TROFF(5) COMMAND REFERENCE TROFF(5)
NAME
troff - description of output language
DESCRIPTION
The device-independent troff outputs a pure ASCII
description of a typeset document. The description
specifies the typesetting device, the fonts, and the point
sizes of characters to be used as well as the position of
each character on the page. A list of all the legal
commands follows. Most numbers are denoted as n and are
ASCII strings. Strings inside of [ ] are optional. Troff
may produce them, but they are not required for the
specification of the language. The character \n has the
standard meaning of "newline" character. Between commands
white space has no meaning. White space characters are
spaces and newlines. All commands which have an arbitary
length numerical parameter or word must be followed by white
space. For example, the command to specify point size,
s###, must be followed by a space or newline.
sn The point size of the characters to be
generated.
fn The font mounted in the specified
position is to be used. The number
ranges from 0 to the highest font
presently mounted. 0 is a special
position, invoked by troff, but not
directly accessible to the troff user.
Normally fonts are mounted starting at
position 1.
cx Generate the character x at the current
location on the page; x is a single
ASCII character.
Cxyz Generate the special character xyz. The
name of the character is delimited by
white space. The name will be one of
the special characters legal for the
typesetting device as specified by the
device specification found in the file
DESC. This file resides in a directory
specific for the typesetting device.
(See font(5) and /usr/lib/font/dev*.)
Hn Change the horizonal position on the
page to the number specified. The
number is in basic units of motions as
specified by DESC. This is an absolute
"goto".
Printed 10/17/86 1
TROFF(5) COMMAND REFERENCE TROFF(5)
hn Add the number specified to the current
horizontal position. This is a relative
"goto".
Vn Change the vertical position on the page
to the number specified (down is
positive).
vn Add the number specified to the current
vertical position.
nnx This is a two-digit number followed by
an ASCII character. The meaning is a
combination of hn followed by cx. The
two digits nn are added to the current
horizontal position and then the ASCII
character, x, is produced. This is the
most common form of character
specification.
nb a This command indicates that the end of a
line has been reached. No action is
required, though by convention the
horizontal position is set to 0. Troff
will specify a resetting of the x,y
coordinates on the page before
requesting that more characters be
printed. The first number, b, is the
amount of space before the line and the
second number, a, the amount of space
after the line. The second number is
delimited by white space.
w A w appears between words of the input
document. No action is required. It is
included so that one device can be
emulated more easily on another device.
pn Begin a new page. The new page number
is included in this command. The
vertical position on the page should be
set to 0.
{ Push the current environment, which
means saving the current point size,
font, and location on the page.
} Pop a saved environment.
txxxxx Print the string of characters, xxxxx,
using the natural width of each
character to determine the next x
Printed 10/17/86 2
TROFF(5) COMMAND REFERENCE TROFF(5)
coordinate. Troff does not currently
produce this form of command. It is not
recommended. The characters will
probably be too close together.
# .... \n A line beginning with a pound sign is a
comment.
Dl x y\n Draw a line from the current location to
x,y. At the end of the drawing
operation the current location will be
x,y.
Dc d\n Draw a circle of diameter d with the
leftmost edge being at the current
location (x, y). The current location
after drawing the circle will be x+d,y,
the rightmost edge of the circle.
De dx dy\n Draw an ellipse with the specified axes.
dx is the axis in the x direction and dy
is the axis in the y direction. The
leftmost edge of the ellipse will be at
the current location. After drawing the
ellipse the current location will be
x+dx,y.
Da x y r\n Draw a counterclockwise arc from the
current location to x,y using a circle
of radius r . The current location after
drawing the arc will be x,y.
D~ x y x y...\n Draw a spline curve (wiggly line)
between each of the x,y coordinate pairs
starting at the current location. The
final location will be the final x,y
pair of the list. Currently there may
be no more than 36 x,y pairs to this
command.
x i[nit]\n Initialize the typesetting device. The
actions required are dependent on the
device. An init command will always
occur before any output generation is
attempted.
x T device\n The name of the typesetter is device.
This is the same as the argument to the
-T option. The information about the
typesetter will be found in the
directory /usr/lib/font/dev{device}.
Printed 10/17/86 3
TROFF(5) COMMAND REFERENCE TROFF(5)
x r[es] n h v\n The resolution of the typesetting device
in increments per inch is n. Motion in
the horizontal direction can take place
in units of h basic increments. Motion
in the vertical direction can take place
in units of v basic increments. For
example, the APS-5 typesetter has a
basic resolution of 723 increments per
inch and can move in either direction in
723rds of an inch. Its specification
is:
x res 723 1 1
x p[ause]\n Pause. Cause the current page to finish
but do not relinquish the typesetter.
x s[top]\n Stop. Cause the current page to finish
and then relinquish the typesetter.
Perform any shutdown and bookkeeping
procedures required.
x t[railer]\n Generate a trailer. On some devices no
operation is performed.
x f[ont] n name\n Load the font name into position n.
x H[eight] n\n Set the character height to n points.
This causes the letters to be elongated
or shortened. It does not affect the
width of a letter.
x S[lant] n\n Set the slant to n degrees. Only some
typesetters can do this and not all
angles are supported.
Printed 10/17/86 4
%%index%%
na:72,74;
de:146,2829;3119,2682;5945,3036;9125,2188;
%%index%%000000000086