The typesetting macros
Introduction
Mom’s typesetting macros provide access to groff’s
typesetting capabilities. Aside from controlling basic type
parameters (family, font, line length, point size, leading),
mom’s macros fine-tune wordspacing, letterspacing, kerning,
hyphenation, and so on. In addition, mom has true typesetting tabs,
string tabs, multiple indent styles, line padding, and a batch of
other goodies.
In some cases, mom’s typesetting macros merely imitate groff
primitives. In others, they approach typesetting concerns in
conceptually new ways (for groff, at least). This should present
no problem for newcomers to groff who are learning mom. Old groff
hands should be careful. Just because it looks like a duck and
walks like a duck does not, in this instance, mean that it is a
duck. When using mom, stay away from groff primitives if mom
provides a macro that accomplishes the same thing.
Mom’s typesetting macros can be used as a standalone package,
independent of the
document processing macros.
With them, you can typeset on-the-fly. Book covers, your best
friend’s résumé, a poster for a lost dog—none of these
requires structured document processing (page headers, paragraphs,
headings, footnotes, etc). What they do demand is precise control over
every element on the page. The typesetting macros give you that
control.
Paper and page setup: paper size & page margins
The page setup macros establish the physical dimensions of your page
and the margins you want it to have. Groff has defaults for these,
but I recommend setting them at the top of your files anyway.
If you’re using mom’s
document processing macros,
these macros must come after
PRINTSTYLE.
The
PAPER
macro provides a shortcut for setting the page to the correct
dimensions for a number of common paper sizes. The
PAGE
macro provides a convenient way of setting the page dimensions and
some or all of the page margins with a single macro.
Important note on page dimensions and papersize
When mom files are processed with
pdfmom,
which is recommended (see
Producing PDFs with groff and mom),
page dimensions are automatically passed to groff, and you don't
have to worry about them.
Mom documents processed directly with groff, or with
pdfroff, or with pdfmom ‑Tps, require
that the papersize be given on the command line as well if the
papersize is different from the default on your system. You can
verify—or change—the default papersize by inspecting the
files
<path to groff>/font/devps/DESC
and
<path to groff>/font/devpdf/DESC
(See man papersize for list of valid papersize
names, as well as for instructions on how to enter a non-standard
size.)
If you occasionally need to print on sheets that do not
conform to your default papersize, you must, in addition
to setting the page dimensions in your mom file, pass the
-P-p<papersize> option to groff,
pdfroff, or pdfmom -Tps.
For example, suppose your routine papersize is “letter”,
and you need to print something on a legal-sized sheet. After
telling mom about the legal-size sheet (with either
PAGELENGTH
and
PAGEWIDTH
or
PAPER,
or
PAGE),
you must include -P-p<papersize> on whichever
command line you use, e.g.,
pdfmom -Tps -mom -P-plegal
Remember, though, that
pdfmom,
with no -Tps option, is smart enough to know the
papersize from the dimensions provided in your mom file.
Consult man groff, man grops and man
groff_font for additional information concerning papersizes,
as well as information on printing in “landscape”
orientation.
Paper and page setup macros
Page width
Macro: PAGEWIDTH <width of printer sheet>
• Requires a unit of measure
The argument to PAGEWIDTH is the width of your printer sheet.
PAGEWIDTH requires a unit of measure. Decimal fractions are
allowed. Hence, to tell mom that the width of your printer sheet is
8-1/2 inches, you enter
.PAGEWIDTH 8.5i
Please read the
Important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your
PAGEWIDTH.
Important: PAGEWIDTH,
when you need it, should be placed at the top of your files.
Page length
Macro: PAGELENGTH <length of printer sheet>
• Requires a unit of measure
PAGELENGTH tells mom how long your printer sheet is. It works just
like PAGEWIDTH. Therefore, to tell mom your printer sheet is 11
inches long, you enter
.PAGELENGTH 11i
Please read the
Important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your PAGELENGTH.
Important: PAGELENGTH,
when you need it, should be placed at the top of your files.
Paper
Macro: PAPER <paper type> [ LANDSCAPE ]
PAPER provides a convenient way to set the dimensions for some
common printer sheet sizes. <paper type> can
be one of:
LETTER EXECUTIVE
LEGAL 10x14
STATEMENT A3
TABLOID A4
LEDGER A5
FOLIO B4
QUARTO B5
Say, for example, you have A4-sized sheets in your printer. It’s
shorter (and easier) to enter
.PAPER A4
than to remember the correct dimensions and enter
.PAGEWIDTH 595p
.PAGELENGTH 842p
If you’d like landscape orientation for your paper type,
pass PAPER the LANDSCAPE argument.
Please read the
Important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your PAPER size.
Important: PAPER when you
need it, should be placed at the top of your files.
Left margin
Macro: L_MARGIN <left margin>
• Requires a unit of measure
L_MARGIN establishes the distance from the left edge of the printer
sheet at which you want your type to start. It may be used any
time, and remains in effect until you enter a new value.
Left indents
and
tabs
are calculated from the value you pass to L_MARGIN, hence it’s
always a good idea to invoke it before starting any serious
typesetting. A unit of measure is required. Decimal fractions are
allowed. Therefore, to set the left margin at 3 picas (1/2 inch),
you’d enter either
.L_MARGIN 3P
or
.L_MARGIN .5i
If you use the macros
PAGE,
PAGEWIDTH
or
PAPER
without invoking L_MARGIN (either before or afterwards), mom
automatically sets L_MARGIN to 1 inch.
Right margin
Macro: R_MARGIN <right margin>
• Requires a unit of measure
IMPORTANT: R_MARGIN, if used, must
come after
PAPER,
PAGEWIDTH,
L_MARGIN
and/or
PAGE
(if a right margin isn’t given to PAGE). The reason is that
R_MARGIN calculates line length from the overall page dimensions and
the left margin. Obviously, it can’t make the calculation if
it doesn’t know the page width and the left margin.
R_MARGIN establishes the amount of space you want between the end
of typeset lines and the right hand edge of the printer sheet. In
other words, it sets the line length. R_MARGIN requires a unit of
measure. Decimal fractions are allowed.
The line length macro
(LL)
can be used in place of R_MARGIN. In either case, the last one
invoked sets the line length. The choice of which to use is up
to you. In some instances, you may find it easier to think of a
section of type as having a right margin. In others, giving a line
length may make more sense.
For example, if you’re setting a page of type you know should
have 6-pica margins left and right, it makes sense to enter a left
and right margin, like this:
.L_MARGIN 6P
.R_MARGIN 6P
That way, you don’t have to worry about calculating the line
length. On the other hand, if you know the line length for a patch
of type should be 17 picas and 3 points, entering the line length
with LL is much easier than calculating the right margin, e.g.,
.LL 17P+3p
If you use the macros
PAGE,
PAGEWIDTH
or
PAPER
without invoking .R_MARGIN afterwards, mom automatically
sets R_MARGIN to 1 inch. If you set a line length after these
macros (with
LL),
the line length calculated by R_MARGIN is, of course, overridden.
