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GROFF_OUT(5)							  GROFF_OUT(5)

NAME
       groff_out - groff intermediate output format

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page  describes the intermediate output format of the GNU
       roff(7) text processing system groff(1).	 This output is produced by  a
       run  of	the GNU troff(1) program.  It contains already all device-spe‐
       cific information, but it is not yet fed into  a	 device	 postprocessor
       program.

       As  the	GNU  roff processor groff(1) is a wrapper program around troff
       that automatically calls a postprocessor, this output does not show  up
       normally.   This is why it is called intermediate within the groff sys‐
       tem.  The groff program provides the option -Z to inhibit  postprocess‐
       ing,  such  that	 the  produced intermediate output is sent to standard
       output just like calling troff manually.

       In this document, the term troff output describes what is output by the
       GNU  troff  program,  while  intermediate output refers to the language
       that is accepted by the parser that prepares this output for the	 post‐
       processors.   This parser is smarter on whitespace and implements obso‐
       lete elements for compatibility, otherwise both formats are  the	 same.
       Both formats can be viewed directly with gxditview(1).

       The  main  purpose  of the intermediate output concept is to facilitate
       the development of postprocessors by  providing	a  common  programming
       interface  for  all devices.  It has a language of its own that is com‐
       pletely different from the groff(7) language.  While the groff language
       is  a high-level programming language for text processing, the interme‐
       diate output language is a kind	of  low-level  assembler  language  by
       specifying all positions on the page for writing and drawing.

       The pre-groff roff versions are denoted as classical troff.  The inter‐
       mediate output produced by groff is fairly  readable,  while  classical
       troff  output was hard to understand because of strange habits that are
       still supported, but not used any longer by GNU troff.

LANGUAGE CONCEPTS
       During the run of troff, the roff input is cracked down to the informa‐
       tion on what has to be printed at what position on the intended device.
       So the language of the intermediate output format can be	 quite	small.
       Its only elements are commands with or without arguments.  In this doc‐
       ument, the term “command” always refers to the intermediate output lan‐
       guage,  never to the roff language used for document formatting.	 There
       are commands for positioning and text writing,  for  drawing,  and  for
       device controlling.

   Separation
       Classical  troff	 output	 had  strange requirements on whitespace.  The
       groff output parser, however, is smart about whitespace	by  making  it
       maximally  optional.   The whitespace characters, i.e., the tab, space,
       and newline characters, always have a syntactical  meaning.   They  are
       never  printable	 because  spacing  within the output is always done by
       positioning commands.

       Any sequence of space or tab characters is treated as a single  syntac‐
       tical space.  It separates commands and arguments, but is only required
       when there would occur a clashing between  the  command	code  and  the
       arguments  without  the	space.	Most often, this happens when variable
       length command names, arguments, argument lists,	 or  command  clusters
       meet.   Commands	 and  arguments with a known, fixed length need not be
       separated by syntactical space.

       A line break is a syntactical element, too.  Every command argument can
       be  followed  by whitespace, a comment, or a newline character.	Thus a
       syntactical line break is defined to consist  of	 optional  syntactical
       space  that  is optionally followed by a comment, and a newline charac‐
       ter.

       The normal commands, those for positioning and text, consist of a  sin‐
       gle letter taking a fixed number of arguments.  For historical reasons,
       the parser allows to stack such commands on the same line,  but	fortu‐
       nately,	in  groff intermediate output, every command with at least one
       argument is followed by a line break, thus  providing  excellent	 read‐
       ability.

       The  other commands — those for drawing and device controlling — have a
       more complicated structure; some recognize long command names, and some
       take  a	variable  number  of  arguments.  So all D and x commands were
       designed to request a syntactical line break after their last argument.
       Only  one  command, `x X' has an argument that can stretch over several
       lines, all other commands must have all of their arguments on the  same
       line  as	 the  command,	i.e., the arguments may not be split by a line
       break.

