---
name: "xtotroff"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "groff"
version: "1.24.2-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/xtotroff"
---

# xtotroff(1)

convert X font metrics into groff font metrics

## Name

xtotroff - convert X font metrics into *groff* font metrics

## Synopsis

**xtotroff** \[**-d**  *destination-directory*\] \[**-r**  *resolution*\] \[**-s**  *type-size*\] *font-map*

**xtotroff** **--help**

**xtotroff** **-v**

**xtotroff** **--version**

## Description

*xtotroff* uses *font-map* to create [*groff*(1)](/groff/1.md) font description files from X11 fonts. Each line in *font-map* pairs a *groff* font name with an X font name as an X Logical Font Description (XLFD) pattern. The pair's members are separated by spaces and/or tabs. For example, an input *font-map* file consisting of the line

```
TB -adobe-times-bold-r-normal--*-*-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1
```

maps the XLFD on the right to the *groff* font name **TB**, conventionally “Times bold”.

*xtotroff* opens a connection to the running X server to query its font catalog, and aborts if it cannot. If necessary, the wildcards in the XLFD patterns are populated with the arguments to the **-r** and **-s** options. If a font name is still ambiguous, *xtotroff* aborts. For each successful mapping, *xtotroff* creates a *groff* font description file in the current working directory (or that specified by the **-d** option) named for each *groff* font, and reports the mapping to the standard output stream.

## Options

**--help** displays a usage message, while **-v** and **--version** show version information; all exit afterward.

- **-d** *destination-directory*

  Write font descriptions to *destination-directory* rather than the current working directory.

- **-r** *resolution*

  Set the resolution for all font patterns in *font-map*. The value is used for both the horizontal and vertical motion quanta. If not specified, a resolution of 75dpi is assumed.

- **-s** *type-size*

  Set the type size in points for all font patterns in *font-map*. If not specified, a size of 10 points is assumed.

## Exit status

*xtotroff* exits with status **0** on successful operation, status **2** if the program cannot interpret its command-line arguments, and status **1** if it encounters an error during operation.

## Files

- */usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/FontMap-X11*

  is the font mapping file used to produce the pre-generated font description files, supplied with *groff*, of X11 core fonts corresponding to the 13 base Type 1 fonts for PostScript level 1.

## Bugs

The only supported font encodings are “iso8859-1” and “adobe-fontspecific”.

## See also

“X Logical Font Description Conventions” ⟨https://\\:www\\:.x\\:.org/\\:releases/\\:X11R7.6/\\:doc/\\:xorg\\-docs/\\:specs/\\:XLFD/xlfd\\:.html⟩, by Jim Flowers and Stephen Gildea.

[*X*(7)](/X/7.md), [*groff*(1)](/groff/1.md), [*gxditview*(1)](/gxditview/1.md), [*troff*(1)](/troff/1.md), [*groff\_font*(5)](/groff_font/5.md)