Top margin
Macro: T_MARGIN <top margin>
• Requires a unit of measure
T_MARGIN establishes the distance from the top of the printer
sheet at which you want your type to start. It requires a unit of
measure, and decimal fractions are allowed. To set a top margin of
2-1/2 centimetres, you’d enter
.T_MARGIN 2.5c
T_MARGIN calculates the vertical position of the first line of type
on a page by treating the top edge of the printer sheet as a
baseline. Therefore,
.T_MARGIN 1.5i
puts the baseline of the first line of type 1-1/2 inches beneath the
top of the page.
IMPORTANT: T_MARGIN does two
things: it establishes the top margin for pages that come after
it and it moves to that position on the current page.
Therefore, T_MARGIN should only be used at the top of a file (prior
to entering text) or after
NEWPAGE,
like this:
.NEWPAGE
.T_MARGIN 6P
<text>
Bottom margin
Macro: B_MARGIN <bottom margin>
• Requires a unit of measure
B_MARGIN sets a nominal position at the bottom of the page beyond
which you don’t want your type to go. When the bottom margin
is reached, mom starts a new page. B_MARGIN requires a unit of
measure. Decimal fractions are allowed. To set a nominal bottom
margin of 3/4 inch, enter
.B_MARGIN .75i
Obviously, if you haven’t spaced the type on your pages so
that the last lines fall perfectly at the bottom margin, the margin
will vary from page to page. Usually, but not always, the last line
of type that fits on a page before the bottom margin causes mom to
start a new page.
Occasionally, owing to a peculiarity in groff, an extra line will
fall below the nominal bottom margin. If you’re using the
document processing macros,
this is unlikely to happen; the document processing macros are very
hard-nosed about aligning bottom margins.
Page
Macro: PAGE <width> [ <length> [ <lm> [ <rm> [ <tm> [ <bm> ] ] ] ] ]
• All arguments require a unit of measure
PAGE lets you establish paper dimensions and page margins with a
single macro. The only required argument is page width. The rest
are optional, but they must appear in order and you can’t
skip over any. <lm>, <rm>, <tm> and
<bm> refer to the left, right, top and bottom
margins respectively.
Assuming your page dimensions are 11 inches by 17 inches, and
that’s all you want to set, enter
.PAGE 11i 17i
If you want to set the left margin as well, say, at 1 inch, PAGE
would look like this:
.PAGE 11i 17i 1i
Now suppose you also want to set the top margin, say, at 1-1/2
inches. <tm> comes after <rm> in the optional arguments,
but you can’t skip over any arguments, therefore to set the
top margin, you must also give a right margin. The PAGE macro would
look like this:
.PAGE 11i 17i 1i 1i 1.5i
| |
required right---+ +---top margin
margin
Clearly, PAGE is best used when you want a convenient way to tell
mom just the dimensions of your printer sheet (width and length), or
when you want to tell her everything about the page (dimensions and
all the margins), for example
.PAGE 8.5i 11i 45p 45p 45p 45p
This sets up an 8-1/2 by 11 inch page with margins of 45 points
(5/8-inch) all around.
Additionally, if you invoke .PAGE with a top margin
argument, any macros you invoke after .PAGE will almost
certainly move the
baseline
of the first line of text down by one linespace. To compensate, do
.RLD 1v
immediately before entering any text, or, if it’s feasible,
make PAGE the last macro you invoke prior to entering text.
Please read the
Important note on page dimensions and papersize
for information on ensuring groff respects your PAGE dimensions and
margins.
Start a new page
Macro: NEWPAGE
Whenever you want to start a new page, use NEWPAGE, by itself with
no argument. Mom will finish up processing the current page and move
you to the top of a new one (subject to the top margin set with
T_MARGIN).
Basic typesetting parameters
The basic typesetting parameter macros deal with fundamental
requirements for setting type: family, font, point size, leading and
line length.
If you’re using the typesetting macros only, the arguments
passed to the basic parameter macros remain in effect until
you change them. The document processing macros handle things
differently. See
Typesetting macros during document processing
for an explanation.
Type family
Macro: FAMILY <family>
Alias: FAM
FAMILY takes one argument: the name of the
family
you want. Groff comes with a small set of basic families, each
identified by a 1-, 2-or 3-letter mnemonic. The standard families
are:
A = Avant Garde
BM = Bookman
H = Helvetica
HN = Helvetica Narrow
N = New Century Schoolbook
P = Palatino
T = Times Roman
ZCM = Zapf Chancery
The argument you pass to FAMILY is the identifier at left, above.
For example, if you want Helvetica, enter
.FAMILY H
Note: The font macro
(FT)
lets you specify both the type family and the desired font with
a single macro. While this saves a few keystrokes, I recommend
using FAMILY for family, and FT for font, except where doing
so is genuinely inconvenient. ZCM, for example,
only exists in one style: Italic (I). Therefore,
.FT ZCMI makes more sense than setting the family to
ZCM, then setting the font to I.
Additional note:
If you are running a version of groff lower than 1.19.2, you must
follow all FAMILY requests with a FT request, otherwise mom will set
all type up to the next FT request in the
fallback font.
If you are running a version of groff greater than or
equal to 1.19.2, when you invoke the FAMILY macro, mom
“remembers” the font style (Roman, Italic, etc)
currently in use (if the font style exists in the new family) and
will continue to use the same font style in the new family. For
example:
.FAMILY BM \" Bookman family
.FT I \" Medium Italic
<some text> \" Bookman Medium Italic
.FAMILY H \" Helvetica family
<more text> \" Helvetica Medium Italic
However, if the font style does not exist in the new family, mom
will set all subsequent type in the
fallback font
(by default, Courier Medium Roman) until she encounters a
.FT
request that’s valid for the family. For example, assuming
you don’t have the font “Medium Condensed Roman”
(mom extension “CD”) in the Helvetica family:
.FAMILY UN \" Univers family
.FT CD \" Medium Condensed
<some text> \" Univers Medium Condensed
.FAMILY H \" Helvetica family
<more text> \" Courier Medium Roman!
In the above example, you must follow
.FAMILY H with a FT request
that’s valid for Helvetica.
Please see the Appendices,
Adding fonts to groff,
for information on adding fonts and families to groff, as well as
to see a list of the extensions mom provides to groff’s basic
R, I, B, BI styles.
Suggestion: When adding
families to groff, I recommend following the established standard
for the naming families and fonts. For example, if you add the
Garamond family, name the font files
GARAMONDR
GARAMONDI
GARAMONDB
GARAMONDBI
GARAMOND then becomes a valid family name you can pass to FAMILY.
(You could, of course, shorten GARAMOND to just G, or GD.) R,
I, B, and BI after GARAMOND are the roman,
italic, bold and bold-italic fonts respectively.