       Empty lines, i.e., lines containing only space and/or  a	 comment,  can
       occur everywhere.  They are just ignored.

   Argument Units
       Some commands take integer arguments that are assumed to represent val‐
       ues in a measurement unit, but the letter for the  corresponding	 scale
       indicator  is  not  written  with  the  output  command	arguments; see
       groff(7) and the groff info file for more on this topic.	 Most commands
       assume the scale indicator u, the basic unit of the device, some use z,
       the scaled point unit of the device, while others, such	as  the	 color
       commands	 expect	 plain integers.  Note that these scale indicators are
       relative to the chosen device.  They  are  defined  by  the  parameters
       specified in the device's DESC file; see groff_font(5).

       Note  that  single  characters  can have the eighth bit set, as can the
       names of fonts and special characters (this is, glyphs).	 The names  of
       glyphs  and  fonts  can	be of arbitrary length.	 A glyph that is to be
       printed will always be in the current font.

       A string argument is always terminated by the next whitespace character
       (space,	tab,  or newline); an embedded # character is regarded as part
       of the argument, not as the beginning of a comment command.  An integer
       argument	 is  already terminated by the next non-digit character, which
       then is regarded as the first character of the next  argument  or  com‐
       mand.

   Document Parts
       A  correct intermediate output document consists of two parts, the pro‐
       logue and the body.

       The task of the prologue is to set the general device parameters	 using
       three  exactly specified commands.  The groff prologue is guaranteed to
       consist of the following three lines (in that order):

	      x T device
	      x res n h v
	      x init

       with the arguments set as outlined in the section Device	 Control  Com‐
       mands.	However, the parser for the intermediate output format is able
       to swallow additional whitespace and comments as well.

       The body is the main section for processing the document data.  Syntac‐
       tically,	 it is a sequence of any commands different from the ones used
       in the prologue.	 Processing is terminated as soon as the first	x stop
       command	is encountered; the last line of any groff intermediate output
       always contains such a command.

       Semantically, the body is page oriented.	 A new page is	started	 by  a
       p  command.  Positioning, writing, and drawing commands are always done
       within the current page, so they cannot occur before the first  p  com‐
       mand.   Absolute positioning (by the H and V commands) is done relative
       to the current page, all other positioning is done relative to the cur‐
       rent location within this page.

COMMAND REFERENCE
       This  section describes all intermediate output commands, the classical
       commands as well as the groff extensions.

   Comment Command
       #anything⟨end-of-line⟩
	      A comment.  Ignore any characters from the # character up to the
	      next newline character.

       This command is the only possibility for commenting in the intermediate
       output.	Each comment can be preceded by arbitrary  syntactical	space;
       every command can be terminated by a comment.

   Simple Commands
       The  commands  in  this	subsection have a command code consisting of a
       single character, taking a fixed number of arguments.  Most of them are
       commands	 for  positioning  and text writing.  These commands are smart
       about  whitespace.   Optionally,	 syntactical  space  can  be  inserted
       before,	after,	and between the command letter and its arguments.  All
       of these commands are stackable, i.e., they can be  preceded  by	 other
       simple  commands	 or  followed  by arbitrary other commands on the same
       line.  A separating syntactical space is only necessary when two	 inte‐
       ger  arguments  would  clash  or	 if the preceding argument ends with a
       string argument.

       C xxx⟨white-space⟩
	      Print a glyph (special character) named xxx.  The trailing  syn‐
	      tactical	space  or line break is necessary to allow glyph names
	      of arbitrary length.  The glyph is printed at the current	 print
	      position;	 the  glyph's  size  is	 read from the font file.  The
	      print position is not changed.

       c c    Print glyph with single-letter name c at the current print posi‐
	      tion;  the  glyph's  size is read from the font file.  The print
	      position is not changed.

       f n    Set font to font number n (a non-negative integer).

