--- name: "gropdf" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "groff" version: "1.24.2-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/gropdf" --- # gropdf(1) groff output driver for Portable Document Format ## 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)](/troff/1.md) into Portable Document Format. Normally, *gropdf* is invoked by [*groff*(1)](/groff/1.md) 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*/dev*name* 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)](/groff_font/5.md) 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)](/troff/1.md) and described in [*groff\_out*(5)](/groff_out/5.md). 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)](/groff_font/5.md). 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)](/grops/1.md). 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)](/groff_font/5.md). *gropdf* can automatically *embed* any downloadable fonts necessary to print the document. Any fonts thus required must be listed in the file */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/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** **AI** **AB** **ABI** **BMR** **BMI** **BMB** **BMBI** **CR** **CI** **CB** **CBI** **HR** **HI** **HB** **HBI** **HNR** **HNI** **HNB** **HNBI** **NR** **NI** **NB** **NBI** **PR** **PI** **PB** **PBI** **TR** **TI** **TB** **TBI** AvantGarde-Book AvantGarde-BookOblique AvantGarde-Demi AvantGarde-DemiOblique Bookman-Light Bookman-LightItalic Bookman-Demi Bookman-DemiItalic Courier Courier-Oblique Courier-Bold Courier-BoldOblique Helvetica Helvetica-Oblique Helvetica-Bold Helvetica-BoldOblique Helvetica-Narrow Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique Helvetica-Narrow-Bold Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique NewCenturySchlbk-Roman NewCenturySchlbk-Italic NewCenturySchlbk-Bold NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic Palatino-Roman Palatino-Italic Palatino-Bold Palatino-BoldItalic Times-Roman Times-Italic Times-Bold 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)](/afmtodit/1.md) 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)](/grops/1.md) 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)](/grops/1.md). - **\\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)](/pic/1.md). - **\\X'ps: exec grestore'** Used by [*pic*(1)](/pic/1.md) 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)](/troff/1.md)'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)](/groff_man/7.md) or [*groff\_mdoc*(7)](/groff_mdoc/7.md)) 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)](/groff_tmac/5.md). - **.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)](/groff_tmac/5.md) 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)](/pdfmom/1.md).) 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` | 1c | | `.nr PDFNOTE.HEIGHT` | 1c | | `.ds PDFNOTE.COLOR` | 1.00 1.00 0.00 | | `.ds PDFNOTE.OPACITY` | 0.6 | | `.nr PDFOUTLINE.FOLDLEVEL` | 10000 | | `.nr PDFHREF.VIEW.LEADING` | 5p | | `.nr PDFHREF.LEADING` | 2.0p | | `.ds PDFHREF.BORDER` | 0 0 0 | | `.ds PDFHREF.COLOR` | 0.00 0.35 0.60 | 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)](/inkscape/1.md) or [*gimp*(1)](/gimp/1.md), 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)](/pdftk/1.md) 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.* - • 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)](/afmtodit/1.md) 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)](/troff/1.md) 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 ``` ## 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)](/troff/1.md) and [*groff\_font*(5)](/groff_font/5.md). - *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)](/tzset/3.md). If *SOURCE\_DATE\_EPOCH* is used, it is always converted to human-readable form using UTC. ## Files - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/DESC* describes the **pdf** output device. - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/*F describes the font known as *F* on device **pdf**. - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/U-*F describes the font from the URW foundry (versus the Adobe default) known as *F* on device **pdf**. - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/download* lists fonts available for embedding within the PDF document (by analogy to the **ps** device's downloadable font support). - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/Foundry* is a data file used by the *groff* build system to locate PostScript Type 1 fonts. - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/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/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/symbolsl.pfb* supplies the slanted symbol font known to *groff* as **SS**. - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/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/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devpdf/generate/symbolsl.sfd* is the source form of the *symbolsl.pfb* font, in spline font database (SFD) format. - */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/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/share/groff/1.24.2/tmac/pdfpic.tmac* defines the **PDFPIC** macro for embedding images in a document; see [*groff\_tmac*(5)](/groff_tmac/5.md). It is automatically loaded by *troffrc.* - */usr/share/doc/groff-1.24.2/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 - */usr/share/doc/groff-1.24.2/sboxes/msboxes.ms* */usr/share/doc/groff-1.24.2/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)](/afmtodit/1.md), [*groff*(1)](/groff/1.md), [*troff*(1)](/troff/1.md), [*groff\_font*(5)](/groff_font/5.md), [*groff\_out*(5)](/groff_out/5.md)