grops
(1)
Name
grops - PostScript driver for groff
Synopsis
grops [ -glmv ] [ -bn ] [ -cn ] [ -Fdir ] [ -Idir ] [ -p-
papersize ] [ -Pprologue ] [ -wn ] [ files... ]
It is possible to have whitespace between a command line
option and its parameter.
Description
User Commands GROPS(1)
NAME
grops - PostScript driver for groff
SYNOPSIS
grops [ -glmv ] [ -bn ] [ -cn ] [ -Fdir ] [ -Idir ] [ -p-
papersize ] [ -Pprologue ] [ -wn ] [ files... ]
It is possible to have whitespace between a command line
option and its parameter.
DESCRIPTION
grops translates the output of GNU troff to PostScript.
Normally grops should be invoked by using the groff command
with a -Tps option. (Actually, this is the default for
groff.) If no files are given, grops will read the standard
input. A filename of - will also cause grops to read the
standard input. PostScript output is written to the stan-
dard output. When grops is run by groff options can be
passed to grops using the groff -P option.
Note that grops doesn't produce a valid document structure
(conforming to the Document Structuring Convention) if
called with multiple file arguments. To print such concate-
nated output it is necessary to deactivate DSC handling in
the printing program or previewer.
OPTIONS
-bn Provide workarounds for older printers, broken spool-
ers, and previewers. Normally grops produces output at
PostScript LanguageLevel 2 that conforms to the Docu-
ment Structuring Conventions version 3.0. Some older
printers, spoolers, and previewers can't handle such
output. The value of n controls what grops does to
make its output acceptable to such programs. A value
of 0 will cause grops not to employ any workarounds.
Add 1 if no %%BeginDocumentSetup and %%EndDocumentSetup
comments should be generated; this is needed for early
versions of TranScript that get confused by anything
between the %%EndProlog comment and the first %%Page
comment.
Add 2 if lines in included files beginning with %!
should be stripped out; this is needed for Sun's
pageview previewer.
Add 4 if %%Page, %%Trailer and %%EndProlog comments
should be stripped out of included files; this is
needed for spoolers that don't understand the %%Begin-
Document and %%EndDocument comments.
Add 8 if the first line of the PostScript output should
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User Commands GROPS(1)
be %!PS-Adobe-2.0 rather than %!PS-Adobe-3.0; this is
needed when using Sun's Newsprint with a printer that
requires page reversal.
Add 16 if no media size information should be included
in the document (this is, neither use %%DocumentMedia
nor the setpagedevice PostScript command). This was
the behaviour of groff version 1.18.1 and earlier; it
is needed for older printers which don't understand
PostScript LanguageLevel 2. It is also necessary if
the output is further processed to get an encapsulated
PS (EPS) file -- see below.
The default value can be specified by a
broken n
command in the DESC file. Otherwise the default value
is 0.
-cn Print n copies of each page.
-Fdir
Prepend directory dir/devname to the search path for
prologue, font, and device description files; name is
the name of the device, usually ps.
-g Guess the page length. This generates PostScript code
that guesses the page length. The guess will be cor-
rect only if the imageable area is vertically centered
on the page. This option allows you to generate docu-
ments that can be printed both on letter (8.5x11) paper
and on A4 paper without change.
-Idir
This option may be used to specify a directory to
search for files on the command line and files named in
\X'ps: import' and \X'ps: file' escapes. The current
directory is always searched first. This option may be
specified more than once; the directories will be
searched in the order specified. No directory search
is performed for files specified using an absolute
path.
-l Print the document in landscape format.
-m Turn manual feed on for the document.
-ppaper-size
Set physical dimension of output medium. This over-
rides the papersize, paperlength, and paperwidth com-
mands in the DESC file; it accepts the same arguments
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User Commands GROPS(1)
as the papersize command. See groff_font (5) for
details.
-Pprologue-file
Use the file prologue-file (in the font path) as the
prologue instead of the default prologue file prologue.
This option overrides the environment variable
GROPS_PROLOGUE.
-wn Lines should be drawn using a thickness of n thou-
sandths of an em. If this option is not given, the
line thickness defaults to 0.04 em.
-v Print the version number.
USAGE
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
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User Commands GROPS(1)
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, and SS, containing slanted lowercase Greek letters
taken from PS Symbol. Zapf Dingbats is available as ZD and
a reversed version of ZapfDingbats (with symbols pointing in
the opposite direction) is available as ZDR; most characters
in these fonts are unnamed and must be accessed using [rs]N.
The default color for \m and \M is black; for colors defined
in the `rgb' color space, setrgbcolor is used, for `cmy' and
`cmyk' setcmykcolor, and for `gray' setgray. Note that
setcmykcolor is a PostScript LanguageLevel 2 command and
thus not available on some older printers.
grops understands various X commands produced using the \X
escape sequence; grops will only interpret commands that
begin with a ps: tag.
