groff_mom(7) - Man pages

GROFF_MOM(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual GROFF_MOM(7)

NAME
groff_mom - groff “mom” macros; “mom” is a “roff” language, part of
“groff”

SYNOPSIS
pdfmom [-Tps [pdfroff-option ...]] [groff-option ...] file ...

groff -mom [option ...] file ...
groff -m mom [option ...] file ...

CALLING MOM
mom is a macro set for groff, designed primarily to format documents
for PDF and PostScript output.

mom provides two categories of macros: macros for typesetting, and
macros for document processing. The typesetting macros provide access
to groff's typesetting capabilities in ways that are simpler to master
than groff's primitives. The document processing macros provide highly
customizable markup tags that allow the user to design and output pro-
fessional-looking documents with a minimum of typesetting intervention.

Files processed with pdfmom(1) with or without the -Tps option, produce
PDF documents. The documents include a PDF outline that appears in the
‘Contents’ panel of document viewers, and may contain clickable inter-
nal and external links.

When -Tps is absent, groff's native PDF driver, gropdf, is used to gen-
erate the output. When given, the output is still PDF, but processing
is passed over to pdfroff, which uses groff's PostScript driver, grops.
Not all PDF features are available when -Tps is given; its primary use
is to allow processing of files with embedded PostScript images.

Files processed with groff -mom (or -m mom) produce PostScript output
by default.

mom comes with her own very complete documentation in HTML format. A
separate PDF manual, Producing PDFs with groff and mom, covers full mom
or PDF usage.

FILES
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/om.tmac
– the main macro file
/usr/share/groff/1.22.4/tmac/mom.tmac
– a wrapper file that calls om.tmac directly.

/usr/share/doc/groff-base/html/mom/toc.html
– entry point to the HTML documentation

/usr/share/doc/groff-base/pdf/mom-pdf.pdf
– the PDF manual, Producing PDFs with groff and mom

/usr/share/doc/groff-base/examples/mom/*.mom
– example files using mom

DOCUMENTATION IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
This part of the man page contains information just as in groff(7), mom
macros and mom escape sequences in alphabetical order.

The logical order of mom macros and mom escape sequences is very well
documented in

/usr/share/doc/groff-base/html/mom/toc.html
– entry point to the HTML documentation

That document is quite good for beginners, but other users should be
happy to have some documentation in reference style.

So we restrict this part to the alphabetical order of macros and escape
sequences. But, so far, we took all documentation details from the
toc.html file, just in a more useful alphabetical order. So this part
of the man page is nothing new, but only a logical arrangement.

QUICK REFERENCE
Quick Reference of Inline Escape Sequences in alphabetical Order
\*[<colorname>]
begin using an initialized colour inline

\*[BCK n]
move backwards in a line

\*[BOLDER]
invoke pseudo bold inline (related to macro .SETBOLDER)

\*[BOLDERX]
off pseudo bold inline (related to macro .SETBOLDER)

\*[BU n]
move characters pairs closer together inline (related to macro
.KERN)

\*[COND]
invoke pseudo condensing inline (related to macro .CONDENSE)

\*[CONDX]
off pseudo condensing inline (related to macro .CONDENSE)

\*[CONDSUP]...\*[CONDSUPX]
pseudo-condensed superscript

\*[DOWN n]
temporarily move downwards in a line

\*[EN-MARK]
mark initial line of a range of line numbers (for use with line
numbered endnotes)

\*[EXT]
invoke pseudo extending inline (related to macro .EXTEND)

\*[EXTX]
off pseudo condensing inline (related to macro .EXTEND)

\*[EXTSUP]...\*[EXTSUPX]
pseudo extended superscript

\*[FU n]
move characters pairs further apart inline (related to macro
.KERN)

\*[FWD n]
move forward in a line

\*[LEADER]
insert leaders at the end of a line

\*[RULE]
draw a full measure rule

\*[SIZE n]
change the point size inline (related to macro .PT_SIZE)

\*[SLANT]
invoke pseudo italic inline (related to macro .SETSLANT)

\*[SLANTX]
off pseudo italic inline (related to macro .SETSLANT)

\*[ST<n>]...\*[ST<n>X]
string tabs (mark tab positions inline)

\*[SUP]...\*[SUPX]
superscript

\*[TB+]
inline escape for .TN (Tab Next)

\*[UL]...\*[ULX]
invoke underlining inline (fixed width fonts only)

\*[UP n]
temporarily move upwards in a line

Quick Reference of Macros in alphabetical Order
.AUTOLEAD
set the linespacing relative to the point size

.B_MARGIN
set a bottom margin

.BR break a justified line

.CENTER
set line-by-line quad centre

.CONDENSE
set the amount to pseudo condense

.EL break a line without advancing on the page

.EXTEND
set the amount to pseudo extend

.FALLBACK_FONT
establish a fallback font (for missing fonts)

.FAM alias to .FAMILY

.FAMILY <family>
set the family type

.FT set the font style (roman, italic, etc.)

