Re: Re: mom, mm, and PDF files

[Jan Eden]

Hi Branden,

this is great – thanks for both the explanation (re: font-subsetting)
and the positive outlook on the future of groff's macro packages.

- Jan

On 2024-04-16 13:00, G. Branden Robinson wrote:

> Hi Jan,
> 
> At 2024-04-16T19:32:18+0200, Jan Eden wrote:
> > after using LaTeX (pdflatex) for several years, I am testing groff
> > (with mom and mm) to create PDF documents for the first time.
> > 
> > With mom, the process is straightforward: A PDF outline is created
> > automatically, the TOC entries are linked to the headings, and
> > additional PDF links can be created according to the docs[1].
> 
> Yup.  mom(7) has had first-class PDF support for several years.
> 
> > It is a bit trickier with mm. I was able to create a PDF outline using
> > a tip by T. Kurt Bond[2], and a link using the .pdfhref macro – but
> > only with the native gropdf (groff -Tpdf), which creates really large
> > files (> 500k).
> 
> The large size may be due to the lack of font subsetting in groff 1.23.0
> and earlier.  But I have good news for you; in groff Git, gropdf has,
> and in the forthcoming 1.24 release we expect, precisely this feature.
> 
> > The output of pdfmom, on the other hand, can be piped
> > to ps2pdf without losing the PDF outline or links (output size: ~
> > 80k).
> > 
> > Is it possible to
> > 
> > - create small PDF files (via pdfroff or groff | ps2pdf) while keeping
> >   PDF outline/links using the mm package?
> 
> I think Deri James's recent changes to gropdf will indeed reduce the
> size of PDF files, but outlining and linking will require some work,
> either within the package or via supplementary user-authored macros.
> 
> The latter is not necessarily difficult.  For an example, see the
> following extension to ms(7).
> 
> https://github.com/g-branden-robinson/retypesetting-mathematics/blob/master/g.mac
> 
> Since Kernighan & Cherry had presciently defined an `SC` macro, local to
> the document, to manage section headings for them, it was shockingly
> easy for me declare a PDF bookmark within it.
> 
> One line: that's how straightforward it was to add a PDF outline to a
> 1970s document.
> 
> > - create links from the TOC to the document headings/sections
> >   automatically using mm?
> 
> I don't think this is possible with no macro effort from a document
> author at present since the mm(7) package has no notion of internal
> hyperlinking features or PDF.
> 
> However, having just added these to man(7) and mdoc(7), I have an idea
> how to do so for ms(7), me(7), and mm(7), and once that is done, we'll
> have hyperlink/navigation parity among all of groff's full-service macro
> packages.
> 
> Regards,
> Branden

signature.asc
Description: PGP signature