Goodies
The macros in this section are a collection of useful (and sometimes
nearly indispensable) routines to simplify typesetting.
- ALIAS – rename macros
- CAPS – convert to upper case
- CENTER_BLOCK – centre blocks of type with quad intact
- ESC_CHAR – change the escape character to something other than a backslash
- HANG – hang character(s) outside right margin (inline escape)
- LEFT_HANG – hang character(s) outside left margin
- SILENT – hide input lines from output
- SIZESPECS – get cap-height, x-height and descender depth of a font
- SMARTQUOTES – convert typewriter doublequotes to proper doublequotes
- STRING – user-definable strings
- TRAP – suspend/re-invoke traps
- Underscoring/underlining
- Padding
- PAD – insert equalized whitespace into lines
- Leaders
- Drop caps
- Superscripts
- \*[SUP] – inline escape to set superscripts
Rename macros
Macro: ALIAS <new name> <old name>
The ALIAS macro may well be your best friend. With it, you can
change the name of a macro to anything you like (provided the new
name is not already being used by mom).
Groff has always been a bit intimidating for new users because
its standard macro packages use very terse macro names. Mom
doesn’t like people to feel intimidated; she wants them
to feel welcome. Consequently, she tries for easy-to-grasp,
self-explanatory macro names. However, mom knows that people have
their own ways of thinking, their own preferences, their own habits.
Some of her macro names may not suit you; they might be too long,
or aren’t what you automatically think of when you want to
do a particular thing, or might conflict with habits you’ve
developed over the years.
If you don’t like one of mom’s macro names, say,
PAGEWIDTH, change it, like this:
.ALIAS PW PAGEWIDTH
| |
new--+ +--official
name name
The first argument to ALIAS is the new name you want for a macro.
The second is the “official” name by which the macro is
normally invoked. After ALIAS, either can be used.
Note that in ALIAS, you do NOT include the period (dot) that
precedes the macro when it’s a
control line.
Tip:
A particularly good candidate for ALIAS is the macro
PT_SIZE.
A more natural name for it would simply be PS, but PS conflicts
with the eqn equation preprocessor and thus mom uses the
longer form. However, if you’re not using eqn, you can
happily rename PT_SIZE to
PS:
.ALIAS PS PT_SIZE
Note:
If you use ALIAS a lot, and always for the same things, consider
creating an aliases file of the form
.ALIAS <new name> <old name>
.ALIAS <new name> <old name>
.ALIAS <new name> <old name>
...etc
Put the file someplace convenient and source it (include it) at the
beginning of your documents with the
INCLUDE
macro. Assuming that you’ve created an aliases file called
mom-aliases in your home directory under a directory called
Mom, you’d source it by placing
.INCLUDE /home/<username>/Mom/mom-aliases
at the top of your documents.
If you share documents that make use of an alias file, remember that
other people don’t have the file. Paste the whole thing at
the top of your documents, please.
Experts:
ALIAS is an alias of .als. You can use either, or mix
'n' match with impunity.
Hide input lines from output
Macro: SILENT toggle
Alias: COMMENT
Sometimes, you want to “hide”
input lines
from final output. This is most likely to be the case when setting
up string tabs (see the
quickie tutorial on string tabs
for an example), but there are other places where you might want
input lines to be invisible as well. Any place you don’t want
input lines to appear in the output, use the SILENT macro.
SILENT is a toggle. Invoking it without an argument turns it on;
any argument turns it off. E.g.,
.SILENT
A line of text
.SILENT OFF
The line “A line of text” will not appear in the
output copy.
SILENT is aliased as COMMENT. If you want to insert non-printing
comments into your documents, you may prefer this.
Tip:
SILENT does not automatically break an
input line
(see
BR)
when you’re in one of the
fill modes
(JUSTIFY
or
QUAD L | R | C | J).
The same applies to tabs
(typesetting
or
string)
to which you’ve passed the J or QUAD argument. You must
insert .BR yourself, or risk a portion of your text
disappearing into a black hole.
Suspend/re-invoke traps
Macro: TRAP toggle
Traps are vertical positions on the output page at which
you or mom have instructed groff to start doing something
automatically. Commonly, this is near the bottom of the page, where
behind-the-scenes processing is needed in order for one page to
finish and another to start.