.HI [ <measure> ]
hanging indent

.HY automatic hyphenation on/off

.HY_SET
set automatic hyphenation parameters

.IB [ <left measure> <right measure> ]
indent both

.IBX [ CLEAR ]
exit indent both

.IL [ <measure> ]
indent left

.ILX [ CLEAR ]
exit indent left

.IQ [ CLEAR ]
quit any/all indents

.IR [ <measure> ]
indent right

.IRX [ CLEAR ]
exit indent right

.JUSTIFY
justify text to both margins

.KERN automatic character pair kerning on/off

.L_MARGIN
set a left margin (page offset)

.LEFT set line-by-line quad left

.LL set a line length

.LS set a linespacing (leading)

.PAGE set explicit page dimensions and margins

.PAGEWIDTH
set a custom page width

.PAGELENGTH
set a custom page length

.PAPER <paper_type>
set common paper sizes (letter, A4, etc)

.PT_SIZE
set the point size

.QUAD "justify" text left, centre, or right

.R_MARGIN
set a right margin

.RIGHT set line-by-line quad right

.SETBOLDER
set the amount of emboldening

.SETSLANT
set the degree of slant

.SPREAD
force justify a line

.SS set the sentence space size

.T_MARGIN
set a top margin

.TI [ <measure> ]
temporary left indent

.WS set the minimum word space size

DOCUMENTATION OF DETAILS
Details of Inline Escape Sequences in alphabetical Order
\*[<colorname>]
begin using an initialized colour inline

\*[BCK n]
move wards in a line

\*[BOLDER]
\*[BOLDERX]
Emboldening on/off

\*[BOLDER] begins emboldening type. \*[BOLDERX] turns the fea-
ture off. Both are inline escapes, therefore they should not
appear as separate lines, but rather be embedded in text lines,
like this:
Not \*[BOLDER]everything\*[BOLDERX] is as it seems.

Alternatively, if you wanted the whole line emboldened, you
should do
\*[BOLDER]Not everything is as it seems.\*[BOLDERX]
Once \*[BOLDER] is invoked, it remains in effect until turned
off.

Note: If you're using the document processing macros with
.PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE, mom ignores \*[BOLDER] requests.

\*[BU n]
move characters pairs closer together inline (related to macro
.KERN)

\*[COND]
\*[CONDX]
Pseudo-condensing on/off

\*[COND] begins pseudo-condensing type. \*[CONDX] turns the
feature off. Both are inline escapes, therefore they should not
appear as separate lines, but rather be embedded in text lines,
like this:
\*[COND]Not everything is as it seems.\*[CONDX]
\*[COND] remains in effect until you turn it off with \*[CONDX].

IMPORTANT: You must turn \*[COND] off before making any changes
to the point size of your type, either via the .PT_SIZE macro or
with the \s inline escape. If you wish the new point size to be
pseudo-condensed, simply reinvoke \*[COND] afterwards. Equally,
\*[COND] must be turned off before changing the condense per-
centage with .CONDENSE.

Note: If you're using the document processing macros with
.PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE, mom ignores \*[COND] requests.

\*[CONDSUP]...\*[CONDSUPX]
pseudo-condensed superscript

\*[DOWN n]
temporarily move downwards in a line

\*[EN-MARK]
mark initial line of a range of line numbers (for use with line
numbered endnotes)

\*[EXT]
\*[EXTX]
Pseudo-extending on/off

\*[EXT] begins pseudo-extending type. \*[EXTX] turns the fea-
ture off. Both are inline escapes, therefore they should not
appear as separate lines, but rather be embedded in text lines,
like this:
\*[EXT]Not everything is as it seems.\*[EXTX]
\*[EXT] remains in effect until you turn it off with \*[EXTX].

IMPORTANT: You must turn \*[EXT] off before making any changes
to the point size of your type, either via the .PT_SIZE macro or
with the \s inline escape. If you wish the new point size to be
pseudo-extended, simply reinvoke \*[EXT] afterwards. Equally,
\*[EXT] must be turned off before changing the extend percentage
with .EXTEND.

Note: If you are using the document processing macros with
.PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE, mom ignores \*[EXT] requests.

\*[EXTSUP]...\*[EXTSUPX]
pseudo extended superscript

\*[FU n]
move characters pairs further apart inline (related to macro
.KERN)

\*[FWD n]
move forward in a line

\*[LEADER]
insert leaders at the end of a line

\*[RULE]
draw a full measure rule

\*[SIZE n]
change the point size inline (related to macro .PT_SIZE)

\*[SLANT]
\*[SLANTX]
Pseudo italic on/off

\*[SLANT] begins pseudo-italicizing type. \*[SLANTX] turns the
feature off. Both are inline escapes, therefore they should not
appear as separate lines, but rather be embedded in text lines,
like this:
Not \*[SLANT]everything\*[SLANTX] is as it seems.

Alternatively, if you wanted the whole line pseudo-italicized,
you'd do
\*[SLANT]Not everything is as it seems.\*[SLANTX]

Once \*[SLANT] is invoked, it remains in effect until turned
off.

