Writing Papers with GROFF using −me
Eric P. Allman*
Project INGRES
Electronics Research Laboratory
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California 94720
Modified for GROFF by James Clark
This document describes the text processing facilities
available on the UNIX† operating system via GROFF and the −me
macro package. It is assumed that the reader already is gener‐
ally familiar with the UNIX operating system and a text editor
such as ex. This is intended to be a casual introduction, and as
such not all material is covered. In particular, many variations
and additional features of the −me macro package are not ex‐
plained. For a complete discussion of this and other issues, see
The −me Reference Manual and The NROFF/TROFF Reference Manual.
GROFF, a computer program that runs on the UNIX operating
system, reads an input file prepared by the user and outputs a
formatted paper suitable for publication or framing. The input
consists of text, or words to be printed, and requests, which
give instructions to the GROFF program telling how to format the
printed copy.
Section 1 describes the basics of text processing. Section
2 describes the basic requests. Section 3 introduces displays.
Annotations, such as footnotes, are handled in section 4. The
more complex requests which are not discussed in section 2 are
covered in section 5. Finally, section 6 discusses things you
will need to know if you want to typeset documents. If you are a
novice, you probably won’t want to read beyond section 4 until
you have tried some of the basic features out.
____________________
*Author’s current address: Britton Lee, Inc., 1919 Addison
Suite 105, Berkeley, California 94704.
†UNIX is a trademark of AT&T Bell Laboratories
USING GROFF AND −ME 1
USING GROFF AND −ME 2
When you have your raw text ready, call the GROFF formatter
by typing as a request to the UNIX shell:
groff −me −Ttype files
where type describes the type of output device you are using. A
complete description of options to the GROFF command can be found
in groff(1).
The word argument is used in this manual to mean a word or
number which appears on the same line as a request which modifies
the meaning of that request. For example, the request
.sp
spaces one line, but
.sp 4
spaces four lines. The number 4 is an argument to the .sp re‐
quest which says to space four lines instead of one. Arguments
are separated from the request and from each other by spaces.
1. Basics of Text Processing
The primary function of GROFF is to collect words from
input lines, fill output lines with those words, justify the
right hand margin by inserting extra spaces in the line, and
output the result. For example, the input:
Now is the time
for all good men
to come to the aid
of their party.
Four score and seven
years ago,...
will be read, packed onto output lines, and justified to pro‐
duce:
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of
their party. Four score and seven years ago,...
Sometimes you may want to start a new output line even though
the line you are on is not yet full; for example, at the end
of a paragraph. To do this you can cause a break, which
starts a new output line. Some requests cause a break auto‐
matically, as do blank input lines and input lines beginning
with a space.
Not all input lines are text to be formatted. Some of
the input lines are requests which describe how to format the
text. Requests always have a period or an apostrophe (“´”) as
USING GROFF AND −ME 3
the first character of the input line.
The text formatter also does more complex things, such as
automatically numbering pages, skipping over page folds,
putting footnotes in the correct place, and so forth.
I can offer you a few hints for preparing text for input
to GROFF. First, keep the input lines short. Short input
lines are easier to edit, and GROFF will pack words onto
longer lines for you anyhow. In keeping with this, it is
helpful to begin a new line after every period, comma, or
phrase, since common corrections are to add or delete sen‐
tences or phrases. Second, do not put spaces at the end of
lines, since this can sometimes confuse the NROFF processor.
Third, do not hyphenate words at the end of lines (except
words that should have hyphens in them, such as “mother‐in‐
law”); GROFF is smart enough to hyphenate words for you as
needed, but is not smart enough to take hyphens out and join a
word back together. Also, words such as “mother‐in‐law”
should not be broken over a line, since then you will get a
space where not wanted, such as “mother‐ in‐law”.
2. Basic Requests
2.1. Paragraphs
Paragraphs are begun by using the .pp request. For
example, the input:
.pp
Now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their party.
Four score and seven years ago,...
produces a blank line followed by an indented first line.
The result is:
Now is the time for all good men to come to
the aid of their party. Four score and seven years
ago,...
Notice that the sentences of the paragraphs must not
begin with a space, since blank lines and lines beginning
with spaces cause a break. For example, if I had typed:
.pp
Now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their party.