FT
Macro: FT R | I | B | BI | <any other valid font style>
Alias: FONT
By default, groff permits FT to take one of four possible arguments
specifying the desired font:
R = (Medium) Roman
I = (Medium) Italic
B = Bold (Roman)
BI = Bold Italic
For example, if your
family
is Helvetica, entering
.FT B
will give you the Helvetica bold
font.
If your family were Palatino, you’d get the Palatino bold
font.
Mom considerably extends the range of arguments you can pass to FT,
making it more convenient to add and access fonts of differing
weights
and
shapes
within the same family. Have a look
here
for a list of the weight/style arguments mom allows. Be aware,
though, that you must have the fonts, correctly installed and named,
in order to use the arguments. (See
Adding fonts to groff
for instructions and information.) Please also read the
ADDITIONAL NOTE
found in the description of the FAMILY macro.
How mom reacts to an invalid argument to FT depends on which version
of groff you’re using. If your groff version is greater than
or equal to 1.19.2, mom will issue a warning and, depending on how
you’ve set up the
fallback font,
either continue processing using the fallback font, or abort
(allowing you to correct the problem). If your groff version is
less than 1.19.2, mom will silently continue processing, using
either the fallback font or the font that was in effect prior to the
invalid FT call.
FT will also accept, as an argument, a full family+font name. For
example,
.FT HB
will set subsequent type in Helvetica Bold. However, I strongly
recommend keeping family and font separate except where doing so is
genuinely inconvenient.
For inline control of fonts, see
Inline Escapes, font control.
Fallback font
Macro: FALLBACK_FONT <fallback font> [ ABORT | WARN ]
In the event that you pass an invalid argument to
.FAMILY
(ie a non-existent family), mom, by default, uses the fallback
font, Courier Medium Roman (CR), in order to continue processing
your file.
If you’d prefer another fallback font, pass FALLBACK_FONT the
full family+font name of the font you’d like. For example, if
you’d rather the fallback font were Times Roman Medium Roman,
.FALLBACK_FONT TR
would do the trick.
Mom issues a warning whenever a font style set with
FT
does not exist, either because you haven’t registered the
style (see
here
for instructions on registering styles), or because the font style
does not exist in the current family set with
FAMILY.
By default, mom then aborts, which allows you to correct the
problem.
If you’d prefer that mom not abort on non-existent fonts,
but rather continue processing using a fallback font, you can pass
FALLBACK_FONT the argument WARN, either by itself, or in
conjunction with your chosen fallback font.
Some examples of invoking FALLBACK_FONT:
-
.FALLBACK_FONT WARN
mom will issue a warning whenever you try to access a non-existent
font but will continue processing your file with the default
fallback font, Courier Medium Roman.
-
.FALLBACK_FONT TR WARN
mom will issue a warning whenever you try to access a non-existent
font but will continue processing your file with a fallback font of
Times Roman Medium Roman; additionally, “TR” will be
the fallback font whenever you try to access a family that does not
exist.
-
.FALLBACK_FONT TR ABORT
mom will abort whenever you try to access a non-existent font, and
will use the fallback font “TR” whenever you try to
access a family that does not exist.
If, for some reason, you want to revert to ABORT, just enter
.FALLBACK_FONT ABORT and mom will once again abort
on font errors.
Point size of type
Macro: PT_SIZE <size of type in points>
• Does not require a unit of measure
PT_SIZE (Point Size) takes one argument: the size of type in points.
Unlike most other macros that establish the size or measure of
something, PT_SIZE does not require that you supply a unit of
measure since it’s a near universal convention that type size
is measured in points. Therefore, to change the type size to, say,
11 points, enter
.PT_SIZE 11
Point sizes may be fractional (e.g., 10.25 or 12.5).
If you invoke PT_SIZE without an argument, it reverts to its former
value. For example, if your point size is 10 and you change it to
12 with .PT_SIZE 12, entering .PT_SIZE
(i.e. without an argument) resets the point size to 10.
You can prepend a plus or a minus sign to the argument to PT_SIZE,
in which case the point size will be changed by + or - the original
value. For example, if the point size is 12, and you want 14, you
can do
.PT_SIZE +2
then later reset it to 12 with
.PT_SIZE -2
or, more simply, just
.PT_SIZE
The size of type can also be changed inline. See
Inline Escapes, changing point size.
Note: It is unfortunate that the
pic preprocessor has already taken the name,
PS, and thus mom’s macro for setting point
sizes can’t use it. However, if you aren’t using
pic, you might want to
alias
PT_SIZE as PS, since there’d be no conflict. For example
.ALIAS PS PT_SIZE
would allow you to set point sizes with .PS.
Line spacing/leading
Macro: LS <distance between lines>
• Does not require a unit of measure
LS (Line Space) takes one argument: the distance you want, typically
in points, from baseline to baseline of type. The argument may be
fractional (e.g., 12.25 or 14.5). Like PT_SIZE, LS does not require
a unit of measure, since
leading
is most often given in points. Therefore, to set the linespace to
14 points, you would enter
.LS 14
However, if you wish, you may specify a unit of measure by appending
it directly to the argument passed to LS. For example, if you want
a linespace of 1/4 of an inch, enter
.LS .25i
You can prepend a plus or a minus sign to the argument to LS, in
which case the line spacing will be changed by + or - the original
value. For example, if the line spacing is 14 points, and you want
17 points, you can do
.LS +3
then later reset it to 14 points with
.LS -3
Experts: LS should not be confused with
the groff primitive .ls. LS acts like
.vs. mom does not provide a macro analogous to
.ls.
Automatic line spacing
Macro: AUTOLEAD <amount of automatic leading> [FACTOR]
• Does not require a unit of measure
(Please see
here
for information on using
AUTOLEAD during document
processing.)
Without the FACTOR argument, AUTOLEAD calculates the
linespace for you by adding its argument to the current point size
of type. All subsequent
PT_SIZE
requests automatically update the linespacing by the autolead amount.
Used in this way, AUTOLEAD does not require a unit of measure;
points is assumed. However, you may use an alternate unit of
measure by appending it to the argument. The argument may be a
decimal fraction (e.g., .5 or 2.75).
As an example, if your current point size of type is 12, entering
.AUTOLEAD 2
changes the linespace to 14 points, regardless any linespacing
already in effect. From here on, every change to the size of type
(with PT_SIZE, not
inline)
changes the linespace as well. If you decrease the type size to 9
points, the leading decreases to 11 points. If you increase the
type size to 16 points, the leading increases to 18 points.
Automatic updating of the linespacing continues until you enter a
“manual” line space value with
LS.
Experts: Please note that the groff
primitives,
.vs and .ps, are unaffected by, and have no
effect, on AUTOLEAD.
If you give AUTOLEAD the optional FACTOR argument, AUTOLEAD
calculates the line space as a factor of the
numeric argument
you gave AUTOLEAD. For example, if your point size is 12,
.AUTOLEAD 1.125 FACTOR
sets the leading at 13.5 points. If you change the point size to
14, the leading automatically changes to 15.75 (14 x 1.125).