Note: If you're using the document processing macros with
.PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE, mom underlines pseudo-italics by default.
To change this behaviour, use the special macro
.SLANT_MEANS_SLANT.

\*[ST<number>]...\*[ST<number>X]
Mark positions of string tabs

The quad direction must be LEFT or JUSTIFY (see .QUAD and
.JUSTIFY) or the no-fill mode set to LEFT in order for these in-
lines to function properly. Please see IMPORTANT, below.

String tabs need to be marked off with inline escapes before be-
ing set up with the .ST macro. Any input line may contain
string tab markers. <number>, above, means the numeric identi-
fier of the tab.

The following shows a sample input line with string tab markers.
\*[ST1]Now is the time\*[ST1X] for all \*[ST2]good men\*ST2X] to come to the aid of the party.

String tab 1 begins at the start of the line and ends after the
word time. String tab 2 starts at good and ends after men. In-
line escapes (e.g. font or point size changes, or horizontal
movements, including padding) are taken into account when mom
determines the position and length of string tabs.

Up to nineteen string tabs may be marked (not necessarily all on
the same line, of course), and they must be numbered between 1
and 19.

Once string tabs have been marked in input lines, they have to
be set with .ST, after which they may be called, by number, with
.TAB.

Note: Lines with string tabs marked off in them are normal input
lines, i.e. they get printed, just like any input line. If you
want to set up string tabs without the line printing, use the
.SILENT macro.

IMPORTANT: Owing to the way groff processes input lines and
turns them into output lines, it is not possible for mom to
guess the correct starting position of string tabs marked off in
lines that are centered or set flush right.

Equally, she cannot guess the starting position if a line is
fully justified and broken with .SPREAD.

In other words, in order to use string tabs, LEFT must be ac-
tive, or, if .QUAD LEFT or JUSTIFY are active, the line on which
the string tabs are marked must be broken manually with .BR (but
not .SPREAD).

To circumvent this behaviour, I recommend using the PAD to set
up string tabs in centered or flush right lines. Say, for exam-
ple, you want to use a string tab to underscore the text of a
centered line with a rule. Rather than this,
.CENTER
\*[ST1]A line of text\*[ST1X]\c
.EL
.ST 1
.TAB 1
.PT_SIZE 24
.ALD 3p
\*[RULE]
.RLD 3p
.TQ
you should do:
.QUAD CENTER
.PAD "#\*[ST1]A line of text\*[ST1X]#"
.EL
.ST 1
.TAB 1
.PT_SIZE 24
.ALD 3p
\*[RULE] \" Note that you can't use \*[UP] or \*[DOWN] with \*[RULE]
.RLD 3p
.TQ

\*[SUP]...\*[SUPX]
superscript

\*[TB+]
Inline escape for .TN (Tab Next)

\*[UL]...\*[ULX]
invoke underlining inline (fixed width fonts only)

\*[UP n]
temporarily move upwards in a line

Details of Macros in alphabetical Order
.AUTOLEAD
set the linespacing relative to the point size

.B_MARGIN <bottom margin>
Bottom Margin

Requires a unit of measure

.B_MARGIN sets a nominal position at the bottom of the page be-
yond which you don't want your type to go. When the bottom mar-
gin is reached, mom starts a new page. .B_MARGIN requires a
unit of measure. Decimal fractions are allowed. To set a nomi-
nal bottom margin of 3/4 inch, enter
.B_MARGIN .75i

Obviously, if you haven't spaced the type on your pages so that
the last lines fall perfectly at the bottom margin, the margin
will vary from page to page. Usually, but not always, the last
line of type that fits on a page before the bottom margin causes
mom to start a new page.

Occasionally, owing to a peculiarity in groff, an extra line
will fall below the nominal bottom margin. If you're using the
document processing macros, this is unlikely to happen; the doc-
ument processing macros are very hard-nosed about aligning bot-
tom margins.

Note: The meaning of .B_MARGIN is slightly different when you're
using the document processing macros.

.FALLBACK_FONT <fallback font> [ ABORT | WARN ]
Fallback Font

In the event that you pass an invalid argument to .FAMILY (i.e.
a non-existent family), mom, by default, uses the fallback font,
Courier Medium Roman (CR), in order to continue processing your
file.

If you'd prefer another fallback font, pass .FALLBACK_FONT the
full family+font name of the font you'd like. For example, if
you'd rather the fallback font were Times Roman Medium Roman,
.FALLBACK_FONT TR
would do the trick.

Mom issues a warning whenever a font style set with .FT does not
exist, either because you haven't registered the style or be-
cause the font style does not exist in the current family set
with .FAMILY. By default, mom then aborts, which allows you to
correct the problem.

If you'd prefer that mom not abort on non-existent fonts, but
rather continue processing using a fallback font, you can pass
.FALLBACK_FONT the argument WARN, either by itself, or in con-
junction with your chosen fallback font.