Four score and seven years ago,...
The output would be:
USING GROFF AND −ME 4
Now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their party. Four
score and seven years ago,...
A new line begins after the word “men” because the second
line began with a space character.
There are many fancier types of paragraphs, which will
be described later.
2.2. Headers and Footers
Arbitrary headers and footers can be put at the top
and bottom of every page. Two requests of the form
.he title and .fo title define the titles to put at the
head and the foot of every page, respectively. The titles
are called three‐part titles, that is, there is a left‐jus‐
tified part, a centered part, and a right‐justified part.
To separate these three parts the first character of title
(whatever it may be) is used as a delimiter. Any character
may be used, but backslash and double quote marks should be
avoided. The percent sign is replaced by the current page
number whenever found in the title. For example, the
input:
.he ´´%´´
.fo ´Jane Jones´´My Book´
results in the page number centered at the top of each
page, “Jane Jones” in the lower left corner, and “My Book”
in the lower right corner.
2.3. Double Spacing
GROFF will double space output text automatically if
you use the request .ls 2, as is done in this section. You
can revert to single spaced mode by typing .ls 1.
2.4. Page Layout
A number of requests allow you to change the way the
printed copy looks, sometimes called the layout of the out‐
put page. Most of these requests adjust the placing of
“white space” (blank lines or spaces). In these explana‐
tions, characters in italics should be replaced with values
you wish to use; bold characters represent characters which
should actually be typed.
The .bp request starts a new page.
USING GROFF AND −ME 5
The request .sp N leaves N lines of blank space. N
can be omitted (meaning skip a single line) or can be of
the form Ni (for N inches) or Nc (for N centimeters). For
example, the input:
.sp 1.5i
My thoughts on the subject
.sp
leaves one and a half inches of space, followed by the line
“My thoughts on the subject”, followed by a single blank
line.
This request will not leave space at the top of a
page. If you need the requested space to appear regardless
of page position, use the .bl macro, which has the same
syntax as .sp but always leaves the requested space, even
at the top of a page.
The .in +N request changes the amount of white space
on the left of the page (the indent). The argument N can
be of the form +N (meaning leave N spaces more than you are
already leaving), −N (meaning leave less than you do now),
or just N (meaning leave exactly N spaces). N can be of
the form Ni or Nc also. For example, the input:
initial text
.in 5
some text
.in +1i
more text
.in −2c
final text
produces “some text” indented exactly five spaces from the
left margin, “more text” indented five spaces plus one inch
from the left margin (fifteen spaces on a pica typewriter),
and “final text” indented five spaces plus one inch minus
two centimeters from the margin. That is, the output is:
initial text
some text
more text
final text
The .ti +N (temporary indent) request is used like
.in +N when the indent should apply to one line only, after
which it should revert to the previous indent. For exam‐
ple, the input:
USING GROFF AND −ME 6
.in 1i
.ti 0
Ware, James R. The Best of Confucius,
Halcyon House, 1950.
An excellent book containing translations of
most of Confucius´ most delightful sayings.
A definite must for anyone interested in the early foundations
of Chinese philosophy.
produces:
Ware, James R. The Best of Confucius, Halcyon House, 1950.
An excellent book containing translations of most
of Confucius’ most delightful sayings. A defi‐
nite must for anyone interested in the early
foundations of Chinese philosophy.
Text lines can be centered by using the .ce request.
The line after the .ce is centered (horizontally) on the
page. To center more than one line, use .ce N (where N is
the number of lines to center), followed by the N lines.
If you want to center many lines but don’t want to count
them, type:
.ce 1000
lines to center
.ce 0
The .ce 0 request tells GROFF to center zero more lines, in
other words, stop centering.
All of these requests cause a break; that is, they
always start a new line. If you want to start a new line
without performing any other action, use .br.
3. Displays
Displays are sections of text to be set off from the body
of the paper. Major quotes, tables, and figures are types of
displays, as are all the examples used in this document. All
displays except centered blocks are output single spaced.