Sometimes, traps get sprung when you don’t want them. If this
happens, surround just the offending macros and input lines with
.TRAP OFF
...
.TRAP
TRAP is a toggle, therefore any argument turns it off (ie suspends
the trap), and no argument turns it (back) on.
Convert typewriter doublequotes to proper doublequotes
Macro: SMARTQUOTES [<off>] [ ,, | >> | << ]
or
Macro: SMARTQUOTES DA | DE | ES | FR | IT | NL | NO | PT | SV
If you invoke SMARTQUOTES without an argument, mom converts all
instances of the inch-mark, ("), also called
a doublequote, into the appropriate instances of true Anglo-American
open-and close-doublequotes. (See
Internationalization
for how to get SMARTQUOTES to behave correctly for non-English
quoting styles.)
Typographically, there is a difference between the inch-mark and
quotation marks—a BIG difference. Sadly, typewriters and computer
keyboards supply only one: the inch-mark. While using inches for
doublequotes is, and always has been, acceptable in typewriter-style
copy, it has never been, and, God willing, never will be acceptable in
typeset copy. Failure to turn inches into quotes is the first thing
a professional typesetter notices in documents prepared by amateurs.
And you don’t want to look like an amateur, do you?
Internationalization
If you invoke SMARTQUOTES with one of the optional arguments
(,, or >>
or <<) you can use
" (ie the inch-mark/doublequotes key)
as “cheap” open-and close-quotes when inputting text in
a language other than English, and have mom convert them, on output,
into the chosen open-and close-quote style.
,, opens quotes with “lowered
doublequotes” and closes them with “raised
doublequotes”, as in this ascii approximation:
,,Hilfe !``
>> opens quotes with guillemets
pointing to the right, and closes them with guillemets pointing to
the left, as in this ascii approximation:
>>Zurück !<<
<< opens quotes with guillemets
pointing to the left, and closes them with guillemets pointing to
the right, as in this ascii approximation:
<<Mais monsieur! Je ne suis pas ce genre de fille!>>
Please note: the above arguments to SMARTQUOTES are literal
ASCII characters. ,, is two commas;
<< is two less-than signs;
>> is two greater-than signs.
Alternatively, you can pass SMARTQUOTES the two-letter, ISO 639
abbreviation for the language you’re writing in, and mom will
output the correct quotes.
.SMARTQUOTES DA = Danish >>text<<
.SMARTQUOTES DE = German ,,text``
.SMARTQUOTES ES = Spanish ``text´´
.SMARTQUOTES FR = French << text >>
.SMARTQUOTES IT = Italian << text >>
.SMARTQUOTES NL = Dutch ´´text´´
.SMARTQUOTES NO = Norwegian <<text>>
.SMARTQUOTES PT = Portuguese <<text>>
.SMARTQUOTES SV = Swedish >>text>>
Turn SMARTQUOTES off by passing it any argument not in the argument
list (e.g. OFF, QUIT, X, etc.)
If you’re using the
document processing macros
with
PRINTSTYLE TYPESET,
SMARTQUOTES is on by default (in the Anglo-American style); with
PRINTSTYLE TYPEWRITE,
it’s off by default (and should probably stay that way).
Finally, if you’re fussy about the kerning of quote marks in
relation to the text they surround, or have special quoting needs,
you have to enter quote marks by hand using groff’s native
inline escapes
for special characters (see man groff-char
for a complete list of special characters). Entering quote marks
this way allows you to use mom’s
inline kerning escapes
to fine-tune the look of quotes.
Note:
SMARTQUOTES does not work on single quotes, which most people
input with the apostrophe (found at the right-hand end of the
“home row” on a QWERTY keyboard). Groff will interpret
all instances of the apostrophe as an apostrophe, making the symbol
useless as an open-single-quote. For open single quotes, input
the backtick character typically found under the tilde on most
keyboards. Here’s an example of correct input copy with
single quotes:
"But she said, `I don’t want to!'"
Additional note:
Whether or not you have SMARTQUOTES turned on, get into the habit of
entering the foot-and inch-marks, when you need them, with the
inline escapes
\*[FOOT] and
\*[INCH], instead of
' and ".
Convert to upper case
Macro: CAPS toggle
CAPS converts all lower case letters to upper case.