Some examples of invoking .FALLBACK_FONT:

.FALLBACK_FONT WARN
mom will issue a warning whenever you try to access a
non-existent font but will continue processing your file
with the default fallback font, Courier Medium Roman.

.FALLBACK_FONT TR WARN
mom will issue a warning whenever you try to access a
non-existent font but will continue processing your file
with a fallback font of Times Roman Medium Roman; addi-
tionally, TR will be the fallback font whenever you try
to access a family that does not exist.

.FALLBACK_FONT TR ABORT
mom will abort whenever you try to access a non-existent
font, and will use the fallback font TR whenever you try
to access a family that does not exist. If, for some
reason, you want to revert to ABORT, just enter
".FALLBACK_FONT ABORT" and mom will once again abort on
font errors.

.FAM <family>
Type Family, alias of .FAMILY

.FAMILY <family>
Type Family, alias .FAM

.FAMILY takes one argument: the name of the family you want.
Groff comes with a small set of basic families, each identified
by a 1-, 2- or 3-letter mnemonic. The standard families are:
A = Avant Garde
BM = Bookman
H = Helvetica
HN = Helvetica Narrow
N = New Century Schoolbook
P = Palatino
T = Times Roman
ZCM = Zapf Chancery

The argument you pass to .FAMILY is the identifier at left,
above. For example, if you want Helvetica, enter
.FAMILY H

Note: The font macro (.FT) lets you specify both the type family
and the desired font with a single macro. While this saves a
few keystrokes, I recommend using .FAMILY for family, and .FT
for font, except where doing so is genuinely inconvenient. ZCM,
for example, only exists in one style: Italic (I).

Therefore,
.FT ZCMI
makes more sense than setting the family to ZCM, then setting
the font to I.

Additional note: If you are running a version of groff lower
than 1.19.2, you must follow all .FAMILY requests with a .FT re-
quest, otherwise mom will set all type up to the next .FT re-
quest in the fallback font.

If you are running a version of groff greater than or equal to
1.19.2, when you invoke the .FAMILY macro, mom remembers the
font style (Roman, Italic, etc) currently in use (if the font
style exists in the new family) and will continue to use the
same font style in the new family. For example:
.FAMILY BM \" Bookman family
.FT I \" Medium Italic
<some text> \" Bookman Medium Italic
.FAMILY H \" Helvetica family
<more text> \" Helvetica Medium Italic

However, if the font style does not exist in the new family, mom
will set all subsequent type in the fallback font (by default,
Courier Medium Roman) until she encounters a .FT request that's
valid for the family.

For example, assuming you don't have the font Medium Condensed
Roman (mom extension CD) in the Helvetica family:
.FAMILY UN \" Univers family
.FT CD \" Medium Condensed
<some text> \" Univers Medium Condensed
.FAMILY H \" Helvetica family
<more text> \" Courier Medium Roman!

In the above example, you must follow .FAMILY H with a .FT re-
quest that's valid for Helvetica.

Please see the Appendices, Adding fonts to groff, for informa-
tion on adding fonts and families to groff, as well as to see a
list of the extensions mom provides to groff's basic R, I, B, BI
styles.

Suggestion: When adding families to groff, I recommend following
the established standard for the naming families and fonts. For
example, if you add the Garamond family, name the font files
GARAMONDR
GARAMONDI
GARAMONDB
GARAMONDBI
GARAMOND then becomes a valid family name you can pass to .FAM-
ILY. (You could, of course, shorten GARAMOND to just G, or GD.)
R, I, B, and BI after GARAMOND are the roman, italic, bold and
bold-italic fonts respectively.

.FONT R | B | BI | <any other valid font style>
Alias to .FT

.FT R | B | BI | <any other valid font style>
Set font

By default, groff permits .FT to take one of four possible argu-
ments specifying the desired font:
R = (Medium) Roman
I = (Medium) Italic
B = Bold (Roman)
BI = Bold Italic

For example, if your family is Helvetica, entering
.FT B
will give you the Helvetica bold font. If your family were
Palatino, you'd get the Palatino bold font.

Mom considerably extends the range of arguments you can pass to
.FT, making it more convenient to add and access fonts of dif-
fering weights and shapes within the same family.

Have a look here for a list of the weight/style arguments mom
allows. Be aware, though, that you must have the fonts, cor-
rectly installed and named, in order to use the arguments. (See
Adding fonts to groff for instructions and information.) Please
also read the ADDITIONAL NOTE found in the description of the
.FAMILY macro.

How mom reacts to an invalid argument to .FT depends on which
version of groff you're using. If your groff version is greater
than or equal to 1.19.2, mom will issue a warning and, depending
on how you've set up the fallback font, either continue process-
ing using the fallback font, or abort (allowing you to correct
the problem). If your groff version is less than 1.19.2, mom
will silently continue processing, using either the fallback
font or the font that was in effect prior to the invalid .FT
call.

.FT will also accept, as an argument, a full family and font
name.

For example,
.FT HB
will set subsequent type in Helvetica Bold.

However, I strongly recommend keeping family and font separate
except where doing so is genuinely inconvenient.