       H n    Move right to the absolute vertical position n  (a  non-negative
	      integer in basic units u) relative to left edge of current page.

       h n    Move  n  (a  non-negative integer) basic units u horizontally to
	      the right.  [CSTR #54] allows negative values for	 n  also,  but
	      groff doesn't use this.

       m color-scheme [component ...]
	      Set  the	color for text (glyphs), line drawing, and the outline
	      of graphic objects using different color schemes; the analoguous
	      command  for  the	 filling  color of graphic objects is DF.  The
	      color components are specified as integer	 arguments  between  0
	      and  65536.   The	 number	 of color components and their meaning
	      vary for the different color schemes.  These commands are gener‐
	      ated  by	the  groff  escape sequence \m.	 No position changing.
	      These commands are a groff extension.

	      mc cyan magenta yellow
		     Set color using the CMY color scheme, having the 3	 color
		     components cyan, magenta, and yellow.

	      md     Set  color	 to  the  default  color  value (black in most
		     cases).  No component arguments.

	      mg gray
		     Set color to the shade of gray given by the argument,  an
		     integer between 0 (black) and 65536 (white).

	      mk cyan magenta yellow black
		     Set color using the CMYK color scheme, having the 4 color
		     components cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.

	      mr red green blue
		     Set color using the RGB color scheme, having the 3	 color
		     components red, green, and blue.

       N n    Print  glyph with index n (an integer, normally non-negative) of
	      the current font.	  The  print  position	is  not	 changed.   If
	      -T html or -T xhtml is used, negative values are emitted also to
	      indicate an unbreakable space with given	width.	 For  example,
	      N	 -193  represents  an  unbreakable  space which has a width of
	      193u.  This command is a groff extension.

       n b a  Inform the device about a line break, but no positioning is done
	      by  this	command.   In classical troff, the integer arguments b
	      and a informed about the space before and after the current line
	      to make the intermediate output more human readable without per‐
	      forming any action.  In groff, they are just ignored,  but  they
	      must be provided for compatibility reasons.

       p n    Begin  a new page in the outprint.  The page number is set to n.
	      This page is completely independent of pages formerly  processed
	      even  if those have the same page number.	 The vertical position
	      on the outprint is automatically set  to	0.   All  positioning,
	      writing,	and  drawing  is  always done relative to a page, so a
	      p command must be issued before any of these commands.

       s n    Set point size to n scaled points (this is unit z in GNU troff).
	      Classical	 troff	used  the unit points (p) instead; see section
	      COMPATIBILITY.

       t xyz...⟨white-space⟩
       t xyz... dummy-arg⟨white-space⟩
	      Print a word, i.e., a  sequence  of  glyphs  with	 single-letter
	      names  x,	 y, z, etc., terminated by a space character or a line
	      break; an optional second	 integer  argument  is	ignored	 (this
	      allows  the  formatter to generate an even number of arguments).
	      The first glyph should be printed at the current	position,  the
	      current  horizontal  position  should  then  be increased by the
	      width of the first glyph, and so on for each glyph.  The	widths
	      of the glyph are read from the font file, scaled for the current
	      point size, and rounded to a multiple of the horizontal  resolu‐
	      tion.   Special characters (glyphs with names longer than a sin‐
	      gle letter) cannot be printed using this command; use the C com‐
	      mand for those glyphs.  This command is a groff extension; it is
	      only used for devices whose DESC file contains the tcommand key‐
	      word; see groff_font(5).

       u n xyz...⟨white-space⟩
	      Print  word  with track kerning.	This is the same as the t com‐
	      mand except that after printing each glyph, the current horizon‐
	      tal  position is increased by the sum of the width of that glyph
	      and n (an integer in basic units u).  This command  is  a	 groff
	      extension;  it is only used for devices whose DESC file contains
	      the tcommand keyword; see groff_font(5).