3.1. Major Quotes
Major quotes are quotes which are several lines long,
and hence are set in from the rest of the text without
quote marks around them. These can be generated using the
commands .(q and .)q to surround the quote. For example,
the input:
USING GROFF AND −ME 7
As Weizenbaum points out:
.(q
It is said that to explain is to explain away.
This maxim is nowhere so well fulfilled
as in the areas of computer programming,...
.)q
generates as output:
As Weizenbaum points out:
It is said that to explain is to explain away.
This maxim is nowhere so well fulfilled as in the
areas of computer programming,...
3.2. Lists
A list is an indented, single spaced, unfilled dis‐
play. Lists should be used when the material to be printed
should not be filled and justified like normal text, such
as columns of figures or the examples used in this paper.
Lists are surrounded by the requests .(l and .)l. For
example, type:
Alternatives to avoid deadlock are:
.(l
Lock in a specified order
Detect deadlock and back out one process
Lock all resources needed before proceeding
.)l
will produce:
Alternatives to avoid deadlock are:
Lock in a specified order
Detect deadlock and back out one process
Lock all resources needed before proceeding
3.3. Keeps
A keep is a display of lines which are kept on a sin‐
gle page if possible. An example of where you would use a
keep might be a diagram. Keeps differ from lists in that
lists may be broken over a page boundary whereas keeps will
not.
Blocks are the basic kind of keep. They begin with
the request .(b and end with the request .)b. If there is
not room on the current page for everything in the block, a
new page is begun. This has the unpleasant effect of leav‐
ing blank space at the bottom of the page. When this is
USING GROFF AND −ME 8
not appropriate, you can use the alternative, called float‐
ing keeps.
Floating keeps move relative to the text. Hence, they
are good for things which will be referred to by name, such
as “See figure 3”. A floating keep will appear at the bot‐
tom of the current page if it will fit; otherwise, it will
appear at the top of the next page. Floating keeps begin
with the line .(z and end with the line .)z. For an exam‐
ple of a floating keep, see figure 1. The .hl request is
used to draw a horizontal line so that the figure stands
out from the text.
3.4. Fancier Displays
Keeps and lists are normally collected in nofill mode,
so that they are good for tables and such. If you want a
display in fill mode (for text), type .(l F (Throughout
this section, comments applied to .(l also apply to .(b and
.(z). This kind of display will be indented from both mar‐
gins. For example, the input:
.(l F
And now boys and girls,
a newer, bigger, better toy than ever before!
Be the first on your block to have your own computer!
Yes kids, you too can have one of these modern
data processing devices.
You too can produce beautifully formatted papers
without even batting an eye!
.)l
will be output as:
_____________________________________________
.(z
.hl
Text of keep to be floated.
.sp
.ce
Figure 1. Example of a Floating Keep.
.hl
.)z
Figure 1. Example of a Floating Keep.
_____________________________________________
USING GROFF AND −ME 9
And now boys and girls, a newer, bigger, better toy
than ever before! Be the first on your block to
have your own computer! Yes kids, you too can have
one of these modern data processing devices. You
too can produce beautifully formatted papers with‐
out even batting an eye!
Lists and blocks are also normally indented (floating
keeps are normally left justified). To get a left‐justi‐
fied list, type .(l L. To get a list centered line‐for‐
line, type .(l C. For example, to get a filled, left jus‐
tified list, enter:
.(l L F
text of block
.)l
The input:
.(l
first line of unfilled display
more lines
.)l
produces the indented text:
first line of unfilled display
more lines
Typing the character L after the .(l request produces the
left justified result:
first line of unfilled display
more lines
Using C instead of L produces the line‐at‐a‐time centered
output:
first line of unfilled display
more lines
Sometimes it may be that you want to center several
lines as a group, rather than centering them one line at a
time. To do this use centered blocks, which are surrounded
by the requests .(c and .)c. All the lines are centered as
a unit, such that the longest line is centered and the rest
are lined up around that line. Notice that lines do not
move relative to each other using centered blocks, whereas
they do using the C argument to keeps.