Primarily, it’s a support macro used by the
document processing macros,
but you may find it helpful on occasion. CAPS is a toggle, therefore
no argument turns it on, any argument (OFF, QUIT, X, etc.) turns
it off.
.CAPS
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
.CAPS OFF
produces, on output
ALL WORK AND NO PLAY MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.
If you wish to capitalise a section of type inline, use the
inline escapes,
\*[UC]...\*[LC]
like this:
All work \*[UC]and\*[LC] no play makes Jack a dull boy.
The above produces, on output
All work AND no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Note:
\*[LC] must come after a terminating period.
\*[UC]All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.\*[LC]
not
\*[UC]All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy\*[LC].
User-defined strings
Macro: STRING <name> <what you want in the string>
You may find sometimes that you have to type out portions of text
repeatedly. If you’d like not to wear out your fingers, you can
define a string that, whenever you call it by name, outputs whatever
you put into it.
For example, say you’re creating a document that repeatedly uses
the phrase “the Montreal/Windsor corridor”. Instead
of typing all that out every time, you could define a string, like
this:
.STRING mw the Montreal/Windsor corridor
Once a string is defined, you can call it any time with the
inline escape
\*[<stringname>]. Using the example
string above
The schedule for trains along \*[mw]:
produces, on output
The schedule for trains along the Montreal/Windsor corridor:
Note:
Be very careful not to put any spaces at the ends of strings
you’re defining, unless you want them. Everything after
the name argument you pass to STRING goes into the string,
including trailing spaces. It’s a good idea to get into the
habit of using groff’s native commenting mechanism, \", immediately following any string definition
in order to avoid spaces you can’t see, like this
.STRING mw the Montreal/Windsor corridor\"
Experts:
STRING is an alias for
ds. You can use either, or mix 'n' match with impunity.
Change the escape character
Macro: ESC_CHAR <new character> | <anything>
Groff’s and mom’s default escape character is
the backslash. Sometimes, you may want to include a literal
backslash in your document. There are two ways to accomplish
this. One is simply to double the backslash character (\\), which is convenient if you don’t have
a lot of backslashes to input. If you need to input a whole batch
of backslashes (say, when including code snippets in your document),
you can use ESC_CHAR to make the change permanent (until you decide
to restore the escape character to its default, the backslash).
ESC_CHAR with a single character argument changes the escape
character to whatever the argument is. ESC_CHAR with no argument
restores the escape character to the backslash.
Important:
Changing the escape character prevents macros, which require that
the backslash be the escape character, from functioning correctly.
Do not introduce any subsequent macros without first restoring the
escape character to its default.
Experts:
ESC_CHAR is an alias of .ec. Mix 'n' match
the two with impunity.
Get cap-height, x-height and descender depth of a font
Macro: SIZESPECS
Whenever you need to get the
cap-height,
x-height
or
descender
depth of type at the current point size, invoke .SIZESPECS, which takes no argument.
The dimensions are stored in the string registers
\*[$CAP_HEIGHT], \*[$X_HEIGHT] and
\*[$DESCENDER], respectively, in
machine units
to which the
unit of measure,
u, is already appended.
Thus, if you wanted to advance 2 inches from your current position
on the page plus the cap-height of the current point size of type
.PT_SIZE <n>
.SIZESPECS
.ALD 2i+\*[$CAP_HEIGHT]
would do the trick.
Single underscore
Macro: UNDERSCORE [ <distance below baseline> ] "<string>"
• Optional argument requires a unit of measure
By default, UNDERSCORE places an underscore 2 points beneath the
required
string argument.
The string must be enclosed in double-quotes, like this:
.UNDERSCORE "Unmonitored monopolies breed high prices and poor products."
If you wish to change the distance of the rule from the baseline,
use the optional argument
<distance below baseline>
(with a unit of measure).
.UNDERSCORE 3p "Unmonitored monopolies breed high prices and poor products."
The above places upper edge of the underscore 3 points below the
baseline.
Note:
UNDERSCORE does not work across line breaks in output copy, which is
to say that you can’t underscore a multi-line passage simply
by putting the text of the whole thing in the string you pass to
UNDERSCORE. If you need to underscore several lines of type, use
UNDERLINE.