For inline control of fonts, see Inline Escapes, font control.

.HI [ <measure> ]
Hanging indent — the optional argument requires a unit of mea-
sure.

A hanging indent looks like this:
The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I
could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed
revenge. You who so well know the nature of my soul
will not suppose, however, that I gave utterance to a
threat, at length I would be avenged...
The first line of text hangs outside the left margin.

In order to use hanging indents, you must first have a left in-
dent active (set with either .IL or .IB). Mom will not hang
text outside the left margin set with .L_MARGIN or outside the
left margin of a tab.

The first time you invoke .HI, you must give it a measure. If
you want the first line of a paragraph to hang by, say, 1 pica,
do
.IL 1P
.HI 1P
Subsequent invocations of .HI do not require you to supply a
measure; mom keeps track of the last measure you gave it.

Generally speaking, you should invoke .HI immediately prior to
the line you want hung (i.e. without any intervening control
lines). And because hanging indents affect only one line,
there's no need to turn them off.

IMPORTANT: Unlike IL, IR and IB, measures given to .HI are NOT
additive. Each time you pass a measure to .HI , the measure is
treated literally. Recipe: A numbered list using hanging in-
dents

Note: mom has macros for setting lists. This recipe exists to
demonstrate the use of hanging indents only.
.PAGE 8.5i 11i 1i 1i 1i 1i
.FAMILY T
.FT R
.PT_SIZE 12
.LS 14
.JUSTIFY
.KERN
.SS 0
.IL \w'\0\0.'
.HI \w'\0\0.'
1.\0The most important point to be considered is whether the
answer to the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything
really is 42. We have no-one's word on the subject except
Mr. Adams'.
.HI
2.\0If the answer to the meaning of Life, the Universe,
and Everything is indeed 42, what impact does this have on
the politics of representation? 42 is, after all not a
prime number. Are we to infer that prime numbers don't
deserve equal rights and equal access in the universe?
.HI
3.\0If 42 is deemed non-exclusionary, how do we present it
as the answer and, at the same time, forestall debate on its
exclusionary implications?

First, we invoke a left indent with a measure equal to the width
of 2 figures spaces plus a period (using the \w inline escape).
At this point, the left indent is active; text afterwards would
normally be indented. However, we invoke a hanging indent of
exactly the same width, which hangs the first line (and first
line only!) to the left of the indent by the same distance (in
this case, that means “out to the left margin”). Because we be-
gin the first line with a number, a period, and a figure space,
the actual text (The most important point...) starts at exactly
the same spot as the indented lines that follow.

Notice that subsequent invocations of .HI don't require a mea-
sure to be given.

Paste the example above into a file and preview it with
pdfmom filename.mom | ps2pdf - filename.pdf
to see hanging indents in action.

.IB [ <left measure> <right measure> ]
Indent both — the optional argument requires a unit of measure

.IB allows you to set or invoke a left and a right indent at the
same time.

At its first invocation, you must supply a measure for both in-
dents; at subsequent invocations when you wish to supply a mea-
sure, both must be given again. As with .IL and .IR, the mea-
sures are added to the values previously passed to the macro.
Hence, if you wish to change just one of the values, you must
give an argument of zero to the other.

A word of advice: If you need to manipulate left and right in-
dents separately, use a combination of .IL and .IR instead of
.IB. You'll save yourself a lot of grief.

A minus sign may be prepended to the arguments to subtract from
their current values. The \w inline escape may be used to spec-
ify text-dependent measures, in which case no unit of measure is
required. For example,
.IB \w'margarine' \w'jello'
left indents text by the width of the word margarine and right
indents by the width of jello.

Like .IL and .IR, .IB with no argument indents by its last ac-
tive values. See the brief explanation of how mom handles in-
dents for more details.

Note: Calling a tab (with .TAB <n>) automatically cancels any
active indents.

Additional note: Invoking .IB automatically turns off .IL and
.IR.

.IL [ <measure> ]
Indent left — the optional argument requires a unit of measure

.IL indents text from the left margin of the page, or if you're
in a tab, from the left edge of the tab. Once IL is on, the
left indent is applied uniformly to every subsequent line of
text, even if you change the line length.

The first time you invoke .IL, you must give it a measure. Sub-
sequent invocations with a measure add to the previous measure.
A minus sign may be prepended to the argument to subtract from
the current measure. The \w inline escape may be used to spec-
ify a text-dependent measure, in which case no unit of measure
is required. For example,
.IL \w'margarine'
indents text by the width of the word margarine.

With no argument, .IL indents by its last active value. See the
brief explanation of how mom handles indents for more details.

Note: Calling a tab (with .TAB <n>) automatically cancels any
active indents.

Additional note: Invoking .IL automatically turns off IB.

.IQ [ <measure> ]
IQ — quit any/all indents

IMPORTANT NOTE: The original macro for quitting all indents was
.IX. This usage has been deprecated in favour of IQ. .IX will
continue to behave as before, but mom will issue a warning to
stderr indicating that you should update your documents.