USING GROFF AND −ME 10
Centered blocks are not keeps, and may be used in con‐
junction with keeps. For example, to center a group of
lines as a unit and keep them on one page, use:
.(b L
.(c
first line of unfilled display
more lines
.)c
.)b
to produce:
first line of unfilled display
more lines
If the block requests (.(b and .)b) had been omitted the
result would have been the same, but with no guarantee that
the lines of the centered block would have all been on one
page. Note the use of the L argument to .(b; this causes
the centered block to center within the entire line rather
than within the line minus the indent. Also, the center
requests must be nested inside the keep requests.
4. Annotations
There are a number of requests to save text for later
printing. Footnotes are printed at the bottom of the current
page. Delayed text is intended to be a variant form of foot‐
note; the text is printed only when explicitly called for,
such as at the end of each chapter. Indexes are a type of
delayed text having a tag (usually the page number) attached
to each entry after a row of dots. Indexes are also saved
until called for explicitly.
4.1. Footnotes
Footnotes begin with the request .(f and end with the
request .)f. The current footnote number is maintained
automatically, and can be used by typing \**, to produce a
footnote number1. The number is automatically incremented
after every footnote. For example, the input:
____________________
1Like this.
USING GROFF AND −ME 11
.(q
A man who is not upright
and at the same time is presumptuous;
one who is not diligent and at the same time is ignorant;
one who is untruthful and at the same time is incompetent;
such men I do not count among acquaintances.\**
.(f
\**James R. Ware,
.ul
The Best of Confucius,
Halcyon House, 1950.
Page 77.
.)f
.)q
generates the result:
A man who is not upright and at the same time is
presumptuous; one who is not diligent and at the
same time is ignorant; one who is untruthful and at
the same time is incompetent; such men I do not
count among acquaintances.2
It is important that the footnote appears inside the quote,
so that you can be sure that the footnote will appear on
the same page as the quote.
4.2. Delayed Text
Delayed text is very similar to a footnote except that
it is printed when called for explicitly. This allows a
list of references to appear (for example) at the end of
each chapter, as is the convention in some disciplines.
Use \*# on delayed text instead of \** as on footnotes.
If you are using delayed text as your standard refer‐
ence mechanism, you can still use footnotes, except that
you may want to reference them with special characters*
rather than numbers.
4.3. Indexes
An “index” (actually more like a table of contents,
since the entries are not sorted alphabetically) resembles
delayed text, in that it is saved until called for. How‐
ever, each entry has the page number (or some other tag)
appended to the last line of the index entry after a row of
____________________
2James R. Ware, The Best of Confucius, Halcyon House, 1950.
Page 77.
*Such as an asterisk.
USING GROFF AND −ME 12
dots.
Index entries begin with the request .(x and end with
.)x. The .)x request may have a argument, which is the
value to print as the “page number”. It defaults to the
current page number. If the page number given is an under‐
score (“_”) no page number or line of dots is printed at
all. To get the line of dots without a page number, type
.)x "", which specifies an explicitly null page number.
The .xp request prints the index.
For example, the input:
.(x
Sealing wax
.)x
.(x
Cabbages and kings
.)x _
.(x
Why the sea is boiling hot
.)x 2.5a
.(x
Whether pigs have wings
.)x ""
.(x
This is a terribly long index entry, such as might be used
for a list of illustrations, tables, or figures; I expect it to
take at least two lines.
.)x
.xp
generates:
Sealing wax .......................................... 12
Cabbages and kings
Why the sea is boiling hot ........................... 2.5a
Whether pigs have wings ..............................
This is a terribly long index entry, such as might
be used for a list of illustrations, tables,
or figures; I expect it to take at least two
lines. ......................................... 12
The .(x request may have a single character argument,
specifying the “name” of the index; the normal index is x.
Thus, several “indices” may be maintained simultaneously
(such as a list of tables, table of contents, etc.).
Notice that the index must be printed at the end of
the paper, rather than at the beginning where it will prob‐
ably appear (as a table of contents); the pages may have to
be physically rearranged after printing.
USING GROFF AND −ME 13
5. Fancier Features
A large number of fancier requests exist, notably
requests to provide other sorts of paragraphs, numbered sec‐
tions of the form 1.2.3 (such as used in this document), and
multicolumn output.
5.1. More Paragraphs
Paragraphs generally start with a blank line and with
the first line indented. It is possible to get left‐justi‐
fied block‐style paragraphs by using .lp instead of .pp, as
demonstrated by the next paragraph.
