Re: Resources for *roff internals and PDF generation

[Mike Bianchi]

Deri,

What a nice answer!
(And this old-timer learned a few things.)
                                                                Mike

On Thu, Feb 24, 2022 at 04:09:13PM +0000, Deri wrote:
> On Thursday, 24 February 2022 14:54:51 GMT Olle L�gdahl wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I understand this mail is a little outside the scope of this
> > mailinglist; i just had nowhere else to ask. Does somebody know any good
> > resources for understanding the internals of groff/roff? Mostly curious
> > about the PDF-generation part. Any resources may be helpful (online,
> > books). I already have the PDF-1.7 specification, but something more
> > specific on document generation and easier to digest.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > 
> > Olle L�gdahl
> 
> Hi Olle,
> 
> I found the PDF 1.4 specification more helpful, it has a proper clickable 
> index, which the 1.7 version lacks. (https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/
> en/devnet/pdf/pdfs/pdf_reference_archives/PDFReference.pdf).
> 
> As regards how groff produces pdfs it is worth looking at the following:-
> 
> The groff_out man page.
> 
> This describes the groff intermediate format which is what the groff output 
> devices read to produce the final output. The intermediate format is 
> concerned 
> with the business of specifying fonts, size, colour and position of text on 
> the page and includes drawing commands for non-tex objects as well.
> 
> Keith Marshall's pdfmark.pdf which is probably already installed.
> 
> The intermediate format described above does not cover aspects which are 
> useful for pdfs in particular, i.e. creating a document overview and 
> embedding 
> links within the pdf, specifying meta-data for the pdf, etc.. This document 
> covers those areas. All these "extensions" are facilitated using the \X 
> escape 
> for example, which allows you to send information directly to the output 
> driver.
> 
> The gropdf man page.
> 
> This describes some more \X extensions which are understood solely by the 
> gropdf device driver.
> 
> Cheers 
> 
> Deri

-- 
 Mike Bianchi
 Foveal Systems

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