Re: [Groff] URL hyperlinks in PDF from grops and ps2pdf?

[Deri James]

On Tuesday 21 Feb 2012 07:21:15 Clarke Echols wrote:
> I use groff to produce technical white papers.  I run gv and
> monitor a PostScript file so every time I update the file while
> writing in vi (by pressing a function key that contains the groff
> command as a vi macro).
> 
> When I need to print the file, I send it from gv to a LaserJet
> printer.
> 
> But I also often need to convert the PostScript document file to
> PDF format so I can load it onto a website for visitors to
> download.  I normally use ps2pdf to make the conversion.
> 
> There are times when it would be nice if I could include a live
> hyperlink to a web URL inside the PDF (and have it look like a
> hyperlink in the PostScript file too).
> 
> I don't want to produce an HTML file from groff, which leaves
> me with the question:
> 
> Is there an easy way to put an html hyperlink inside of a
> groff-generated PostScript file?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Clarke

See Keith Marshall's documentation of the pdfmark macro set. It says to use:-

.pdfhref W [-D <URI>] [-P <prefix-text>] [-A <affixed-text>]  [--] descriptive 
text ...

as an example:-

.\"======================================
For example, we could introduce a reference to
.pdfhref W -D http://groff.ffii.org -A , the groff web site
in which the actual URI is concealed,
.\"======================================

Run this snippet with:-

groff -mpdfmark snippet.trf > snippet.ps; ps2pdf snippet.ps

If you have a recent CVS version of groff you can also try:-

groff -Tpdf snippet.trf > snippet.pdf

Cheers

Deri