Re: [Groff] The quest for a high-end typesetting system: A few questions

[Peter Schaffter]

On Wed, Mar 09, 2005, Mats Broberg wrote:
> Anyway, I have browsed the groff archives, but have a few additional
> questions. Forgive if the answers to some of them are in the manuals,
> which I indeed have browsed too but not read every word of.

Yours are well thought-out questions.  I believe the answer to most
of them is yes.  Overall, you appear to have typesetting concerns
similar to mine, which suggests that groff and the latest version
of the mom macros will give you about 80% of what you're looking
for.

Please bear in mind that your concerns are most likely less "what
groff can do" than "what a particular macro set does natively."
Anything a macro set doesn't do you can usually make groff do,
either at the "primitive" level, or, more commonly, by writing your
own macros to fill up the deficit.

> 1: Regarding color, is it possible to specify color for, say, drop caps,
> paragraphs, lines etc, in the CMYK color system? I suppose the answer is
> yes, since searching for "CMYK" gives many hits, but wanted to be sure.

Color using CYMK is possible in groff.

The mom macros handle it with
    .NEWCOLOR \" defines a color by name (user choice) and CMYK values
    .COLOR    \" sets subsequent text in the named color

The inline escape \*[colorname] does the same thing as .COLOR

> 2: Being a non-programmer, font installation in TeX & Children deterred
> me ALOT. To install a complete font with small caps, old style figures,
> alternate characters etc one needs to write a fontinst file, comprising
> a couple of hundred lines of code. Not good for us mere mortals! I get
> the impression that this is considerably more easy in groff? Correct?

I find groff's font installation quite straightforward.  See the
mom documentation on the subject at
    http://www.golden.net/~ptpi/appendices.html#FONTS

The article is written with an eye to groff newcomers.
 
> 3: Is hanging punctuation (= commas, periods, colons, semicolons,
> quotation marks and hyphens protruding slightly into the margin)
> possible to achieve in groff? From reading posts in the archive I get
> the impression it would be - or is - possible.

Yes, this is possible with groff, although it requires user
intervention.  I don't know of any macro set that automatically
hangs punctuation when it occurs at the end of a line.  If you
require that functionality though, I believe it's possible to set
it up.

> 4: Is it possible to have multiple series of footnotes and margin notes?

I'm not sure what you mean by "multiple" series.

A number of macro sets, including mom, have footnote capabilities.
I suspect their handling in mom, which is pretty sophisticated, is
what you want.

Margin notes is a subject that came up recently on the list.
Werner has written macros to handle them (available from the groff
repository, I believe).  I have yet to incorporate his ideas into
the mom macros (time, time, time!), and I'm not sure how well
Werner's macros integrate with other macro sets.

> 5: If it turns out the last line of a paragraph has only one or two
> words, is it possible to slightly, slightly tighten the paragraph a few
> thousandparts of an em so that the short line moves back to the
> preceding line? I.e. "short line elimination". If so, can this be
> automated (for long documents)?

Yes, this is possible with groff.

The mom macros handle it with
    .RW \" Reduce inter-letter Whitespace by a specified uniform amount.

> 6: Is it possible to typeset on a "grid" in groff? E.g. if there is a
> figure at the top of the page, to make sure that the following main text
> starts at a multiple of the line spacing used, so that lines on both
> sides of the paper line up when you hold up the sheet against the light?

If I understand what you want, the mom macros handle this with
    .SHIM

SHIM simply inserts the amount of space required to make certain
that your next line of text falls on a "legal" baseline, i.e. on
a baseline grid. 

> 7: I see few if any references in the archive to include external
> graphics, like TIF, BMP, EPS files etc. Does including alot of graphics
> pose a problem?

Groff has the .PSPIC macro (man groff_tmac), which can be used
with any macro set, to import PostScript graphics.  Groff doesn't
natively handle other graphics formats like TIF and BMP, so your
graphics have to be converted to PostScript first.

> 8: I found a discussion about making the linebreaking algorithm
> paragraph-based (as in TeX)? Can this be done or has it been done
> already?

To the best of my knowledge, people have discussed the theory but
no one has, as yet, implemented it.

> 9: Regarding drop caps, is it possible control the drop cap by creating
> a more advanced macro than the examples shown in the archive? Something
> like lettrine.sty in LaTeX - i.e. tweaking vertical size and/or position
> of the drop cap, defining protruding of the serifs into the margin,
> defining space between the drop cap and the indented lines, sloping the
> intended lines when the drop cap is a V or an A, etc.?

The mom DROPCAP macro allows almost all the tweaks you want, except
sloping indents and protruding serifs.

> 10: Parallel typesetting on a spread with vertically synchronized
> paragraphs, line numbering and separate series of footnotes and margin
> notes - possible, not possible? Ted Harding mentioned something about
> that a few years ago.

I'm not sure any existant macro set does all this automatically,
but I'm certain it's possible.

> 11: Can one define spot colors, i.e. 100 % solid Pantone PMS colors?
> When a PS file is color separated at the service bureau, a spot color
> goes on its own printing plate, having its own PMS ink (rather than
> being separated to four different plates (C-M-Y-K).

I don't believe groff can do this, but someone else may know
better, or have a workaround.

> 12: If the last line on a page has a footnote reference, what happens in
> groff? Does the footnote get printed on the next page, or does the last
> line move over to the next page, so that the footnote reference and the
> footnote get printed at the same page? This is something many programs
> have severe problems with.

Each macro set with footnote capabilities handles this differently.

In the mom macros, if a footnote reference occurs in the last line
on a page, the footnote itself is moved to the next page, with
the "marker" (star, dagger, number, whatever) picked up from the
previous page.  If the footnote reference also happens to be the
first footnote on the page AND the page the footnote is moved to
also has footnotes, the "moved" footnote is separated from the
footnotes proper to the page it's moved to by whitespace.  This
visually resolves any confusion that might occur when, say, the
footnotes contain two entries that are both marked by a star (the
usual "first" footnote marker).

Alternatively, the mom macros can number footnotes incrementally
throughout a document, in which case there's no confusion.

> I think that's all for now. Many thanks in advance for your answers and
> comments.

Hopefully, others will add to what I've said and answer all your
questions.

-- 
Peter Schaffter
  Author of _The Schumann Proof_ (RendezVous Press, Canada)
  http://www.golden.net/~ptpi/theschumannproof.html