Note: There’s no need to prepend a
plus sign
(+)
to AUTOLEAD’s argument, although you may do so if you wish.
Line length
Macro: LL <line length>
• Requires a unit of measure
LL (Line Length) takes one argument: the distance from the left
margin of the page to the maximum allowable point on the right at
which groff should place type. The line length, in other words, as
the macro suggests.
LL requires a unit of measure. Therefore, to set the line length to
39 picas, you would enter
.LL 39P
As with other macros that require a unit of measure, the argument to
LL may be fractional. For example,
.LL 4.5i
sets the line length to 4-1/2 inches.
Additionally, you may express a new line length relative to the
current line length by prepending a plus or minus sign to the
argument. Thus, if you wanted to increase the line length by 3
points, you could
do
.LL +3p
This is especially handy when you want to “hang”
punctuation outside the right margin since you can pass
groff’s
\w
escape as the argument to LL, like this:
.LL +\w'.'u
The above example increases the current line length by the width of
a period. Notice that you must append the
unit of measure,
u, to the escape since LL requires a unit of measure.
Note: The right margin macro
(R_MARGIN)
can also be used to set line length.
Justification and quadding/breaking and joining lines
The justification and quadding macros deal with how type aligns
along the left and right margins. In a nutshell, type either aligns
at the left margin, at the right margin, at both margins, or at
neither margin (centred).
These macros also determine whether or not
input lines
are joined and
filled
during output.
Additionally, macros that deal with how to break
output lines
are covered in this section, as is the
inline escape
for joining input lines.
You may encounter some words here that are unfamiliar. Refer to
Typesetting terms
and
Groff terms
for an explanation.
Justification and quadding/breaking and joining lines macros
- Fill modes
- JUSTIFY – set lines justified
- QUAD – set filled lines flush left, right or centred
- Nofill modes
- LEFT – set non-filled lines flush left
- RIGHT – set non-filled lines flush right
- CENTER – set non-filled lines centred
- Breaking lines
- BR – manually break an output line
- EL – break a line without advancing to the next output line
- SPACE – break a line and add space before the next output line
- SPREAD – break and force-justify an output line
- Joining input lines in nofill mode
Justify lines
Macro: JUSTIFY
(See
fill mode
for a definition of the difference between “fill” and
“no-fill” modes.)
JUSTIFY doesn’t take an argument.
Input lines
after JUSTIFY are
filled
and
justified
upon output.
To break lines and prevent them from being filled and justified, use
the
BR
macro.
Quad lines left, right, or centre
Macro: QUAD L | LEFT | R | RIGHT | C | CENTER | J | JUSTIFY
Alias: FILL
(See
fill mode
for a definition of the difference between “fill” and
“no-fill” modes.)
QUAD takes one argument: the direction in which lines should be
quadded.
Input lines
after QUAD are
filled
upon output.
If L or LEFT, type is set flush along the left
margin.
If R or RIGHT, type is set flush along the
right margin.
If C or CENTER type is set centred on the
current line length.
J and JUSTIFY justify text, and are
included as a convenience only. Obviously, if text is
justified, it isn’t quadded. .QUAD J and
.QUAD JUSTIFY have exactly the same effect as
JUSTIFY.
To break lines and prevent them from being filled, use the
BR
macro.
Set lines flush left, right or centered in no-fill mode
Macro: LEFT
Macro: RIGHT
Macro: CENTER (alias CENTRE)
(See
no-fill mode
for a definition of the difference between “fill” and
“no-fill” modes.)
LEFT, RIGHT and CENTER let you enter text on a line for line basis
without having to use the
BR
macro after each line. Consider the following:
.QUAD LEFT
So runs my dream, but what am I?
.BR
An infant crying in the night
.BR
An infant crying for the light
.BR
And with no language but a cry.
.BR
Because text after .QUAD LEFT is
filled,
you have to use the
BR
macro to prevent the lines from running together. Not only is this
annoying to type, it’s awkward to read in a text editor. Much
better to do
.LEFT
So runs my dream, but what am I?
An infant crying in the night
An infant crying for the light
And with no language but a cry.
IMPORTANT: Because LEFT,
RIGHT and CENTER are nofill modes, groff does not always respect the
current line length.
Input lines
that run long may exceed it, or get broken in undesirable ways.
Therefore, when using these three macros, you should preview your
work to ensure that all lines fit as expected.
Manually break lines
Macro: BR
When using
JUSTIFY
or
QUAD,
BR tells mom about partial lines that you want broken (as opposed to
filled).
Any partial
output line
that immediately precedes BR will be
quadded
in the direction of the current quad, or set flush left if text is
justified.
Most of the time, you won’t need the BR macro. In fill modes,
mom tries to be sensible about where breaks are needed. If the
nature of a macro is such that under most circumstances you’d
expect a break, mom puts it in herself. Equally, in macros where a
break isn’t normally desirable, no break occurs. This means
text files don’t get cluttered with annoying BR’s.
Note: Lines of text in
nofill mode
never require a BR. Furthermore, in nofill mode, ALL macros cause a
break. If a break is not desired, use the
\c
inline escape.
Experts: BR is an alias for
.br. You can use either, or mix
’n’ match with impunity.
Manually break a line without advancing on the page
Macro: EL
In nofill modes
(LEFT,
RIGHT,
CENTER)
you must terminate the line input preceding
EL
with the
\c inline escape.
Suggestion: If you find remembering whether to put in the
\c
bothersome, you may prefer to use the
inline escape
alternative to EL,
\*[B],
which works consistently regardless of the fill mode.
EL does not work after the
PAD
macro. See
.PAD NOBREAK
for the way around this.
EL ("End Line")
is conceptually equivalent to the notion of a carriage return with
no linefeed. Its function is simple: it breaks a line without
advancing on the page. As an example of where you might use it,
imagine that you’re working from marked-up copy. The markup
indicates 24 points of space between two given lines, but the
prevailing line spacing is 12.5 points. You may find it more
convenient to break the first line with EL and instruct mom to
advance 24 points to the next line instead of calculating the lead
that needs to be added to 12.5 to get 24. To demonstrate:
.LEFT
.LS 12.5
A line of text.\c
.EL
.ALD 24p
The next line of text.
may be more intuitive than
.LEFT
.LS 12.5
A line of text.
.ALD 11.5p
The next line of text.
The first example has the further advantage that should you wish to
change the prevailing line space but keep the 24 points lead, you
don’t have to recalculate the extra space.
ALD in the above examples stands for
“Advance
LeaD”,
which is covered in the section
Vertical movements.
Break lines and add space between
Macro: SPACE <space to add between lines>
Alias: SP
SPACE breaks a line, just like
BR,
then adds space after the line. With no argument, it adds an extra
line space of a value equal to the current
leading.
If you pass it a numeric argument without supplying a
unit of measure,
it advances that number of extra line spaces. For example:
.SPACE
breaks the line then adds an extra linespace, whereas
.SPACE 2
breaks the line and adds two extra linespaces.