[rs]X'ps: exec code'
This executes the arbitrary PostScript commands in
code. The PostScript currentpoint will be set to the
position of the \X command before executing code. The
origin will be at the top left corner of the page, and
y coordinates will increase down the page. A proce-
dure u will be defined that converts groff units to the
coordinate system in effect. For example,
.nr x 1i
\X'ps: exec \nx u 0 rlineto stroke'
will draw a horizontal line one inch long. code may
make changes to the graphics state, but any changes
will persist only to the end of the page. A dictionary
containing the definitions specified by the def and
mdef will be on top of the dictionary stack. If your
code adds definitions to this dictionary, you should
allocate space for them using [rs]X'ps mdef n'. Any
definitions will persist only until the end of the
page. If you use the \Y escape sequence with an argu-
ment that names a macro, code can extend over multiple
lines. For example,
.nr x 1i
.de y
ps: exec
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User Commands GROPS(1)
\nx u 0 rlineto
stroke
..
\Yy
is another way to draw a horizontal line one inch long.
[rs]X'ps: file name'
This is the same as the exec command except that the
PostScript code is read from file name.
[rs]X'ps: def code'
Place a PostScript definition contained in code in the
prologue. There should be at most one definition per
\X command. Long definitions can be split over several
\X commands; all the code arguments are simply joined
together separated by newlines. The definitions are
placed in a dictionary which is automatically pushed on
the dictionary stack when an exec command is executed.
If you use the \Y escape sequence with an argument that
names a macro, code can extend over multiple lines.
[rs]X'ps: mdef n code'
Like def, except that code may contain up to n defini-
tions. grops needs to know how many definitions code
contains so that it can create an appropriately sized
PostScript dictionary to contain them.
[rs]X'ps: import file llx lly urx ury width [ height ]'
Import a PostScript graphic from file. The arguments
llx, lly, urx, and ury give the bounding box of the
graphic in the default PostScript coordinate system;
they should all be integers; llx and lly are the x and
y coordinates of the lower left corner of the graphic;
urx and ury are the x and y coordinates of the upper
right corner of the graphic; width and height are inte-
gers that give the desired width and height in groff
units of the graphic. The graphic will be scaled so
that it has this width and height and translated so
that the lower left corner of the graphic is located at
the position associated with \X command. If the height
argument is omitted it will be scaled uniformly in the
x and y directions so that it has the specified width.
Note that the contents of the \X command are not inter-
preted by troff; so vertical space for the graphic is
not automatically added, and the width and height argu-
ments are not allowed to have attached scaling indica-
tors. If the PostScript file complies with the Adobe
Document Structuring Conventions and contains a
%%BoundingBox comment, then the bounding box can be
automatically extracted from within groff by using the
psbb request.
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See groff_tmac(5) for a description of the PSPIC macro
which provides a convenient high-level interface for
inclusion of PostScript graphics.
\X'ps: invis'
\X'ps: endinvis'
No output will be generated for text and drawing com-
mands that are bracketed with these \X commands. These
commands are intended for use when output from troff
will be previewed before being processed with grops; if
the previewer is unable to display certain characters
or other constructs, then other substitute characters
or constructs can be used for previewing by bracketing
them with these \X commands.
For example, gxditview is not able to display a proper
\(em character because the standard X11 fonts do not
provide it; this problem can be overcome by executing
the following request
.char \(em \X'ps: invis'\
\Z'\v'-.25m'\h'.05m'\D'l .9m 0'\h'.05m''\
\X'ps: endinvis'\(em
In this case, gxditview will be unable to display the
\(em character and will draw the line, whereas grops
will print the \(em character and ignore the line (this
code is already in file Xps.tmac which will be loaded
if a document intended for grops is previewed with
gxditview).
The input to grops must be in the format output by
gtroff(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 device and
font description files supplied for ps device meet all these
requirements. afmtodit(1) can be used to create font files
from AFM files. The resolution must be an integer multiple
of 72 times the sizescale. The ps 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.
Each font description file must contain a command
internalname psname
which says that the PostScript name of the font is psname.
It may also contain a command
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encoding enc_file
which says that the PostScript font should be reencoded
using the encoding described in enc_file; this file should
consist of a sequence of lines of the form:
pschar code
where pschar is the PostScript name of the character, and
code is its position in the encoding expressed as a decimal
integer; valid values are in the range 0 to 255. Lines
starting with # and blank lines are ignored. The code for
each character given in the font file must correspond to the
code for the character in encoding file, or to the code in
the default encoding for the font if the PostScript font is
not to be reencoded. 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. grops will assume that a character
with a groff name of space is blank (makes no marks on the
page); it can make use of such a character to generate more
efficient and compact PostScript output.