       V n    Move down to the absolute vertical position  n  (a  non-negative
	      integer  in  basic  units	 u)  relative to upper edge of current
	      page.

       v n    Move n basic  units  u  down  (n	is  a  non-negative  integer).
	      [CSTR  #54] allows negative values for n also, but groff doesn't
	      use this.

       w      Informs about a paddable	whitespace  to	increase  readability.
	      The  spacing  itself must be performed explicitly by a move com‐
	      mand.

   Graphics Commands
       Each graphics or drawing command in the intermediate output starts with
       the  letter  D followed by one or two characters that specify a subcom‐
       mand; this is followed by a fixed or variable number of	integer	 argu‐
       ments  that are separated by a single space character.  A D command may
       not be followed by another command on the same line (apart from a  com‐
       ment), so each D command is terminated by a syntactical line break.

       troff output follows the classical spacing rules (no space between com‐
       mand and subcommand, all arguments are preceded by a single space char‐
       acter),	but  the parser allows optional space between the command let‐
       ters and makes the space before the first argument optional.  As usual,
       each space can be any sequence of tab and space characters.

       Some  graphics  commands	 can  take a variable number of arguments.  In
       this case, they are integers representing  a  size  measured  in	 basic
       units u.	 The h arguments stand for horizontal distances where positive
       means right, negative left.  The v arguments stand  for	vertical  dis‐
       tances where positive means down, negative up.  All these distances are
       offsets relative to the current location.

       Unless indicated otherwise, each graphics command directly  corresponds
       to a similar groff \D escape sequence; see groff(7).

       Unknown	D  commands  are assumed to be device-specific.	 Its arguments
       are parsed as strings; the whole information is then sent to the	 post‐
       processor.

       In  the	following  command  reference, the syntax element ⟨line-break⟩
       means a syntactical line break as defined in section Separation.

       D~ h1 v1	 h2 v2 ... hn vn⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw B-spline from current position to offset (h1, v1), then  to
	      offset  (h2, v2)	if  given, etc., up to (hn, vn).  This command
	      takes a variable number of argument pairs; the current  position
	      is moved to the terminal point of the drawn curve.

       Da h1 v1	 h2 v2⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw  arc from current position to (h1, v1)+(h2, v2) with center
	      at (h1, v1); then move the current position to the  final	 point
	      of the arc.

       DC d⟨line-break⟩
       DC d dummy-arg⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw a solid circle using the current fill color with diameter d
	      (integer in basic units u) with leftmost point  at  the  current
	      position;	 then move the current position to the rightmost point
	      of the circle.  An optional second integer argument  is  ignored
	      (this  allows  to	 the  formatter	 to generate an even number of
	      arguments).  This command is a groff extension.

       Dc d⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw circle line with diameter d (integer in basic units u) with
	      leftmost	point  at  the current position; then move the current
	      position to the rightmost point of the circle.

       DE h v⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw a solid ellipse in the current fill color with a horizontal
	      diameter	of  h  and  a vertical diameter of v (both integers in
	      basic units u) with the leftmost point at the current  position;
	      then  move  to the rightmost point of the ellipse.  This command
	      is a groff extension.

       De h v⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw an outlined ellipse with a horizontal diameter of h	and  a
	      vertical diameter of v (both integers in basic units u) with the
	      leftmost point at current position; then move to	the  rightmost
	      point of the ellipse.

       DF color-scheme [component ...]⟨line-break⟩
	      Set  fill	 color for solid drawing objects using different color
	      schemes; the analoguous command for setting the color  of	 text,
	      line  graphics,  and  the	 outline of graphic objects is m.  The
	      color components are specified as integer	 arguments  between  0
	      and  65536.   The	 number	 of color components and their meaning
	      vary for the different color schemes.  These commands are gener‐
	      ated  by	the  groff escape sequences \D'F ...'  and \M (with no
	      other corresponding graphics commands).  No  position  changing.
	      This command is a groff extension.