Additional note:
In
nofill modes,
UNDERSCORE causes a break before and after, meaning the underscored
word or phrase will appear as a separate line in your output. If
you wish to embed an underscored word or phrase into non-filled
text, temporarily change to the corresponding fill mode with
QUAD
and insert breaks manually with
BR
as appropriate, reverting to the original nofill mode afterwards.
Controlling the weight of underscores
The weight (thickness) of underscores may be controlled with the
macro UNDERSCORE_WEIGHT. Thus, if you want underscores with a
weight of 1-1/2 points, you’d invoke:
.UNDERSCORE_WEIGHT 1.5
prior to invoking .UNDERSCORE. Every
subsequent instance of .UNDERSCORE will use
this weight.
Mom’s default underscore weight is 1/2 point.
Colorizing underscored text
If you want underscored text to be in a different colour from the
text around it, use the
COLOR
macro, rather than the
inline escape for changing color.
In other words, assuming your prevailing text color is black and
you want underscored text in red
.COLOR red
.UNDERSCORE "text to underscore"
.COLOR black
rather than
.UNDERSCORE "\*[red]text to underscore\*[black]"
The latter will render the text in red, and the underscore in black.
You can use this to create truly rainbow effects if you want, e.g.
text in red, underscore in blue, and prevailing type in black:
.UNDERSCORE "\*[red]text to underscore\*[blue]"
.COLOR black
Double underscore
Macro: UNDERSCORE2 [ <distance below baseline> [ <distance between rules> ] ] "<string>"
• Optional arguments require a unit of measure
By default, UNDERSCORE2 places a double underscore 2 points beneath
the required
string argument.
The string must be enclosed in double-quotes, like this:
.UNDERSCORE2 "Unmonitored monopolies breed high prices and poor products."
The default distance between the two rules is 2 points, measured
from the bottom edge of the upper rule to the top edge of the lower
one.
If you wish to change the distance of the double underscore from the
baseline,
use the optional argument
<distance below baseline>
(with a unit of measure), e.g.,
.UNDERSCORE2 3p "Unmonitored monopolies breed high prices and poor products."
which places the upper edge of the first rule of the double
underscore 3 points below the baseline.
If you wish to change the distance between the two rules as well,
use the second optional argument
<distance between rules>
(with a unit of measure). Be aware that you must give a value for
the first optional argument if you want to use the second. The
distance between the two rules is measured from the bottom edge of
the upper rule to the top edge of the lower one.
The weight (thickness) of double underscores may be controlled with
the macro
UNDERSCORE_WEIGHT
(q.v).
Note:
In
nofill modes,
UNDERSCORE2 causes a break before and after, meaning the double-underscored
word or phrase will appear as a separate line in your output. If
you wish to embed a double-underscored word or phrase into non-filled
text, temporarily change to the corresponding fill mode with
QUAD
and insert breaks manually with
BR
as appropriate, reverting to the original nofill mode afterwards.
Underline
Macro: UNDERLINE toggle
The distinction between underscoring and underlining is that
underscoring is suitable for occasional effects (a word here,
a phrase there), whereas underlining underlines whole passages
of type. Furthermore, you cannot colorize underlining, and
there’s a special macro
UNDERLINE_SPECS
to control the weight and distance from the baseline of the
underline. Lastly, files that use UNDERLINE must be processed with
pdfmom -Tps filename.mom | ps2pdf - filename.pdf
since groff's native pdf driver does not recognize UNDERLINE.
UNDERLINE is a toggle macro, therefore you invoke it by itself (ie
with no argument) to initiate underlining, and with any argument
(OFF, QUIT, X, etc) to turn it off.
Note:
Underlining may also be turned on and off
inline
with the escapes
\*[UL]...\*[ULX].
Additional note:
In document processing, neither .UNDERLINE nor
\*[UL] persist past the current document element tag.
For example, if you turn underlining on in a paragraph
(.PP),
your next paragraph will not be underlined.
UNDERLINE_SPECS
The weight of underlining and the distance from the baseline is
set with
.UNDERLINE_SPECS <weight> <distance>
The <weight> argument can be expressed in any
unit of measure
you like, but points is the most usual. Mom’s default is 1/2 point
(.5p). The same holds for the <distance> argument;
mom’s default is 1-1/4 points (1.25p).