As a consequence of this change, .ILX, .IRX and .IBX may now
also be invoked as .ILQ, .IRQ and .IBQ. Both forms are accept-
able.

Without an argument, the macros to quit indents merely restore
your original margins and line length. The measures stored in
the indent macros themselves are saved so you can call them
again without having to supply a measure.

If you pass these macros the optional argument CLEAR, they not
only restore your original left margin and line length, but also
clear any values associated with a particular indent style. The
next time you need an indent of the same style, you have to sup-
ply a measure again.

.IQ CLEAR, as you'd suspect, quits and clears the values for all
indent styles at once.

.IR [ <measure> ]
Indent right — the optional argument requires a unit of measure

.IR indents text from the right margin of the page, or if you're
in a tab, from the end of the tab.

The first time you invoke .IR, you must give it a measure. Sub-
sequent invocations with a measure add to the previous indent
measure. A minus sign may be prepended to the argument to sub-
tract from the current indent measure. The \w inline escape may
be used to specify a text-dependent measure, in which case no
unit of measure is required. For example,
.IR \w'jello'
indents text by the width of the word jello.

With no argument, .IR indents by its last active value. See the
brief explanation of how mom handles indents for more details.

Note: Calling a tab (with .TAB <n>) automatically cancels any
active indents.

Additional note: Invoking .IR automatically turns off IB.

.L_MARGIN <left margin>
Left Margin

L_MARGIN establishes the distance from the left edge of the
printer sheet at which you want your type to start. It may be
used any time, and remains in effect until you enter a new
value.

Left indents and tabs are calculated from the value you pass to
.L_MARGIN, hence it's always a good idea to invoke it before
starting any serious typesetting. A unit of measure is re-
quired. Decimal fractions are allowed. Therefore, to set the
left margin at 3 picas (1/2 inch), you'd enter either
.L_MARGIN 3P
or
.L_MARGIN .5i

If you use the macros .PAGE, .PAGEWIDTH or .PAPER without invok-
ing .L_MARGIN (either before or afterwards), mom automatically
sets .L_MARGIN to 1 inch.

Note: .L_MARGIN behaves in a special way when you're using the
document processing macros.

.MCO Begin multi-column setting.

.MCO (Multi-Column On) is the macro you use to begin multi-col-
umn setting. It marks the current baseline as the top of your
columns, for use later with .MCR. See the introduction to col-
umns for an explanation of multi-columns and some sample input.

Note: Do not confuse .MCO with the .COLUMNS macro in the docu-
ment processing macros.

.MCR Once you've turned multi-columns on (with .MCO), .MCR, at any
time, returns you to the top of your columns.

.MCX [ <distance to advance below longest column> ]
Optional argument requires a unit of measure.

.MCX takes you out of any tab you were in (by silently invoking
.TQ) and advances to the bottom of the longest column.

Without an argument, .MCX advances 1 linespace below the longest
column.

Linespace, in this instance, is the leading in effect at the mo-
ment .MCX is invoked.

If you pass the <distance> argument to .MCX, it advances 1 line-
space below the longest column (see above) PLUS the distance
specified by the argument. The argument requires a unit of mea-
sure; therefore, to advance an extra 6 points below where .MCX
would normally place you, you'd enter
.MCX 6p

Note: If you wish to advance a precise distance below the base-
line of the longest column, use .MCX with an argument of 0
(zero; no unit of measure required) in conjunction with the .ALD
macro, like this:
.MCX 0
.ALD 24p
The above advances to precisely 24 points below the baseline of
the longest column.

.NEWPAGE

Whenever you want to start a new page, use .NEWPAGE, by itself
with no argument. Mom will finish up processing the current
page and move you to the top of a new one (subject to the top
margin set with .T_MARGIN).

.PAGE <width> [ <length> [ <lm> [ <rm> [ <tm> [ <bm> ] ] ] ] ]

All arguments require a unit of measure

IMPORTANT: If you're using the document processing macros, .PAGE
must come after .START. Otherwise, it should go at the top of a
document, prior to any text. And remember, when you're using
the document processing macros, top margin and bottom margin
mean something slightly different than when you're using just
the typesetting macros (see Top and bottom margins in document
processing).

.PAGE lets you establish paper dimensions and page margins with
a single macro. The only required argument is page width. The
rest are optional, but they must appear in order and you can't
skip over any. <lm>, <rm>, <tm> and <bm> refer to the left,
right, top and bottom margins respectively.

Assuming your page dimensions are 11 inches by 17 inches, and
that's all you want to set, enter
.PAGE 11i 17i
If you want to set the left margin as well, say, at 1 inch, PAGE
would look like this:
.PAGE 11i 17i 1i

Now suppose you also want to set the top margin, say, at 1–1/2
inches. <tm> comes after <rm> in the optional arguments, but
you can't skip over any arguments, therefore to set the top mar-
gin, you must also give a right margin. The .PAGE macro would
look like this:
.PAGE 11i 17i 1i 1i 1.5i
| |
required right---+ +---top margin
margin

Clearly, .PAGE is best used when you want a convenient way to
tell mom just the dimensions of your printer sheet (width and
length), or when you want to tell her everything about the page
(dimensions and all the margins), for example
.PAGE 8.5i 11i 45p 45p 45p 45p
This sets up an 8½ by 11 inch page with margins of 45 points
(5/8-inch) all around.