Sometimes you want to use paragraphs that have the body
indented, and the first line exdented (opposite of
indented) with a label. This can be done with the .ip
request. A word specified on the same line as .ip is
printed in the margin, and the body is lined up at a pre‐
specified position (normally five spaces). For example,
the input:
.ip one
This is the first paragraph.
Notice how the first line
of the resulting paragraph lines up
with the other lines in the paragraph.
.ip two
And here we are at the second paragraph already.
You may notice that the argument to .ip
appears
in the margin.
.lp
We can continue text...
produces as output:
one This is the first paragraph. Notice how the first
line of the resulting paragraph lines up with the
other lines in the paragraph.
two And here we are at the second paragraph already. You
may notice that the argument to .ip appears in the
margin.
We can continue text without starting a new indented para‐
graph by using the .lp request.
If you have spaces in the label of a .ip request, you
must use an “unpaddable space” instead of a regular space.
This is typed as a backslash character (“\”) followed by a
space. For example, to print the label “Part 1”, enter:
USING GROFF AND −ME 14
.ip "Part\ 1"
If a label of an indented paragraph (that is, the
argument to .ip) is longer than the space allocated for the
label, .ip will begin a new line after the label. For
example, the input:
.ip longlabel
This paragraph had a long label.
The first character of text on the first line
will not line up with the text on second and subsequent lines,
although they will line up with each other.
will produce:
longlabel
This paragraph had a long label. The first character
of text on the first line will not line up with the
text on second and subsequent lines, although they
will line up with each other.
It is possible to change the size of the label by
using a second argument which is the size of the label.
For example, the above example could be done correctly by
saying:
.ip longlabel 10
which will make the paragraph indent 10 spaces for this
paragraph only. If you have many paragraphs to indent all
the same amount, use the number register ii. For example,
to leave one inch of space for the label, type:
.nr ii 1i
somewhere before the first call to .ip. Refer to the ref‐
erence manual for more information.
If .ip is used with no argument at all no hanging tag
will be printed. For example, the input:
.ip [a]
This is the first paragraph of the example.
We have seen this sort of example before.
.ip
This paragraph is lined up with the previous paragraph,
but it has no tag in the margin.
produces as output:
[a] This is the first paragraph of the example. We have
seen this sort of example before.
USING GROFF AND −ME 15
This paragraph is lined up with the previous para‐
graph, but it has no tag in the margin.
A special case of .ip is .np, which automatically num‐
bers paragraphs sequentially from 1. The numbering is
reset at the next .pp, .lp, or .sh (to be described in the
next section) request. For example, the input:
.np
This is the first point.
.np
This is the second point.
Points are just regular paragraphs
which are given sequence numbers automatically
by the .np request.
.pp
This paragraph will reset numbering by .np.
.np
For example,
we have reverted to numbering from one now.
generates:
(1) This is the first point.
(2) This is the second point. Points are just regular
paragraphs which are given sequence numbers automat‐
ically by the .np request.
This paragraph will reset numbering by .np.
(1) For example, we have reverted to numbering from one
now.
The .bu request gives lists of this sort that are
identified with bullets rather than numbers. The para‐
graphs are also crunched together. For example, the input:
.bu
One egg yolk
.bu
One tablespoon cream or top milk
.bu
Salt, cayenne, and lemon juice to taste
.bu
A generous two tablespoonfuls of butter
produces3:
____________________
3By the way, if you put the first three ingredients in a a
heavy, deep pan and whisk the ingredients madly over a medium
flame (never taking your hand off the handle of the pot) until
the mixture reaches the consistency of custard (just a minute or
USING GROFF AND −ME 16
• One egg yolk
• One tablespoon cream or top milk
• Salt, cayenne, and lemon juice to taste
• A generous two tablespoonfuls of butter
5.2. Section Headings
Section numbers (such as the ones used in this docu‐
ment) can be automatically generated using the .sh request.
You must tell .sh the depth of the section number and a
section title. The depth specifies how many numbers are to
appear (separated by decimal points) in the section number.
For example, the section number 4.2.5 has a depth of three.