INLINE ESCAPE FOR UNDERLINING
The macro pair,
.UNDERLINE /
.UNDERLINE OFF, and the inline escapes,
\*[UL] / \*[ULX], are functionally identical,
hence, in
fill
modes
Which should I heed?
.UNDERLINE
Just do it
.UNDERLINE OFF
or
.UNDERLINE
just say no?
.UNDERLINE OFF
produces the same result as
Which should I heed? \*[UL]Just do it\*[ULX] or \*[UL]just say no?\*[ULX]
In either case, this is a misuse of UNDERLINE.
UNDERSCORE
is preferable.
Insert equalized whitespace into lines
Macro: PAD "<string with pad markers inserted>" [ NOBREAK ]
With PAD, you can insert proportional amounts of whitespace into a
line. The optional NOBREAK
argument tells mom not to advance on the page after the PAD macro
has been invoked.
PAD calculates the difference between the length of text on the line
and the distance remaining to its end, then inserts the difference
(as whitespace) at the place(s) you specify.
Take, for example, the following relatively common typesetting
situation, found at the bottom of legal agreements:
Date Signature |
The person signing the agreement is supposed to fill in the date
as well as a signature. Space needs to be left for both, but the
exact amount is neither known, nor important. All that matters is
that there be a little space after Date, and rather more space after
Signature. (In the above, | represents the
end of the line at the prevailing line length.)
The
pad marker
(see below) is # (the pound or number sign
on your keyboard) and can be used multiple times in a line. With
that in mind, here’s how you’d input the Date/Signature line
(assuming a length of 30 picas):
.LL 30P
.PAD "Date#Signature###"
When the line is output, the space remaining on the line, after
"Date" and "Signature" have been taken into
account, is split into four (because there are four # signs). One
quarter of the space is inserted between Date and Signature, the
remainder is inserted after Signature.
Example of PAD usage
One rarely wants merely to insert space in a line; one usually wants
to fill it with something, hence PAD is particularly useful in
conjunction with
string tabs.
The following uses the Date/Signature example, above, but adds
rules into the whitespace through the use of string tabs and
mom’s
inline escape
\*[RULE].
.LL 30P
.PAD "Date \*[ST1]#\*[ST1X] Signature \*[ST2]###\*[ST2X]" NOBREAK
.ST 1 J
.ST 2 J
.TAB 1
\*[RULE]
.TN
\*[RULE]
.TQ
Here’s what the example does:
- Pads the Date/Signature line with a shorter space for Date
(#) and a longer space for Signature
(###), encloses the padded space with string tabs
markers, and outputs the line without advancing on the page.
- Sets the quad for the two string tabs (in this instance, justified).
- Calls the first string tab and draws a rule to its full
length.
- Calls the second tab with
TN
(which moves to tab 2 and stays on the same baseline)
then draws a rule to the full length of string tab 2.
Often, when setting up string tabs this way, you don’t want the
padded line to print immediately. To accomplish this, use
SILENT.
See the
quickie tutorial on string tabs
for an example.
Note:
Because the pound sign
(#) is used as the pad marker, you
can’t use it as a literal part of the pad string. If you need
the sign to appear in the text of a padded line, change the pad
marker with
PAD_MARKER.
Also, be aware that # as a pad marker
only applies within the PAD macro; at all other times it prints
literally, just as you’d expect.
Another important consideration when using PAD is that because the
string must be enclosed in double-quotes, you can’t use the
double-quote (") as part of the string. The
way to circumvent this is to use the groff
inline escapes
\(lq and \(rq
(leftquote and rightquote respectively) whenever double-quotes are
required in the string passed to PAD.
Change/set the marker used with PAD
Macro: PAD_MARKER "<character to use as the pad marker>
If you need to change mom’s default pad marker (#), either because you want a literal # in
the padded line, or simply because you want to use another character
instead, use PAD_MARKER, whose argument is the new pad marker
character you want.
.PAD_MARKER @
changes the pad marker to @.
Once you’ve changed the pad marker, the new marker remains in effect
for every instance of
PAD
until you change it again (say, back to the pound sign).
Inline escape to add leaders to a line
Inline: \*[LEADER]
Whenever you want to fill a line or tab with
leaders,
use the
inline escape
\*[LEADER]. The remainder of the line or
tab will be filled with the leader character. Mom’s default
leader character is a period (dot), but you can change it to any
character you like with
LEADER_CHARACTER.
