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 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
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/local/share/groff/
1.23.0/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 PostScript 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 functionality.
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
'\X'pdf: transition'' below). This command can be
introduced 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 supported:
\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
proportionally). 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 printing repeat the command again.
\X'pdf: markstart /ANN definition'
The macros which support PDF Bookmarks use this call
internally to start the definition 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: markstart /ANN-definition'
\X'pdf: markend'
The macros which support PDF bookmarks use these calls
internally to start and stop (respectively) the definition
of bookmark hot spot; the user will have called
'.pdfhref L' with the text which will become the hot spot
region). Normally, these are 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 corresponding \X escapes. These macros
must be used only within page traps.)
\X'pdf: pagename name'
This gives the current page a name.
There are two default names for any document which do not
need to be declared 'top' and 'bottom'.
The convenience command for this is .pdfpagename.
\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 ommitted it defaults to 'before'.
The convenience command for this is .pdfswitchtopage. 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.
\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
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.
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 media size of the PDF
file. So, in inkscape(1) or gimp(1) (for example) make sure the
canvas size just fits the image.
The PDF parser used in gropdf has not been rigorously tested with
all possible applications 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).