Section numbers are incremented in a fairly intuitive
fashion. If you add a number (increase the depth), the new
number starts out at one. If you subtract section numbers
(or keep the same number) the final number is incremented.
For example, the input:
.sh 1 "The Preprocessor"
.sh 2 "Basic Concepts"
.sh 2 "Control Inputs"
.sh 3
.sh 3
.sh 1 "Code Generation"
.sh 3
produces as output the result:
1. The Preprocessor
1.1. Basic Concepts
1.2. Control Inputs
1.2.1.
1.2.2.
2. Code Generation
2.1.1.
You can specify the section number to begin by placing
the section number after the section title, using spaces
instead of dots. For example, the request:
.sh 3 "Another section" 7 3 4
will begin the section numbered 7.3.4; all subsequent .sh
requests will number relative to this number.
____________________
two), then mix in the butter off‐heat, you will have a wonderful
Hollandaise sauce.
USING GROFF AND −ME 17
There are more complex features which will cause each
section to be indented proportionally to the depth of the
section. For example, if you enter:
.nr si N
each section will be indented by an amount N. N must have
a scaling factor attached, that is, it must be of the form
Nx, where x is a character telling what units N is in.
Common values for x are i for inches, c for centimeters,
and n for ens (the width of a single character). For exam‐
ple, to indent each section one‐half inch, type:
.nr si 0.5i
After this, sections will be indented by one‐half inch per
level of depth in the section number. For example, this
document was produced using the request
.nr si 3n
at the beginning of the input file, giving three spaces of
indent per section depth.
Section headers without automatically generated num‐
bers can be done using:
.uh "Title"
which will do a section heading, but will put no number on
the section.
5.3. Parts of the Basic Paper
There are some requests which assist in setting up
papers. The .tp request initializes for a title page.
There are no headers or footers on a title page, and unlike
other pages you can space down and leave blank space at the
top. For example, a typical title page might appear as:
.tp
.sp 2i
.(l C
THE GROWTH OF TOENAILS
IN UPPER PRIMATES
.sp
by
.sp
Frank N. Furter
.)l
.bp
USING GROFF AND −ME 18
The .+c T request can be used to start chapters. Each
chapter is automatically numbered from one, and a heading
is printed at the top of each chapter with the chapter num‐
ber and the chapter name T. For example, to begin a chap‐
ter called “Conclusions”, use the request:
.+c "CONCLUSIONS"
which will produce, on a new page, the lines
CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS
with appropriate spacing for a thesis. Also, the header is
moved to the foot of the page on the first page of a chap‐
ter. Although the .+c request was not designed to work
only with the .th request, it is tuned for the format
acceptable for a PhD thesis at Berkeley.
If the title parameter T is omitted from the .+c
request, the result is a chapter with no heading. This can
also be used at the beginning of a paper; for example, .+c
was used to generate page one of this document.
Although papers traditionally have the abstract, table
of contents, and so forth at the front of the paper, it is
more convenient to format and print them last when using
GROFF. This is so that index entries can be collected and
then printed for the table of contents (or whatever). At
the end of the paper, issue the .++ P request, which begins
the preliminary part of the paper. After issuing this
request, the .+c request will begin a preliminary section
of the paper. Most notably, this prints the page number
restarted from one in lower case Roman numbers. .+c may be
used repeatedly to begin different parts of the front mate‐
rial for example, the abstract, the table of contents,
acknowledgments, list of illustrations, etc. The request
.++ B may also be used to begin the bibliographic section
at the end of the paper. For example, the paper might
appear as outlined in figure 2. (In this figure, comments
begin with the sequence \".)
5.4. Equations and Tables
Two special UNIX programs exist to format special
types of material. Eqn sets equations. Tbl arranges to
print extremely pretty tables in a variety of formats.
This document will only describe the embellishments to the
standard features; consult the reference manuals for those
processors for a description of their use.
The eqn program is described fully in the document
Typesetting Mathematics − User’s Guide by Brian W.
