groff_www - groff macros for authoring web pages

groff -mwww [ options ] file ...

This manual page describes the GNU -mwww macro package, which is part of the groff document formatting system. The manual page is very a basic guide, and the html device driver (grohtml) has been completely rewritten but still remains as in an alpha state. It has been included into the distribution so that a lot of people have a chance to test it. Note that this macro file will be automatically called (via the troffrc file) if you use -Thtml.

To see the hyperlinks in action, please format this man page with the grohtml device.

Here is a summary of the functions found in this macro set.

.HX	automatic heading level cut off;
	$1 point for sections/headers
.BCL	specify colours on a web page
.BGIMG	specify background image
.URL	create a url using two parameters
.FTP	create an ftp reference
.MTO	create a html email address
.FTP	create an ftp reference
.TAG	generate an html name
.IMG	include an image file
.PIMG	include png image
.MPIMG	place png on the margin and
	wrap text around it
.HnS	begin heading
.HnE	end heading
.LK	emit automatically collected links.
.HR	produce a horizontal rule
.NHR	suppress automatic generation of rules.
.HTL	only generate HTML title
.ULS	unorder list begin
.ULE	unorder list end
.LI	insert a list item
.DC	generate a drop capital
.HTML	pass an html raw request to the
	device driver

Output of the pic, eqn, refer, and tbl preprocessors is acceptable as input.

HX

Specify the cut off depth when generating links from section headings. For example, a parameter of~2 would cause grohtml to generate a list of links for .NH 1 and .NH 2 but not for .NH 3. Whereas

.HX 0

will tell grohtml that no heading links should be created at all. Another method for turning automatic headings off is by issuing the the command line switch -P-l to groff.

BCL

This macro takes five parameters: foreground, background, active hypertext link, hypertext link not yet visited, and visited hypertext link colour.

BGIMG

the only parameter to this macro is the background image file.

URL

generates a URL using either two or three arguments. The first parameter is the actual URL, the second is the name of the link, and the third is optional stuff to be printed immediately afterwards. Hyphenation is disabled while printing the actual URL; explicit breakpoints should be inserted with the [rs]: escape. Here is how to encode

.URL http://[rs]:foo.[rs]:org/ foo :

If this is processed by a device other than -Thtml it appears as:

m[blue]foom[] [la]C]http://foo.org][ra]:

The URL macro can be of any type; for example we can reference by:

.URL pic.html [dq]Eric Raymond's pic guide[dq]

MTO

Generate an email html reference. The first argument is mandatory as the email address. The optional second argument is the text you see in your browser, and an optional third argument is stuff printed immediately afterwards. Hyphenation is disabled while printing the actual email address. For example, was achieved by the following macro:

.MTO joe@user.org [dq]Joe User[dq]

Note that all the URLs actually are treated as consuming no textual space in groff. This could be considered as a bug since it causes some problems. To circumvent this, www.tmac inserts a zero-width character which expands to a harmless space (only if run with -Thtml).

FTP

indicates that data can be obtained via ftp. The first argument is the url and the second is the browser text. A third argument, similar to the macros above, is intended for stuff printed immediately afterwards. The second and the third parameter are optional. Hyphenation is disabled while printing the actual URL. As an example, here the location of the The macro example above was specified by:

.FTP ftp://[rs]:ftp.gnu.org/ [dq]GNU ftp server[dq] .

TAG

Generates an html name tag from its argument. This can then be referenced using the macro. As you can see, you must precede the tag name with # since it is a local reference. This link was achieved via placing a TAG in the URL description above; the source looks like this:

.TP
.B URL
generates
.TAG URL
a URL using either two or three arguments.
...

IMG

Include a picture into the document. The first argument is the horizontal location: right, left, or center (-R, -L, or -C). The second argument is the filename. The optional third and fourth arguments are the width and height. If the width is absent it defaults to 1~inch. If the height is absent it defaults to the width. This maps onto an html img tag. If you are including a png image then it is advisable to use the PIMG macro.

PIMG

Include an image in PNG format. This macro takes exactly the same parameters as the IMG macro; it has the advantage of working with postscript and html devices also since it can automatically convert the image into the EPS format, using the following programs of the netpbm package: pngtopnm, pnmcrop, and pnmtops. If the document isn't processed with -Thtml it is necessary to use the -U option of groff.

MPIMG

Place a PNG image on the margin and wrap text around it. The first parameter is the alignment: left or right (-L or -R). The second argument is the filename. The optional third and fourth arguments are the width and height. If the width is absent it defaults to 1~inch. If the height is absent it defaults to the width.

HnS

Begin heading. The heading level is specified by the first parameter. Use this macro of your headings contain URLs. Example:

.HnS 1
.HR
GNU Troff
.URL http://groff.ffii.org (Groff) 
- a
.URL http://www.gnu.org/ GNU
project.
Hosted by
.URL http://ffii.org/ FFII .
.HR
.HnE

HnE

End heading.

LK

Force grohtml to place the automatically generated links at this position. If this manual page has been processed with -Thtml those links can be seen right here.

By default grohtml generates links to all section headings and places these at the top of the html document. (See for details of how to switch this off or alter the position).

HR

Generate a full-width horizontal rule.

NHR

Suppress generation of the top and bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.

HTL

Generate an HTML title only. This differs from the TL macro of the ms macro package which generates both an HTML title and an H1 heading. Use it to provide an HTML title as search engine fodder but a graphic title in the document.

HTML

All text after this macro is treated as raw html. If the document is processed without -Thtml then the macro is ignored. Internally, this macro is used as a building block for other higher-level macros.

For example, the BGIMG macro is defined as

.de BGIMG
.   HTML <body background=[rs]$1>
..

DC

Produce a drop capital. The first parameter is the letter to be dropped and enlarged, the second parameter is the ajoining text whose height the first letter should not exceed. The optional third parameter is the color of the dropped letter.

tbl information is currently rendered as a PNG image.

/usr/share/groff/1.18.1/tmac/www.tmac

groff(1), troff(1) grohtml(1), netpbm(1)

grohtml was written by

Report bugs to the Include a complete, self-contained example that will allow the bug to be reproduced, and say which version of groff you are using.