	      DFc cyan magenta yellow⟨line-break⟩
		     Set  fill	color  for solid drawing objects using the CMY
		     color  scheme,  having  the  3  color  components	 cyan,
		     magenta, and yellow.

	      DFd ⟨line-break⟩
		     Set  fill	color for solid drawing objects to the default
		     fill color value (black in	 most  cases).	 No  component
		     arguments.

	      DFg gray⟨line-break⟩
		     Set  fill color for solid drawing objects to the shade of
		     gray given by the argument, an integer between 0  (black)
		     and 65536 (white).

	      DFk cyan magenta yellow black⟨line-break⟩
		     Set  fill	color for solid drawing objects using the CMYK
		     color  scheme,  having  the  4  color  components	 cyan,
		     magenta, yellow, and black.

	      DFr red green blue⟨line-break⟩
		     Set  fill	color  for solid drawing objects using the RGB
		     color scheme, having the 3 color components  red,	green,
		     and blue.

       Df n⟨line-break⟩
	      The argument n must be an integer in the range -32767 to 32767.

	      0≤n≤1000
		     Set  the  color  for  filling  solid drawing objects to a
		     shade of gray, where 0 corresponds to solid  white,  1000
		     (the  default)  to	 solid black, and values in between to
		     intermediate shades of gray; this is obsoleted by command
		     DFg.

	      n<0 or n>1000
		     Set  the  filling	color  to  the color that is currently
		     being used for the text and the outline, see  command  m.
		     For example, the command sequence

			    mg 0 0 65536
			    Df -1

		     sets all colors to blue.

	      No position changing.  This command is a groff extension.

       Dl h v⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw  line  from	current position to offset (h, v) (integers in
	      basic units u); then set current position	 to  the  end  of  the
	      drawn line.

       Dp h1 v1	 h2 v2 ... hn vn⟨line-break⟩
	      Draw  a  polygon	line from current position to offset (h1, v1),
	      from there to offset (h2, v2), etc., up to offset (hn, vn),  and
	      from  there  back to the starting position.  For historical rea‐
	      sons, the position is changed by adding the sum of all arguments
	      with  odd	 index	to the actual horizontal position and the even
	      ones to the vertical position.  Although this doesn't make sense
	      it  is  kept  for compatibility.	This command is a groff exten‐
	      sion.

       DP h1 v1	 h2 v2 ... hn vn⟨line-break⟩
	      The same macro as the corresponding Dp  command  with  the  same
	      arguments,  but  draws a solid polygon in the current fill color
	      rather than an outlined polygon.	The position is changed in the
	      same way as with Dp.  This command is a groff extension.

       Dt n⟨line-break⟩
	      Set  the	current	 line  thickness  to  n	 (an  integer in basic
	      units u) if n>0; if  n=0	select	the  smallest  available  line
	      thickness;  if  n<0  set	the line thickness proportional to the
	      point size (this is the default before the first Dt command  was
	      specified).   For historical reasons, the horizontal position is
	      changed by adding the argument to the  actual  horizontal	 posi‐
	      tion, while the vertical position is not changed.	 Although this
	      doesn't make sense it is kept for compatibility.	 This  command
	      is a groff extension.

   Device Control Commands
       Each  device  control  command  starts  with the letter x followed by a
       space character (optional or arbitrary space/tab in groff) and  a  sub‐
       command	letter	or  word; each argument (if any) must be preceded by a
       syntactical space.  All x commands are terminated by a syntactical line
       break;  no device control command can be followed by another command on
       the same line (except a comment).

       The subcommand is basically a single letter, but to increase  readabil‐
       ity,  it can be written as a word, i.e., an arbitrary sequence of char‐
       acters terminated by the next tab, space, or  newline  character.   All
       characters  of  the  subcommand	word but the first are simply ignored.
       For example, troff outputs the initialization command x i as x init and
       the  resolution command x r as x res.  But writings like x i_like_groff
       and x roff_is_groff are accepted as well to mean the same commands.