Note:
\*[LEADER] fills lines or tabs right to
their end. You cannot insert leaders into a line or tab and have
text following the leader on the same line or in the same tab.
Should you wish to achieve such an effect typographically, create
tabs for each element of the line and fill them appropriately with
the text and leaders you need.
String tabs
are perfect for this. An example follows.
.LL 30P
.PAD "Date\*[ST1]#\*[ST1X] Signature\*[ST2]###\*[ST2X]" NOBREAK
.EL
.ST 1 J
.ST 2 J
.TAB 1
\*[LEADER]
.TN
\*[LEADER]
.TQ
The PAD line sets the words Date and Signature, and marks string
tabs around the pad space inserted in the line. The string tabs are
then "set", called, and filled with leaders. The result
looks like this:
Date.............Signature.....................................
Change/set the leader character
Macro: LEADER_CHARACTER <character>
LEADER_CHARACTER takes one argument: a single character you would
like to be used for
leaders.
(See
\*[LEADER]
for an explanation of how to fill lines with leaders.)
For example, to change the leader character from mom’s
default (a period) to the underscore character, enter
.LEADER_CHARACTER _
Tip:
A particularly useful function of LEADER_CHARACTER is that it can be
used to increase the spacing of mom’s default leaders. This is
done by assigning to LEADER_CHARACTER both the period (dot) and a
space. The technique requires a little low-level groffing:
.char \[leader] . \"
.LEADER_CHARACTER \[leader]
The .char
primitive
allows you to define a character called leader, to which
you assign a period and a space. The \", which, in
groff, is used to add non-printing comments to a line, is not
strictly necessary. Its presence here lets you see that
there’s a space after the period.
Drop caps
Macro: DROPCAP <dropcap letter> <number of lines to drop> [ COND <percentage> | EXT <percentage> ]
The first two arguments to DROPCAP are the letter you want to be the
drop cap
and the number of lines you want it to drop. By default, mom uses
the current family and font for the drop cap.
The optional argument (COND or EXT) indicates
that you want the drop cap condensed (narrower) or extended (wider).
If you use COND or EXT, you must
follow the argument with the percentage of the letter’s normal
width you want it condensed or extended. No percent sign
(%) is required.
Mom will do her very best to get the drop cap to line up with the
first line of text indented beside it, then set the correct number
of indented lines, and restore your left margin when the number of
drop cap lines has been reached.
Beginning a paragraph with a drop cap “T” looks like this:
.DROPCAP T 3 COND 90
he thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as best I
could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.
You who so well know the nature of my soul will not suppose,
however, that I gave utterance to a threat...
The drop cap, slightly condensed but in the current family and font,
will be three lines tall, with whatever text fills those three
lines indented to the right of the letter. The remainder of the
paragraph’s text will revert to the left margin.
Note:
When using the
document processing macro
PP,
DROPCAP only works
- with initial paragraphs (ie at the start of the document,
or after
HEAD),
- when .DROPCAP comes immediately after .PP,
- the
PRINTSTYLE
is TYPESET.
If these conditions aren’t met, DROPCAP is silently ignored.
Warning:
DROPCAP puts a bit of a strain on resource-challenged systems. If
you have such a system and use drop caps extensively in a document,
be prepared for a wait while mom does her thing.
Drop caps are the bane of most typesetters’ existence.
It’s very difficult to get the size of the drop cap right
for the number of drop lines, especially if the drop cap is in a
different family from the prevailing family of running text. Not
only that, but there’s the gutter around the drop cap to take
into account, plus the fact that the letter may be too wide or too
narrow to look anything but odd or misplaced.
Mom solves the last of these problems with the COND and
EXT arguments. The rest she solves with macros that
change the default behaviour of DROPCAP, namely
These macros must, of course, come before you invoke DROPCAP.
• DROPCAP_FAMILY
Set the drop cap family by giving DROPCAP_FAMILY the name of the
family you want, e.g.
.DROPCAP_FAMILY H
which will set the family to Helvetica for the drop cap only.
• DROPCAP_FONT
Set the drop cap font by giving DROPCAP_FONT the name of the font
you want, e.g.