If you supply a unit of measure, SPACE breaks the line then advances
one linespace (at the current
leading)
PLUS the specified amount of extra space given to SPACE, as in
.SPACE 6p
which breaks the line and advances one full linespace plus six
points.
Tip: SPACE and
ALD
can be used interchangeably (.SPACE 6p and
.ALD 6p are equivalent). However, ALD without an
argument does nothing, whereas SPACE without an argument adds an
extra line space. I recommend using SPACE when you want an extra
line space (or multiple thereof), and ALD whenever you want some
other value of space after a line.
Experts: SPACE is an alias of
.sp. You can use either, or mix ’n’ match
with impunity.
Break and force justify (spread) lines
Macro: SPREAD
Sometimes, you need to break a line of
justified
text and have it come out fully justified, not
quadded
left the way it would be with the
BR
macro. An example of where you’d do this would be when you
want to prevent a word at the end of a line from being hyphenated
(say, a proper name). SPREAD is the macro that lets you break the
line and have it came out fully justified.
Experts: SPREAD is an alias for
.brp You can use either, or mix ’n’ match
with impunity.
Join input lines
Inline: \c
Sometimes, especially when in one of the
nofill modes,
a macro will cause a break where you don’t want one. In order
to prevent this from happening (in other words, to join
input lines
together, forming one
output line),
use the groff
inline escape
\c at the end of each input line to be
joined to another, like this:
.LEFT
.FAMILY T
.FT R
Some lines of text to be \c
.FAMILY H
.FT B
joined \c
.FAMILY T
.FT R
together.
Upon output, the lines will be joined together to read
Some lines of text to be joined together.
with the word “joined” in Helvetica bold. Note the
spaces before \c. Without them, the last three words of
the output line would read
bejoinedtogether
Please also note that had the example been in one of the
fill modes,
there’d have been no need for the \c.
Addendum: The example, above, is designed to demonstrate the
use of \c. An easier and more intuitive way
to accomplish the family/font change in the example would be with
the groff
inline escape,
\f,
like this:
Some lines of text to be \f[HB]joined\*[PREV] together.
Typographic refinements
The macros in this section help you tweak groff’s behaviour,
ensuring that your documents look typographically professional.
Typographic refinements macros
- Word and sentence spacing
- WS – word spacing
- SS – sentence space
- Letter spacing (track kerning)
- Hyphenation
- HY – turn auto hyphenation on/off, or set specific hyphenation parameters
- HY_SET – set all hyphenation parameters
- Automatic kerning and ligatures
- KERN – turn automatic pairwise kerning on or off
- LIGATURES – turn automatic generation of ligatures on or off
Word spacing
Macro: WS <+|-wordspace> | DEFAULT
WS (Word Space) increases or decreases the amount of space between
words. In
nofill modes,
or if
QUAD
is in effect, the space between words is fixed. Therefore, if you
change the word spacing with WS, the change applies uniformly to the
space between every word on every line. However, when text is
justified,
the space between words varies from line to line (in order to
justify the text). Consequently, the change you make with WS
represents the minimum (and ideal) space groff will try to put
between words before deciding whether to hyphenate a final word or
to stretch the word spacing.
Word space is relative to point size. Generally, in/decreasing the
word space by a value of 1 or 2 produces a difference that in many
cases is scarcely visible; in/decreasing by a value between 3 and 5
produces a subtle but noticeable difference; and in/decreasing by a
value greater than 6 is almost always apparent. You should preview
your work to assess the effect of WS.
WS takes as its argument a whole number preceded by a plus or minus
sign. Therefore, to decrease the word space slightly, you might
enter
.WS -2
To increase it by a noticeable amount, you might enter
.WS +6
You can reset the word spacing to its previous value by switching
the plus or minus sign, like this:
.WS +2
A line of text
.WS -2
The .WS -2 undoes the effect of
.WS +2. You can also reset WS to its groff default
by entering
.WS DEFAULT
This can be particularly useful if you’ve been playing around
with plus and minus values, and can’t remember by how much to
in/decrease the word space to get it back to normal.
Sentence space
Macro: SS <+sentence space> | 0 | DEFAULT
SS (Sentence Space) tells groff how to treat double spaces it
encounters between sentences in
input lines.
If you use SS, input sentences with two spaces after them and
input sentences that fall at the end of input lines all receive a
normal word space plus an additional amount of space whose size is
determined by the + value passed as an argument to SS. Thus,
.SS +2
means that input sentences with two spaces after them receive a
normal word space PLUS the +2 value passed to SS.
Like
WS,
increasing the sentence space by a value of 1 or 2 produces a
difference that in many cases is scarcely visible; increasing by a
value of 5 or so produces a subtle but noticeable difference (ie
the space between double-spaced input sentences will be slightly but
visibly greater than the space between words); and increasing by a
value greater than 10 is always apparent. You should preview your
work to assess the effect of SS.
There’s an additional argument you can pass SS: the number
zero (without the + sign). It’s the argument you’ll
use most often. Typeset copy should never have two spaces between
sentences, and the "zero" argument tells groff to give the extra
spaces no space at all (effectively removing them). Therefore, if
you double-space your sentences (as you should when writing in a
text editor), get in the habit of putting
.SS 0
at the top of your files.
If you do use SS for something other than ensuring that you
don’t get unwanted sentence spaces in output copy, you can set
or reset the sentence space to the groff default (the same width
as a word space, ie double-spaced input sentences will appear
double-spaced on output as well) with
.SS DEFAULT
If you’re using the
document processing macros
and your
PRINTSTYLE
is TYPEWRITE, .SS DEFAULT is the
default, because you do want double spaces between sentences in copy
that imitates the look of a typewritten document.
IMPORTANT: SS with an argument other
than 0 (zero) should only be used if you’re of
the old (and wise) school of typists that puts two spaces between
sentences. If you ignore this advice and use SS when you habitually
put only one space between sentences, you risk producing output
where the space between sentences is not equal.
Automatic hyphenation control
Macro: HY LINES <max. number of consecutive hyphenated lines>
Macro: HY MARGIN <size of hyphenation margin>
Macro: HY SPACE <extra interword spacing to prevent hyphenation>
Macro: HY DEFAULT
Macro: HY toggle
Aliases: HYPHENATE, HYPHENATION
HY, as you can see, can be invoked with a number of arguments. In
all cases, the aliases HYPHENATE or HYPHENATION can be used in place
of HY. To aid in understanding the various arguments you can pass
to HY, I’ve broken them down into separate sections.
1. HY
HY by itself (ie with no argument) simply turns automatic
hyphenation on. Any argument other than LINES, MARGIN, SPACE or
DEFAULT, turns automatic hyphenation off. For example, as explained
in
How to read macro arguments,
you could turn HY off by entering
.HY OFF
or
.HY X
or
.HY END
A subsequent call to HY restores hyphenation with the parameters for
LINES, MARGIN, or SPACE that were formerly in effect (see below).