Additionally, if you invoke .PAGE with a top margin argument,
any macros you invoke after .PAGE will almost certainly move the
baseline of the first line of text down by one linespace. To
compensate, do
.RLD 1v
immediately before entering any text, or, if it's feasible, make
.PAGE the last macro you invoke prior to entering text.

Please read the Important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your .PAGE dimensions
and margins.

.PAGELENGTH <length of printer sheet>
tells mom how long your printer sheet is. It works just like
.PAGEWIDTH.

Therefore, to tell mom your printer sheet is 11 inches long, you
enter
.PAGELENGTH 11i
Please read the important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your PAGELENGTH.

.PAGEWIDTH <width of printer sheet>

The argument to .PAGEWIDTH is the width of your printer sheet.

.PAGEWIDTH requires a unit of measure. Decimal fractions are
allowed. Hence, to tell mom that the width of your printer
sheet is 8½ inches, you enter
.PAGEWIDTH 8.5i

Please read the Important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your PAGEWIDTH.

.PAPER <paper type>
provides a convenient way to set the page dimensions for some
common printer sheet sizes. The argument <paper type> can be
one of: LETTER, LEGAL, STATEMENT, TABLOID, LEDGER, FOLIO,
QUARTO, EXECUTIVE, 10x14, A3, A4, A5, B4, B5.

.PRINTSTYLE

.PT_SIZE <size of type in points>
Point size of type, does not require a unit of measure.

.PT_SIZE (Point Size) takes one argument: the size of type in
points. Unlike most other macros that establish the size or
measure of something, .PT_SIZE does not require that you supply
a unit of measure since it's a near universal convention that
type size is measured in points. Therefore, to change the type
size to, say, 11 points, enter
.PT_SIZE 11
Point sizes may be fractional (e.g. 10.25 or 12.5).

You can prepend a plus or a minus sign to the argument to
.PT_SIZE, in which case the point size will be changed by + or -
the original value. For example, if the point size is 12 , and
you want 14 , you can do
.PT_SIZE +2
then later reset it to 12 with
.PT_SIZE -2
The size of type can also be changed inline.

Note: It is unfortunate that the pic preprocessor has already
taken the name, PS, and thus mom's macro for setting point sizes
can't use it. However, if you aren't using pic, you might want
to alias .PT_SIZE as .PS, since there'd be no conflict. For ex-
ample
.ALIAS PS PT_SIZE
would allow you to set point sizes with .PS.

.R_MARGIN <right margin>
Right Margin

Requires a unit of measure.

IMPORTANT: .R_MARGIN, if used, must come after .PAPER,
.PAGEWIDTH, .L_MARGIN, and/or .PAGE (if a right margin isn't
given to PAGE). The reason is that .R_MARGIN calculates line
length from the overall page dimensions and the left margin.

Obviously, it can't make the calculation if it doesn't know the
page width and the left margin.

.R_MARGIN establishes the amount of space you want between the
end of typeset lines and the right hand edge of the printer
sheet. In other words, it sets the line length. .R_MARGIN re-
quires a unit of measure. Decimal fractions are allowed.

The line length macro (LL) can be used in place of .R_MARGIN.
In either case, the last one invoked sets the line length. The
choice of which to use is up to you. In some instances, you may
find it easier to think of a section of type as having a right
margin. In others, giving a line length may make more sense.

For example, if you're setting a page of type you know should
have 6-pica margins left and right, it makes sense to enter a
left and right margin, like this:
.L_MARGIN 6P
.R_MARGIN 6P

That way, you don't have to worry about calculating the line
length. On the other hand, if you know the line length for a
patch of type should be 17 picas and 3 points, entering the line
length with LL is much easier than calculating the right margin,
e.g.
.LL 17P+3p

If you use the macros .PAGE, .PAGEWIDTH or PAPER without invok-
ing .R_MARGIN afterwards, mom automatically sets .R_MARGIN to 1
inch. If you set a line length after these macros (with .LL),
the line length calculated by .R_MARGIN is, of course, overrid-
den.

Note: .R_MARGIN behaves in a special way when you're using the
document processing macros.

.ST <tab number> L | R | C | J [ QUAD ]

After string tabs have been marked off on an input line (see
\*[ST]...\*[STX]), you need to set them by giving them a direc-
tion and, optionally, the QUAD argument.

In this respect, .ST is like .TAB_SET except that you don't have
to give .ST an indent or a line length (that's already taken
care of, inline, by \*[ST]...\*[STX]).

If you want string tab 1 to be left, enter
.ST 1 L
If you want it to be left and filled, enter
.ST 1 L QUAD
If you want it to be justified, enter
.ST 1 J

.TAB <tab number>
After tabs have been defined (either with .TAB_SET or .ST), .TAB
moves to whatever tab number you pass it as an argument.