       In the following, the syntax element ⟨line-break⟩ means	a  syntactical
       line break as defined in section Separation.

       xF name⟨line-break⟩
	      (Filename control command)
	      Use  name	 as  the  intended  name for the current file in error
	      reports.	This is useful for remembering the original file  name
	      when groff uses an internal piping mechanism.  The input file is
	      not changed by this command.  This command is a groff extension.

       xf n s⟨line-break⟩
	      (font control command)
	      Mount font position n (a non-negative integer) with font named s
	      (a text word), cf.  groff_font(5).

       xH n⟨line-break⟩
	      (Height control command)
	      Set  character  height  to  n  (a	 positive  integer  in	scaled
	      points z).  Classical troff used the unit	 points	 (p)  instead;
	      see section COMPATIBILITY.

       xi ⟨line-break⟩
	      (init control command)
	      Initialize device.  This is the third command of the prologue.

       xp ⟨line-break⟩
	      (pause control command)
	      Parsed  but  ignored.   The  classical documentation reads pause
	      device, can be restarted.

       xr n h v⟨line-break⟩
	      (resolution control command)
	      Resolution is n, while h is the minimal horizontal motion, and v
	      the minimal vertical motion possible with this device; all argu‐
	      ments are positive integers in basic units u per inch.  This  is
	      the second command of the prologue.

       xS n⟨line-break⟩
	      (Slant control command)
	      Set slant to n degrees (an integer in basic units u).

       xs ⟨line-break⟩
	      (stop control command)
	      Terminates  the  processing  of  the current file; issued as the
	      last command of any intermediate troff output.

       xt ⟨line-break⟩
	      (trailer control command)
	      Generate trailer information, if any.  In groff, this  is	 actu‐
	      ally just ignored.

       xT xxx⟨line-break⟩
	      (Typesetter control command)
	      Set  name	 of device to word xxx, a sequence of characters ended
	      by the next whitespace character.	  The  possible	 device	 names
	      coincide with those from the groff -T option.  This is the first
	      command of the prologue.

       xu n⟨line-break⟩
	      (underline control command)
	      Configure underlining of spaces.	If n is 1,  start  underlining
	      of  spaces;  if  n  is  0,  stop underlining of spaces.  This is
	      needed for the cu request in nroff mode and  is  ignored	other‐
	      wise.  This command is a groff extension.

       xX anything⟨line-break⟩
	      (X-escape control command)
	      Send  string  anything uninterpreted to the device.  If the line
	      following this command starts with a + character	this  line  is
	      interpreted  as a continuation line in the following sense.  The
	      + is ignored, but a newline character is	sent  instead  to  the
	      device,  the  rest  of the line is sent uninterpreted.  The same
	      applies to all following lines until the first  character	 of  a
	      line  is	not  a	+ character.  This command is generated by the
	      groff escape sequence \X.	  The  line-continuing	feature	 is  a
	      groff extension.

   Obsolete Command
       In classical troff output, emitting a single glyph was mostly done by a
       very strange command that combined a horizontal move and	 the  printing
       of  a  glyph.   It  didn't have a command code, but is represented by a
       3-character argument consisting of exactly 2 digits and a character.

       ddc    Move right dd (exactly two decimal digits) basic units  u,  then
	      print glyph with single-letter name c.

	      In  groff,  arbitrary  syntactical  space around and within this
	      command is allowed to be added.  Only when a  preceding  command
	      on the same line ends with an argument of variable length a sep‐
	      arating space is obligatory.  In classical troff, large clusters
	      of  these	 and  other commands were used, mostly without spaces;
	      this made such output almost unreadable.

       For modern high-resolution devices, this command does  not  make	 sense
       because the width of the glyphs can become much larger than two decimal
       digits.	In groff, this is only used for the devices X75, X75-12, X100,
       and  X100-12.  For other devices, the commands t and u provide a better
       functionality.