.DROPCAP_FONT I
which will set the font to italic for the drop cap only.
• DROPCAP_ADJUST
If the size mom calculates for the drop cap isn’t precisely
what you want, you can increase or decrease it with DROPCAP_ADJUST,
like this: e.g.
.DROPCAP_ADJUST +1
or
.DROPCAP_ADJUST -.75
DROPCAP_ADJUST only understands
points,
therefore do not append any
unit of measure
to the argument. And always be sure to prepend the plus or
minus sign, depending on whether you want the drop cap larger or
smaller.
• DROPCAP_COLOR
If you’d like your drop cap colourized, simply invoke
.DROPCAP_COLOR <color> with the name of a
colour you’ve already created (“initialized”) with
NEWCOLOR
or
XCOLOR.
Only the drop cap will be colourized; all other text will remain at
the current colour default (usually black).
• DROPCAP_GUTTER
By default, mom puts three points of space between the drop cap
and the text indented beside it. If you want another value, use
DROPCAP_GUTTER (with a unit of measure), like this:
.DROPCAP_GUTTER 6p
Superscript
Inlines: \*[SUP]...\*[SUPX]
Superscripts are accomplished
inline.
Whenever you need one, typically for numerals, all you need to do is
surround the superscript with the inlines above. \*[SUP]
begins superscripting; \*[SUPX] turns it off.
If your running type is
pseudo-condensed
or
pseudo-extended
and you want your superscripts to be equivalently pseudo-condensed
or -extended, use
\*[CONDSUP]...\*[CONDSUPX] or
\*[EXTSUP]...\*[EXTSUPX].
The superscript inlines are primarily used by the
document processing macros
for automatic generation of numbered footnotes. However, you may
find them useful for other purposes.
Note:
Mom does a pretty fine job of making superscripts look good in any
font and at any size. If you’re fussy, though (and I am),
about precise vertical placement, kerning, weight, size, and so on,
you may want to roll your own solution.
SUPERSCRIPT RAISE AMOUNT
By default, mom raises superscripts 1/3 of an
em
above the baseline. If you’re not happy with this default,
you can change it by invoking SUPERSCRIPT_RAISE_AMOUNT with the
amount you want them raised. A
unit of measure
must be appended directly to the amount. Thus, if you want
superscripts raised by 3
points
instead of 1/3 em, you’d do
.SUPERSCRIPT_RAISE_AMOUNT 3p
and all subsequent superscripts would be raised by 3 points.
Centre blocks of type
Macro: CENTER_BLOCK <toggle>
Blocks of type sometimes need to be centred on the page with their quad
direction (left, centre, right) left intact. The
document processing macros
QUOTE
and
BLOCKQUOTE
take care of this automatically, but there are other situations
where you may want to centre blocks of type. An example might be
left-quadded
nested lists.
Whenever you want to centre a block of type on the page, surround it with
.CENTER_BLOCK/.CENTER_BLOCK OFF (or QUIT, X, etc.).
Hanging characters
Macro: LEFT_HANG <character>
Inline: \*[HANG <character>]
LEFT_HANG hangs its argument to the left of the left margin.
If enclosed in double-quotes, the argument may contain local
horizontal motions.
Input text after LEFT_HANG must begin by repeating the text of the
argument, including horizontal motions. If the hung character is
a left double-quote, \[lq] must be used in the argument
and the usual keyboard double-quote (") used for the
input text so as not to confuse SMARTQUOTES.
The following example demonstrates:
.LEFT_HANG "\[lq]\*[FU3]"
"\*[FU3]This line will have its opening double-quote
plus three kern units of space hung outside the
left margin."
The \*[HANG] inline escape hangs its single-character
argument, typically a punctuation mark, outside the right margin of
justified copy, like this:
This line will have its closing period hung outside
the right margin\*[HANG .]
For the exceptionally fussy, \*[HANG] may also be used
with centred text to centre the text visually without taking the
hung punctuation into account.
If the hung character is a right double-quote, "\[rq]"
must be used as the argument (that is, the \[rq] character surrounded
by double-quotes). The double-quotes are required for all special
characters of the form \[xx].
If the hung character is a hyphen, \*[HANG -] must
come at the end of an
input line.
All other characters may be used mid-line if groff breaks the line
naturally at the point the hung character is introduced.