USING GROFF AND −ME 19
_________________________________________________________________
.th \" set for thesis mode
.fo ´´DRAFT´´ \" define footer for each page
.tp \" begin title page
.(l C \" center a large block
THE GROWTH OF TOENAILS
IN UPPER PRIMATES
.sp
by
.sp
Frank Furter
.)l \" end centered part
.+c INTRODUCTION \" begin chapter named "INTRODUCTION"
.(x t \" make an entry into index ‘t’
Introduction
.)x \" end of index entry
text of chapter one
.+c "NEXT CHAPTER" \" begin another chapter
.(x t \" enter into index ‘t’ again
Next Chapter
.)x
text of chapter two
.+c CONCLUSIONS
.(x t
Conclusions
.)x
text of chapter three
.++ B \" begin bibliographic information
.+c BIBLIOGRAPHY \" begin another ‘chapter’
.(x t
Bibliography
.)x
text of bibliography
.++ P \" begin preliminary material
.+c "TABLE OF CONTENTS"
.xp t \" print index ‘t’ collected above
.+c PREFACE \" begin another preliminary section
text of preface
Figure 2. Outline of a Sample Paper
_________________________________________________________________
Kernighan and Lorinda L. Cherry. Equations are centered,
and are kept on one page. They are introduced by the .EQ
request and terminated by the .EN request.
The .EQ request may take an equation number as an
optional argument, which is printed vertically centered on
the right hand side of the equation. If the equation
USING GROFF AND −ME 20
becomes too long it should be split between two lines. To
do this, type:
.EQ (eq 34)
text of equation 34
.EN C
.EQ
continuation of equation 34
.EN
The C on the .EN request specifies that the equation will
be continued.
The tbl program produces tables. It is fully
described (including numerous examples) in the document Tbl
− A Program to Format Tables by M. E. Lesk. Tables begin
with the .TS request and end with the .TE request. Tables
are normally kept on a single page. If you have a table
which is too big to fit on a single page, so that you know
it will extend to several pages, begin the table with the
request .TS H and put the request .TH after the part of the
table which you want duplicated at the top of every page
that the table is printed on. For example, a table defini‐
tion for a long table might look like:
.TS H
c s s
n n n.
THE TABLE TITLE
.TH
text of the table
.TE
5.5. Two Column Output
You can get two column output automatically by using
the request .2c. This causes everything after it to be
output in two‐column form. The request .bc will start a
new column; it differs from .bp in that .bp may leave a
totally blank column when it starts a new page. To revert
to single column output, use .1c.
5.6. Defining Macros
A macro is a collection of requests and text which may
be used by stating a simple request. Macros begin with the
line .de xx (where xx is the name of the macro to be
defined) and end with the line consisting of two dots.
After defining the macro, stating the line .xx is the same
as stating all the other lines. For example, to define a
macro that spaces 3 lines and then centers the next input
line, enter:
USING GROFF AND −ME 21
.de SS
.sp 3
.ce
..
and use it by typing:
.SS
Title Line
(beginning of text)
Macro names may be one or two characters. In order to
avoid conflicts with names in −me, always use upper case
letters as names. The only names to avoid are TS, TH, TE,
EQ, and EN.
5.7. Annotations Inside Keeps
Sometimes you may want to put a footnote or index
entry inside a keep. For example, if you want to maintain
a “list of figures” you will want to do something like:
.(z
.(c
text of figure
.)c
.ce
Figure 5.
.(x f
Figure 5
.)x
.)z
which you may hope will give you a figure with a label and
an entry in the index f (presumably a list of figures
index). Unfortunately, the index entry is read and inter‐
preted when the keep is read, not when it is printed, so
the page number in the index is likely to be wrong. The
solution is to use the magic string \! at the beginning of
all the lines dealing with the index. In other words, you
should use:
.(z
.(c
Text of figure
.)c
.ce
Figure 5.
\!.(x f
\!Figure 5
\!.)x
.)z
USING GROFF AND −ME 22
which will defer the processing of the index until the fig‐
ure is output. This will guarantee that the page number in
the index is correct. The same comments apply to blocks
(with .(b and .)b) as well.
6. TROFF and the Photosetter
With a little care, you can prepare documents that will
print nicely on either a regular terminal or when phototypeset
using the TROFF formatting program.
6.1. Fonts
A font is a style of type. There are three fonts that
are available simultaneously, Times Roman, Times Italic,
and Times Bold, plus the special math font. The normal
font is Roman.