POSTPROCESSING
       The roff postprocessors are programs that have the  task	 to  translate
       the  intermediate  output  into	actions	 that are sent to a device.  A
       device can be some piece of hardware such as a printer, or  a  software
       file  format suitable for graphical or text processing.	The groff sys‐
       tem provides powerful means that make the programming of such  postpro‐
       cessors an easy task.

       There  is  a  library  function that parses the intermediate output and
       sends the information obtained to the device via	 methods  of  a	 class
       with a common interface for each device.	 So a groff postprocessor must
       only redefine the methods of this class.	 For details, see  the	refer‐
       ence in section FILES.

EXAMPLES
       This  section  presents the intermediate output generated from the same
       input for three different devices.  The	input  is  the	sentence  hell
       world fed into groff on the command line.

       · High-resolution device ps

	 shell> echo "hell world" | groff -Z -T ps

	 x T ps
	 x res 72000 1 1
	 x init
	 p1
	 x font 5 TR
	 f5
	 s10000
	 V12000
	 H72000
	 thell
	 wh2500
	 tw
	 H96620
	 torld
	 n12000 0
	 x trailer
	 V792000
	 x stop

       This  output can be fed into the postprocessor grops(1) to get its rep‐
       resentation as a PostScript file, or gropdf(1) to  output  directly  to
       PDF.

       · Low-resolution device latin1

	 This  is  similar to the high-resolution device except that the posi‐
	 tioning is done at a minor scale.  Some comments (lines starting with
	 #)  were added for clarification; they were not generated by the for‐
	 matter.

	 shell> "hell world" | groff -Z -T latin1

	 # prologue
	 x T latin1
	 x res 240 24 40
	 x init
	 # begin a new page
	 p1
	 # font setup
	 x font 1 R
	 f1
	 s10
	 # initial positioning on the page
	 V40
	 H0
	 # write text `hell'
	 thell
	 # inform about a space, and do it by a horizontal jump
	 wh24
	 # write text `world'
	 tworld
	 # announce line break, but do nothing because ...
	 n40 0
	 # ... the end of the document has been reached
	 x trailer
	 V2640
	 x stop

       This output can be fed into the postprocessor grotty(1) to get  a  for‐
       matted text document.

       · Classical style output

	 As  a	computer  monitor has a very low resolution compared to modern
	 printers the intermediate output for the X devices can use the	 jump-
	 and-write command with its 2-digit displacements.

	 shell> "hell world" | groff -Z -T X100

	 x T X100
	 x res 100 1 1
	 x init
	 p1
	 x font 5 TR
	 f5
	 s10
	 V16
	 H100
	 # write text with old-style jump-and-write command
	 ch07e07l03lw06w11o07r05l03dh7
	 n16 0
	 x trailer
	 V1100
	 x stop

       This   output  can  be  fed  into  the  postprocessor  xditview(1x)  or
       gxditview(1) for displaying in X.

       Due to the obsolete jump-and-write command, the text  clusters  in  the
       classical output are almost unreadable.

COMPATIBILITY
       The intermediate output language of the classical troff was first docu‐
       mented in [CSTR #97].  The groff intermediate output format is compati‐
       ble with this specification except for the following features.

       · The classical quasi device independence is not yet implemented.

       · The  old  hardware was very different from what we use today.	So the
	 groff devices are also fundamentally different from the ones in clas‐
	 sical troff.  For example, the classical PostScript device was called
	 post and had a resolution of 720 units per  inch,  while  groff's  ps
	 device	 has  a	 resolution of 72000 units per inch.  Maybe, by imple‐
	 menting some rescaling	 mechanism  similar  to	 the  classical	 quasi
	 device independence, these could be integrated into modern groff.

       · The B-spline command D~ is correctly handled by the intermediate out‐
	 put parser, but the drawing routines aren't implemented  in  some  of
	 the postprocessor programs.