Note that grops is able to display all glyphs in a Post-
Script font, not only 256. enc_file (or the default encod-
ing if no encoding file specified) just defines the order of
glyphs for the first 256 characters; all other glyphs are
accessed with additional encoding vectors which grops pro-
duces on the fly.
grops can automatically include the downloadable fonts nec-
essary to print the document. Such fonts must be in PFA
format. Use pfbtops(1) to convert a Type 1 font in PFB for-
mat. Any downloadable fonts which should, when required, be
included by grops must be listed in the file
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/font/devps/download; this should
consist of lines of the form
font filename
where 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 may be separated
by tabs or spaces; filename will be searched for using the
same mechanism that is used for groff font metric files.
The download file itself will also be searched for using
this mechanism; currently, only the first found file in the
font path is used.
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If the file containing a downloadable font or imported docu-
ment conforms to the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions,
then grops will interpret any comments in the files suffi-
ciently to ensure that its own output is conforming. It
will also supply any needed font resources that are listed
in the download file as well as any needed file resources.
It is also able to handle inter-resource dependencies. For
example, suppose that you have a downloadable font called
Garamond, and also a downloadable font called Garamond-Out-
line which depends on Garamond (typically it would be
defined to copy Garamond's font dictionary, and change the
PaintType), then it is necessary for Garamond to appear
before Garamond-Outline in the PostScript document. grops
will handle this automatically provided that the download-
able font file for Garamond-Outline indicates its dependence
on Garamond by means of the Document Structuring Conven-
tions, for example by beginning with the following lines
%!PS-Adobe-3.0 Resource-Font
%%DocumentNeededResources: font Garamond
%%EndComments
%%IncludeResource: font Garamond
In this case both Garamond and Garamond-Outline would need
to be listed in the download file. A downloadable font
should not include its own name in a %%DocumentSupplied-
Resources comment.
grops will not interpret %%DocumentFonts comments. The
%%DocumentNeededResources, %%DocumentSuppliedResources,
%%IncludeResource, %%BeginResource, and %%EndResource com-
ments (or possibly the old %%DocumentNeededFonts,
%%DocumentSuppliedFonts, %%IncludeFont, %%BeginFont, and
%%EndFont comments) should be used.
Encapsulated PostScript
grops itself doesn't emit bounding box information. With
the help of GhostScript the following commands will produce
an encapsulated PS file foo.eps from input file foo:
groff -P-b16 foo > foo.ps
gs -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=bbox -- foo.ps 2> foo.bbox
cat foo.ps | sed -e '/%%Orientation/rfoo.bbx' > foo.eps
rm foo.bbx
TrueType fonts
TrueType fonts can be used with grops if converted first to
Type 42 format, an especial PostScript wrapper equivalent to
the PFA format mentioned in pfbtops(1). There are several
different methods to generate a type42 wrapper and most of
them involve the use of a PostScript interpreter such as
Ghostscript -- see gs(1). Yet, the easiest method involves
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User Commands GROPS(1)
the use of the application ttftot42. This program uses
freetype(3) (version 1.3.1) to generate type42 font wrappers
and well-formed AFM files that can be fed to the afmtodit(1)
script to create appropriate metric files. The resulting
font wrappers should be added to the download file.
ttftot42 source code can be downloaded from ftp://
www.giga.or.at/pub/nih/ttftot42/ <ftp://www.giga.or.at/pub/
nih/ttftot42/>.
ENVIRONMENT
GROPS_PROLOGUE
If this is set to foo, then grops will use the file foo
(in the font path) instead of the default prologue file
prologue. The option -P overrides this environment
variable.
FILES
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/font/devps/DESC
Device description file.
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/font/devps/F
Font description file for font F.
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/font/devps/download
List of downloadable fonts.
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/font/devps/text.enc
Encoding used for text fonts.
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/ps.tmac
Macros for use with grops; automatically loaded by
troffrc
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/pspic.tmac
Definition of PSPIC macro, automatically loaded by
ps.tmac.
/usr/share/groff/1.19.2/tmac/psold.tmac
Macros to disable use of characters not present in
older PostScript printers (e.g. `eth' or `thorn').
/tmp/gropsXXXXXX
Temporary file.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
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User Commands GROPS(1)
+---------------+-----------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+-----------------------+
|Availability | text/groff/groff-core |
+---------------+-----------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+-----------------------+
SEE ALSO
afmtodit(1), groff(1), gtroff(1), pfbtops(1), groff_out(5),
groff_font(5), groff_char(7), groff_tmac(5)
PostScript Language Document Structuring Conventions Speci-
fication <http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/ps/
5001.DSC_Spec.pdf>
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from
http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/groff-1.19.2.tar.gz
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://www.gnu.org/soft-
ware/groff/.
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