There are ways of switching between fonts. The
requests .r, .i, .b, and .bi switch to Roman, italic, bold,
and bold‐italic fonts respectively. You can set a single
word in some font by typing (for example):
.i word
which will set word in italics but does not affect the sur‐
rounding text.
Notice that if you are setting more than one word in
whatever font, you must surround that word with double
quote marks (‘"’) so that it will appear to the GROFF pro‐
cessor as a single word. The quote marks will not appear
in the formatted text. If you do want a quote mark to
appear, you should quote the entire string (even if a sin‐
gle word), and use two quote marks where you want one to
appear. For example, if you want to produce the text:
"Master Control"
in italics, you must type:
.i """Master Control\|"""
The \| produces a very narrow space so that the “l” does
not overlap the quote sign in GROFF, like this:
"Master Control"
There are also some “pseudo‐fonts” available. The
input:
USING GROFF AND −ME 23
.(b
.u underlined
.bx "words in a box"
.)b
generates
underlined─
Notice that pseudo font requests set only the single param‐
eter in the pseudo font; ordinary font requests will begin
setting all text in the special font if you do not provide
a parameter. No more than one word should appear with
these three font requests in the middle of lines. This is
because of the way GROFF justifies text. For example, if
you were to issue the requests:
.u "some bold italics"
and
.bx "words in a box"
in the middle of a line GROFF would produce
some─bold─italics─ and │words i,
which I think you will agree does not look good.
The second parameter of all font requests is set in
the original font. For example, the font request:
.b bold face
generates “bold” in bold font, but sets “face” in the font
of the surrounding text, resulting in:
boldface.
To set the two words bold and face both in bold face, type:
.b "bold face"
You can mix fonts in a word by using the special
sequence \c at the end of a line to indicate “continue text
processing”; this allows input lines to be joined together
without a space between them. For example, the input:
.u under \c
.i italics
generates underitalics, but if we had typed:
.u under
.i italics
USING GROFF AND −ME 24
the result would have been under─italics as two words.
6.2. Point Sizes
The phototypesetter supports different sizes of type,
measured in points. The default point size is 10 points
for most text, 8 points for footnotes. To change the
pointsize, type:
.sz +N
where N is the size wanted in points. The vertical spacing
(distance between the bottom of most letters (the baseline)
between adjacent lines) is set to be proportional to the
type size.
These pointsize changes are temporary!!! For example,
to reset the pointsize of basic text to twelve point, use:
.nr pp 12
.nr sp 12
.nr tp 12
to reset the default pointsize of paragraphs, section head‐
ers, and titles respectively. If you only want to set the
names of sections in a larger pointsize, use:
.nr sp 11
alone — this sets section titles (e.g., Point Sizes above)
in a larger font than the default.
A single word or phrase can be set in a smaller point‐
size than the surrounding text using the .sm request. This
is especially convenient for words that are all capitals,
due to the optical illusion that makes them look even
larger than they actually are. For example:
.sm UNIX
prints as UNIX rather than UNIX.
6.3. Quotes
It is conventional when using the typesetter to use
pairs of grave and acute accents to generate double quotes,
rather than the double quote character (‘"’). This is
because it looks better to use grave and acute accents; for
example, compare "quote" to ‘‘quote’’.
You may use the sequences \*(lq and \*(rq to stand for
the left and right quote respectively. For example, use:
USING GROFF AND −ME 25
\*(lqSome things aren´t true
even if they did happen.\*(rq
to generate the result:
“Some things aren’t true even if they did happen.”
As a shorthand, the special font request:
.q "quoted text"
will generate “quoted text”. Notice that you must surround
the material to be quoted with double quote marks if it is
more than one word.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Bob Epstein, Bill Joy, and Larry Rowe
for having the courage to use the −me macros to produce non‐triv‐
ial papers during the development stages; Ricki Blau, Pamela
Humphrey, and Jim Joyce for their help with the documentation
phase; peter kessler for numerous complaints years after I was
“done” with this project, most accompanied by fixes (hence forc‐
ing me to fix several small bugs); and the plethora of people who
have contributed ideas and have given support for the project.
This document applies to the version of the −me macros included
with GROFF version 1.22.4.
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