       · The  argument	of the commands s and x H has the implicit unit scaled
	 point z in groff, while classical troff had point (p).	 This isn't an
	 incompatibility,  but a compatible extension, for both units coincide
	 for all devices without a sizescale parameter, including all  classi‐
	 cal  and  the	groff  text  devices.	The  few  groff devices with a
	 sizescale parameter either did not exist, had a  different  name,  or
	 seem to have had a different resolution.  So conflicts with classical
	 devices are very unlikely.

       · The position changing after the commands Dp, DP, and Dt is illogical,
	 but as old versions of groff used this feature it is kept for compat‐
	 ibility reasons.

       The differences between groff and classical  troff  are	documented  in
       groff_diff(7).

FILES
       /usr/share/groff/1.22.2/font/devname/DESC
	      Device description file for device name.

       ⟨groff-source-dir⟩/src/libs/libdriver/input.cpp
	      Defines  the  parser and postprocessor for the intermediate out‐
	      put.  It is located relative to the top directory of  the	 groff
	      source tree.  This parser is the definitive specification of the
	      groff intermediate output format.

SEE ALSO
       A reference like groff(7) refers to a manual page; here groff  in  sec‐
       tion 7 of the man-page documentation system.  To read the example, look
       up section 7 in your desktop help system or call from the shell prompt

	      shell> man 7 groff

       For more details, see man(1).

       groff(1)
	      option -Z and further readings on groff.

       groff(7)
	      for details of the groff language such as	 numerical  units  and
	      escape sequences.

       groff_font(5)
	      for details on the device scaling parameters of the DESC file.

       troff(1)
	      generates the device-independent intermediate output.

       roff(7)
	      for  historical  aspects	and the general structure of roff sys‐
	      tems.

       groff_diff(7)
	      The differences between the intermediate	output	in  groff  and
	      classical troff.

       gxditview(1)
	      Viewer for the intermediate output.

       grodvi(1), grohtml(1), grolbp(1), grolj4(1), grops(1), grotty(1)
	      the groff postprocessor programs.

       For a treatment of all aspects of the groff system within a single doc‐
       ument, see the groff info file.	It can be read within  the  integrated
       help systems, within emacs(1) or from the shell prompt by
	      shell> info groff

       The  classical troff output language is described in two AT&T Bell Labs
       CSTR documents available	 on-line  at  Bell  Labs  CSTR	site  ⟨http://
       cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr.html⟩.

       [CSTR #97]
	      A	 Typesetter-independent TROFF by Brian Kernighan is the origi‐
	      nal and most comprehensive documentation on the output language;
	      see CSTR #97 ⟨http://cm.bell-labs.com/cm/cs/cstr/97.ps.gz⟩.

       [CSTR #54]
	      The  1992	 revision  of  the  Nroff/Troff User's Manual by J. F.
	      Ossanna and Brian Kernighan isn't as comprehensive as [CSTR #97]
	      regarding	 the  output  language;	 see CSTR #54 ⟨http://cm.bell-
	      labs.com/cm/cs/cstr/54.ps.gz⟩.

AUTHORS
       Copyright (C) 1989, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,  2005,  2006,  2007,	 2008,
       2009 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

       This document is distributed under the terms of the FDL (GNU Free Docu‐
       mentation License) version 1.3 or later.	 You should  have  received  a
       copy  of the FDL with this package; it is also available on-line at the
       GNU copyleft site ⟨http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html⟩.

       This document is part of groff, the GNU roff distribution.  It is based
       on  a  former  version  - published under the GPL - that described only
       parts of the groff extensions of the output language.  It was rewritten
       in   2002   by  Bernd  Warken  and  is  maintained  by  Werner  Lemberg
       ⟨wl@gnu.org⟩.

Groff Version 1.22.2		7 February 2013			  GROFF_OUT(5)
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