HY observes the following default hyphenation rules:
- Last lines (ie ones that will spring a trap—typically
the last line on a page) will not be hyphenated.
- The first and last two characters of a word are never
split off.
2. HY LINES
HY LINES sets the maximum number of consecutive hyphenated lines
that will appear in output copy. 2 is a very good choice, and
you’d set it with
.HY LINES 2
By default, when you turn automatic hyphenation on, there is no
limit to the number of consecutive hyphenated lines.
Note:
Discretionary hyphens
count when groff is figuring out how many lines to hyphenate;
explicit hyphens (ie the actual hyphen character) do not.
3. HY MARGIN
HY MARGIN sets the amount of room allowed at the end of a line
before hyphenation is tripped (e.g., if there’s only 6 points
left at the end of a line, groff won’t try to hyphenate the
next word). HY MARGIN only applies if you’re using
QUAD,
and is really only useful if you’re using QUAD LEFT.
As an example, if you don’t want groff to hyphenate words
when there’s only 18 points of space left at the end of a
left-quadded line, you’d enter
.HY MARGIN 18p
4. HY SPACE
HY SPACE sets an amount of extra interword space that groff will try
to put between words on a line in order to PREVENT hyphenation. HY
SPACE applies only to
justified lines.
Generally speaking, you’ll want this value to be quite small,
since too big a value will result in lines with gaping holes between
the words. A reasonable value might be half a point, or one point,
which you’d set with
.HY SPACE .5p
or
.HY SPACE 1p
5. HY DEFAULT
HY DEFAULT resets automatic hyphenation to its default behaviour,
cancelling any changes made with HY LINES, HY
MARGIN, and/or HY SPACE.
Thoughts on hyphenation in general
Hyphenation is a necessary evil. If it can be avoided, it
should be. If it can’t be, it should occur infrequently.
That’s the reason for the number of parameters you can set
with HY.
Furthermore, hyphenation in
rag
copy requires a great deal of attention. At best, it should be
avoided completely by individually adjusting the number of words
on consecutive lines to achieve a pleasing, natural-looking rag.
Since such adjustments are often too fussy for document processing,
I recommend playing around with HY MARGIN a bit if your copy looks
hyphen-heavy.
Set hyphenation parameters all at once
Macro: HY_SET <lines> [ <margin> [ <space> ] ]
Alias: HYSET
HY_SET lets you set the parameters for hyphenation
with a single macro. <lines>,
<margin> and
<space> correspond to the numeric
values required by LINES,
MARGIN and SPACE as described
above.
To set just the maximum number of consecutive hyphenated lines,
you’d enter
.HY_SET 2
If you wanted the same number of maximum consecutive hyphenated
lines and a hyphenation margin for use with
rag
copy,
.HY_SET 2 36p
would set the hyphenation margin to 36 points.
If you wanted the same number of maximum consecutive hyphenated
lines and a hyphenation space of 2 points for use with
justified
copy,
.HYSET 2 0 2p
is how you’d do it.
Reduce whitespace
Macro: RW <amount of whitespace reduction between letters>
RW (Reduce Whitespace)
and its corresponding macro
EW (Expand Whitespace),
allow you to tighten (or loosen)
output lines
by uniformly reducing or expanding the space between characters.
This is particularly useful when you want to squeeze or stretch
lines on a narrow measure.
The value passed to RW may be a whole number or a decimal fraction.
Since a value of 1 produces a noticeable reduction in the space
between letters at text sizes, you’ll most likely use small
decimal values when tightening lines. For example,
.RW .1
or
.RW .2
may be just enough to squeeze an extra character or two on a line
without the change in letter spacing being obvious. I highly
recommend previewing your work to assess the effect of RW.
Note: By default, RW does not deposit a
break
when it’s invoked if you’re in one of the
fill
modes (ie
QUAD
L, R, C, J or
JUSTIFY).
If you want
RW to break at the ends of the previous
input lines
while you’re in a fill mode, tell mom
that’s what you want by invoking
.BR_AT_LINE_KERN.
IMPORTANT:
RW (and its complement, EW; see below) only affects the current
font, and remains in effect for that font every time it’s
called, hence it must be reset to zero to cancel its effect
(.RW 0).
Expand whitespace
Macro: EW <amount of whitespace expansion between letters>
EW (Expand Whitespace)
expands the amount of whitespace between letters, effectively
“loosening” lines of type.
The value passed to EW may be a whole number or a decimal fraction.
Since a value of 1 produces a noticeable expansion in the space
between letters at text sizes, you’ll most likely use small
decimal values when loosening lines. For example,
.EW .1
or
.EW .2
may be just enough to open up a line without the change in letter
spacing being obvious. I highly recommend previewing your work to
assess the effect of EW.
Note: By default, EW does not deposit a
break
when it’s invoked if you’re in one of the
fill
modes (ie
QUAD
L, R, C, J or
JUSTIFY).
If you want
EW to break at the ends of the previous
input lines
while you’re in a fill mode, tell mom that’s what you
want by invoking the
.BR_AT_LINE_KERN
toggle macro.
IMPORTANT:
EW (and its complement, RW; see above) only affects the current
font, and remains in effect for that font every time it’s
called, hence it must be reset to zero to cancel its effect
(.RW 0).
Break before line kerning
Macro: BR_AT_LINE_KERN toggle
By default, in
fill
modes (ie
QUAD
L, R, C, J or
JUSTIFY)
mom does not break
input lines
when you invoke
RW
or
EW.
If you’d like her to break input lines prior to RW or EW,
invoke .BR_AT_INPUT_LINE without any argument. To
disable the breaks, invoke .BR_AT_INPUT_LINE with any
argument (OFF, QUIT, Q, X...), like this
.BR_AT_LINE_KERN OFF
or
.BR_AT_LINE_KERN X
With QUAD L, R or C, mom simply breaks the line. With QUAD J (or
just JUSTIFY, which is the same thing), she breaks and
force justifies
the line prior to .EW or .RW.
Automatic kerning
Macro: KERN toggle
By itself (ie with no argument), KERN turns automatic pairwise
kerning
on. With any argument (e.g., OFF, Q, X), pairwise kerning is turned
off.
Kerning of individual character pairs can be controlled with the
inline escapes
\*[BU <n>] and
\*[FU <n>]. See
Inline Escapes, kerning.
Automatic ligature generation
Macro: LIGATURES toggle
Alias: LIG
Provided your current font has
ligatures,
LIGATURES, by itself, turns on automatic generation of ligatures.
When automatic ligature generation is on, simply typing the letters
of a ligature combination will produce the correct ligature upon
output. For example, if you type the word “finally”,
the fi combination will be output as an fi ligature. Generally
speaking, ligatures are A Good Thing, hence mom has them on by
default.
LIGATURES with any argument turns automatic ligature generation off.
Note: Not all fonts support ligatures.