For example,
.TAB 3
moves you to tab 3.

Note: .TAB breaks the line preceding it and advances 1 line-
space. Hence,
.TAB 1
A line of text in tab 1.
.TAB 2
A line of text in tab 2.
produces, on output
A line of text in tab 1.
A line of text in tab 2.

If you want the tabs to line up, use .TN (Tab Next) or, more
conveniently, the inline escape \*[TB+]:
.TAB 1
A line of text in tab 1.\*[TB+]
A line of text in tab 2.
which produces
A line of text in tab 1. A line of text in tab 2.

If the text in your tabs runs to several lines, and you want the
first lines of each tab to align, you must use the multi-column
macros.

Additional note: Any indents in effect prior to calling a tab
are automatically turned off by TAB. If you were happily zip-
ping down the page with a left indent of 2 picas turned on, and
you call a tab whose indent from the left margin is 6 picas,
your new distance from the left margin will be 6 picas, not I 6
picas plus the 2 pica indent.

Tabs are not by nature columnar, which is to say that if the
text inside a tab runs to several lines, calling another tab
does not automatically move to the baseline of the first line in
the previous tab. To demonstrate:
TAB 1
Carrots
Potatoes
Broccoli
.TAB 2
$1.99/5 lbs
$0.25/lb
$0.99/bunch
produces, on output
Carrots
Potatoes
Broccoli
$1.99/5 lbs
$0.25/lb
$0.99/bunch

.TB <tab number>
Alias to .TAB

.TI [ <measure> ]
Temporary left indent — the optional argument requires a unit of
measure

A temporary indent is one that applies only to the first line of
text that comes after it. Its chief use is indenting the first
line of paragraphs. (Mom's .PP macro, for example, uses a tem-
porary indent.)

The first time you invoke .TI, you must give it a measure. If
you want to indent the first line of a paragraph by, say, 2 ems,
do
.TI 2m

Subsequent invocations of .TI do not require you to supply a
measure; mom keeps track of the last measure you gave it.

Because temporary indents are temporary, there's no need to turn
them off.

IMPORTANT: Unlike .IL, .IR and IB, measures given to .TI are NOT
additive. In the following example, the second ".TI 2P" is ex-
actly 2 picas.
.TI 1P
The beginning of a paragraph...
.TI 2P
The beginning of another paragraph...

.TN Tab Next

Inline escape \*[TB+]

TN moves over to the next tab in numeric sequence (tab n+1)
without advancing on the page. See the NOTE in the description
of the .TAB macro for an example of how TN works.

In tabs that aren't given the QUAD argument when they're set up
with .TAB_SET or ST, you must terminate the line preceding .TN
with the \c inline escape. Conversely, if you did give a QUAD
argument to .TAB_SET or ST, the \c must not be used.

If you find remembering whether to put in the \c bothersome, you
may prefer to use the inline escape alternative to .TN, \*[TB+],
which works consistently regardless of the fill mode.

Note: You must put text in the input line immediately after .TN.
Stacking of .TN's is not allowed. In other words, you cannot do
.TAB 1
Some text\c
.TN
Some more text\c
.TN
.TN
Yet more text
The above example, assuming tabs numbered from 1 to 4, should be
entered
.TAB 1
Some text\c
.TN
Some more text\c
.TN
\&\c
.TN
Yet more text
\& is a zero-width, non-printing character that groff recognizes
as valid input, hence meets the requirement for input text fol-
lowing .TN.

.TQ TQ takes you out of whatever tab you were in, advances 1 line-
space, and restores the left margin, line length, quad direction
and fill mode that were in effect prior to invoking any tabs.

.T_MARGIN <top margin>
Top margin

Requires a unit of measure

.T_MARGIN establishes the distance from the top of the printer
sheet at which you want your type to start. It requires a unit
of measure, and decimal fractions are allowed. To set a top
margin of 2½ centimetres, you'd enter
.T_MARGIN 2.5c
.T_MARGIN calculates the vertical position of the first line of
type on a page by treating the top edge of the printer sheet as
a baseline. Therefore,
.T_MARGIN 1.5i
puts the baseline of the first line of type 1½ inches beneath
the top of the page.

Note: .T_MARGIN means something slightly different when you're
using the document processing macros. See Top and bottom mar-
gins in document processing for an explanation.

IMPORTANT: .T_MARGIN does two things: it establishes the top
margin for pages that come after it and it moves to that posi-
tion on the current page. Therefore, .T_MARGIN should only be
used at the top of a file (prior to entering text) or after NEW-
PAGE, like this:
.NEWPAGE
.T_MARGIN 6P
<text>

AUTHORS
mom was written by Peter Schaffter ⟨peter@schaffter.ca⟩. PDF support
was provided by Deri James ⟨deri@chuzzlewit.demon.co.uk⟩. The alpha-
betical documentation of macros and escape sequences in this man page
were written by the mom team.