.
o 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
Exit status
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.
Environment
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.
Files
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/DESC
describes the pdf output device.
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/F
describes the font known as F on device pdf.
/opt/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.
/opt/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).
/opt/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.
/opt/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.
/opt/local/share/groff/1.24.1/font/devpdf/symbolsl.pfb
supplies the slanted symbol font known to groff as SS.
/opt/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.
/opt/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.
/opt/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.
/opt/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.
/opt/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.
Authors
gropdf was written and is maintained by Deri James <deri@chuzzlewit
.myzen.co.uk>.
See also
/opt/local/share/doc/groff-1.24.1/sboxes/msboxes.ms
/opt/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)
groff 1.24.1 2026-05-15 gropdf(1)
groff 1.24.1 - Generated Mon May 18 09:34:01 CDT 2026