Type modifications (pseudo font styles)
It sometimes happens that a
family
doesn’t contain all the fonts you need. You might, for
example, be missing an italic font, or a bold font. Or you might
not be able to get your hands on the condensed version. That’s
where these macros and inline escapes come in. With them, you
can fake the fonts you’re missing. A word of caution,
though: “faked” fonts are just that—faked. You
should only use them as a last resort, and then only sparingly. A
word or two or a line or two in a faked font will pass unnoticed;
large patches of type in a faked font look typographically cheap.
Type modifications macros
- Pseudo italic
- SETSLANT – degree of pseudo-italicizing
- \*[SLANT] – inline escape for pseudo-italicizing type
- Pseudo bold
- Pseudo condensed
- CONDENSE – percentage for pseudo-condensed type
- \*[COND] – inline escape for pseudo-condensed type
- Pseudo extended
- EXTEND – percentage for pseudo-extended type
- \*[EXT] – inline escape for pseudo-extending
- Smallcaps
Set degree of slant for pseudo-italicizing
Macro: SETSLANT <degrees to slant type> | RESET
Pseudo-italicizing of type is accomplished by slanting a roman font
a certain number of degrees to the right. SETSLANT lets you fix the
number of degrees. Mom’s default is 15, which produces an
acceptable approximation of an italic font. If you want another
value—say, 13 degrees—you’d set it by entering
.SETSLANT 13
If you change the degree of slant and later want to set it back to
the mom default, do
.SETSLANT RESET
Note: By itself, SETSLANT will not start
pseudo-italicizing type; it merely tells mom what degree of slant
you want. To start pseudo-italicizing, use the
inline escape
\*[SLANT].
Pseudo italic on/off
Inline: \*[SLANT]
Inline: \*[SLANTX]
\*[SLANT] begins pseudo-italicizing type.
\*[SLANTX] turns the feature off. Both are
inline escapes,
therefore they should not appear as separate lines, but rather be
embedded in text lines, like this:
Not \*[SLANT]everything\*[SLANTX] is as it seems.
Alternatively, if you wanted the whole line pseudo-italicized,
you’d do
\*[SLANT]Not everything is as it seems.\*[SLANTX]
Once \*[SLANT] is invoked, it remains in effect until
turned off.
Set amount of emboldening
Macro: SETBOLDER <amount of emboldening, in machine units> | RESET
Emboldening of type is accomplished by printing characters twice;
the second printing is slightly offset from the first, effectively
“thickening” the character. SETBOLDER lets you set the
number of
machine units
for the offset. Mom’s default is 700 units, which produces an
acceptable approximation of a bold font. If you want another
value—say, 500 units—you’d set it by entering
.SETBOLDER 500
If you change the emboldening offset and later want to set it back
to the mom default, do
.SETBOLDER RESET
Note: By itself, SETBOLDER will not start
emboldening type; it merely tells mom what you want the emboldening
offset to be. To start emboldening, use the
inline escape
\*[BOLDER].
Emboldening on/off
Inline: \*[BOLDER]
Inline: \*[BOLDERX]
\*[BOLDER] begins emboldening type.
\*[BOLDERX] turns the feature off. Both are
inline escapes,
therefore they should not appear as separate lines, but rather be
embedded in text lines, like this:
Not \*[BOLDER]everything\*[BOLDERX] is as it seems.
Alternatively, if you wanted the whole line emboldened,
you’d do
\*[BOLDER]Not everything is as it seems.\*[BOLDERX]
Once \*[BOLDER] is invoked, it remains in effect
until turned off.
Set percentage for pseudo-condensed type
Macro: CONDENSE <pseudo-condense percentage>
Pseudo-condensing of type is accomplished by reducing the width of
characters at a given point size without reducing their height,
effectively narrowing them so they look like condensed type.
CONDENSE tells mom what percentage of the normal character width you
want the characters to be condensed.
Mom has no default value for CONDENSE, therefore you must set it
before using the
inline escape
\*[COND].
80 percent of the normal character width is a good value, and
you’d set it like this:
.CONDENSE 80
Note: By itself, CONDENSE will not start
pseudo-condensing type; it merely tells mom what percentage of the
normal character width you want characters to be condensed. To
start pseudo-condensing, use the
inline escape
\*[COND].
Additional note: Make sure that
pseudo-condensing is off (with
\*[CONDX])
before before making any changes to the pseudo-condense percentage
with CONDENSE.
Pseudo-condensing on/off
Inline: \*[COND]
Inline: \*[CONDX]
\*[COND] begins pseudo-condensing type.
\*[CONDX] turns the feature off. Both are
inline escapes,
therefore they should not appear as separate lines, but rather be
embedded in text lines, like this:
\*[COND]Not everything is as it seems.\*[CONDX]
\*[COND] remains in effect until you turn it
off with \*[CONDX].
IMPORTANT: You must turn
\*[COND]
off before making any changes to the point size of your type, either
via the
PT_SIZE
macro or with the \s inline escape. If you wish
the new point size to be pseudo-condensed, simply reinvoke
\*[COND] afterwards. Equally, \*[COND] must
be turned off before changing the condense percentage with
.CONDENSE.
Set percentage for pseudo-extended type
Macro: EXTEND <pseudo-extend percentage>
Pseudo-extending of type is accomplished by increasing the width of
characters at a given point size without increasing their height,
effectively widening them so they look like extended type. EXTEND
tells mom what percentage of the normal character width you want the
characters to be extended.
Mom has no default value for EXTEND, therefore you must set it
before using the
inline escape
\*[EXT].
120% of the normal character width is a good value, and you’d
set it like this:
.EXTEND 120
Note: By itself, EXTEND will not start
pseudo-extending type; it merely tells mom what percentage of the
normal character width you want characters to be extended. To start
pseudo-extending, use the
inline escape
\*[EXT].
Additional note: Make sure that
pseudo-extending is off (with
\*[EXTX])
before before making any changes to the pseudo-extend percentage
with EXTEND.
Pseudo-extending on/off
Inline: \*[EXT]
Inline: \*[EXTX]
\*[EXT] begins pseudo-extending type.
\*[EXTX] turns the feature off. Both are
inline escapes,
therefore they should not appear as separate lines, but rather be
embedded in text lines, like this:
\*[EXT]Not everything is as it seems.\*[EXTX]
\*[EXT] remains in effect until you turn it off with
\*[EXTX].
IMPORTANT: You must turn
\*[EXT] off before making any changes to the point size
of your type, either via the
PT_SIZE
macro or with the \s inline escape. If you wish the new
point size to be pseudo-extended, simply reinvoke \*[EXT]
afterwards. Equally, \*[EXT] must be turned off before
changing the extend percentage with
EXTEND.
Smallcaps
Macro: SMALLCAPS <toggle>
To begin setting type in pseudo-smallcaps, simply invoke
.SMALLCAPS. When you no longer want them, invoke
SMALLCAPS OFF (or END, STOP,
DONE, etc). If you are currently in a
no-fill mode,
(i.e. .LEFT, .CENTER, or .RIGHT)
and you want the smallcaps to continue on the same line,
append a \c to the line, like this
A line of type\c
.SMALLCAPS
with a few words in smallcaps.
.SMALLCAPS OFF
The line preceding .SMALLCAPS OFF should also have a
\c appended to it if you wish it to continue unbroken.
Set size, weight, and width of smallcaps
Macro: SMALLCAPS_STYLE SIZE <percentage> WEIGHT_ADJ <percentage> EXTEND <percentage>
True smallcaps are not a font effect, but, like designer cuts of
bold, condensed, and extended, actual fonts provided with some
families. It is highly recommended that you acquire real smallcaps
fonts rather than relying on mom's pseudo version.
To achieve a reasonable facsimile of designer-cut smallcaps fonts,
mom needs to know the percentage of regular caps at a given point
size by which to reduce the small caps. To make adjustments for
the difference in weight and width of the smaller caps, she also
needs to know by how much to embolden (“fatten”) the
smallcaps, and by how much to increase their width.
All three arguments to SMALLCAPS_STYLE reflect a
percentage of the point size in effect when
SMALLCAPS
is invoked. Mom’s defaults for pseudo-smallcaps are:
SIZE = 74%
WEIGHT_ADJ = .3%
EXTEND = 5%
To change any or all of the defaults, you might enter
.SMALLCAPS_STYLE SIZE 80 WEIGHT_ADJ .25 EXTEND 3
or, more readably,
.SMALLCAPS_STYLE
SIZE 80 \
WEIGHT_ADJ .25 \
EXTEND 3
Note that you do not have to give SMALLCAPS_STYLE all three
arguments, and that the arguments may be entered in any order. Any
arguments you omit will remain at their former value.
Vertical movements
The two macros in this section allow you to move down or up on the
page relative to the current
baseline.
Vertical movements macros
- ALD – Advance Lead
- RLD – Reverse Lead
Advance Lead (move downward)
Macro: ALD <distance to move downward>
• Requires a unit of measure
ALD takes one argument: the distance to move downward on the page
relative to the current vertical position.
Used by itself, or preceded by
BR,
ALD will advance by one line space plus the distance you specify.
Preceded by
EL,
it will advance by exactly the distance you specify.
ALD requires a unit of measure. Decimal fractions are allowed, and
values may be combined. Therefore, to move down on the page by 1/4
of an inch, you could enter either
.ALD .25i
or
.ALD 1P+6p
As the mnemonic
(Advance LeaD)
suggests, you’ll most often use ALD with
points
of lead.
Note: if you want to use ALD at the top
of a page (ie to advance to the starting position of type on a
page), combine the value you want with -1v (minus one
line space), like this:
.ALD 1i-1v
At the top of a page, this will advance one inch from the top edge
of the paper. Without the -1v, the same command would advance one
inch from the top of the page plus the distance of one line space.
Reverse Lead (move upward)
Macro: RLD <distance to move upward>
• Requires a unit of measure
RLD takes one argument: the distance to move upward on the page
relative to the current vertical position.
Used by itself, or preceded by
BR,
RLD will advance by one line space, then reverse by the distance you
specify. Preceded by
EL,
it will reverse by exactly the distance you specify.
RLD requires a unit of measure. Decimal fractions are allowed, and
values may be combined. Therefore, to move up on the page by 1/4 of
an inch, you could enter either
.RLD .25i
or
.RLD 1P+6p
As the mnemonic
(Reverse LeaD)
suggests, you’ll most often use RLD with
points
of lead.
Tabs
Mom provides two different kinds of tab setup: typesetting tabs
and string tabs. Neither one has anything to do with the tab key
on your keyboard, and both are utterly divorced from groff’s
notion of tabs. I recommend reading this section carefully in order
to understand how mom handles tabs.
Typesetting tabs
Typesetting tabs are defined by both an indent from the left margin
and a line length. This is quite different from typewriter-style
tab stops (the groff norm) that only define the left indent. In
conjunction with the
multi-column macros,
typesetting tabs significantly facilitate tabular and columnar work.
Typesetting tabs are created with the
TAB_SET
macro. TAB_SET identifies the tab (by number), establishes its left
indent and line length, and optionally sets a quad direction and
fill mode. After tabs have been created with TAB_SET, they can be
called at any time with the
TAB
macro.
Quickie tutorial on typesetting tabs
Say you want to set up three tabs to produce an employee evaluation
that looks something like this:
CRITERION EVALUATION COMMENTS
Service Good Many clients specifically request
support from Joe by name.
Punctuality Satisfactory Tends to arrive after 8:00am, but
often works through lunch hour.
Team spirit Needs work Persistently gives higher priority
to helping clients than respecting
organizational hierarchy.
You want the first tab, CRITERION,
- to begin at the left margin of the page – ie no indent
- to have a line length of 5 picas
- to be set flush left
Tabs must be numbered, and each has to be set up with a separate
TAB_SET
line. Therefore, to set up tab 1, you enter
.TAB_SET 1 0 5P L
| | | |
tab #--+ | | +--direction
| |
indent--+ +--length
You want the second tab, EVALUATION,
- to begin 8 picas from the left margin
- to have a length of 9 picas
- to be set centered
You set it up like this:
.TAB_SET 2 8P 9P C
| | | |
tab #--+ | | +--direction
| |
indent--+ +--length
You want the third tab, COMMENTS,
- to begin 19 picas from the left margin
- to have a length of 17 picas
- to be set flush left, filled
The setup looks like this:
.TAB_SET 3 19P 17P L QUAD
| | | | |
| | | | +--fill output lines
| | | |
tab #--+ | | +--direction
| |
indent--+ +--length
Once the tabs are set up, you can call them in one of two ways:
- with .TAB (passing the tab
number as an argument), which breaks the current line,
advances one linespace and calls the tab.
- with .TN (Tab Next), which keeps
you on the current line and moves over to the next
tab in sequence (ie from 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc.), or, more
conveniently, with the
\*[TB+]
inline escape
To exit from tabs and restore your original left margin, line
length, quad direction and fill mode, use
.TQ
(Tab Quit).
Here’s how the input for our sample employee evaluation looks
(with some introductory parameters):
Code:
.PAGE 8.5i 11i 1i 1i 1i
.FAMILY T
.FT R
.PT_SIZE 14
.LS 16
.QUAD LEFT
.KERN
.HY OFF
.SS 0
.TAB_SET 1 0 5P L
.TAB_SET 2 8P 9P C
.TAB_SET 3 19P 17P L QUAD
.TAB 1
CRITERION\*[TB+]
EVALUATION\*[TB+]
COMMENTS
.SP
.TAB 1
Service\*[TB+]
Good\*[TB+]
Many clients specifically request support from Joe by name.
.SP
.TAB 1
Punctuality\*[TB+]
Satisfactory\*[TB+]
Tends to arrive after 8:00am, but often works through lunch hour.
.SP
.TAB 1
Team spirit\*[TB+]
Needs work\*[TB+]
Persistently gives higher priority to helping clients
than respecting organizational hierarchy.
.TQ
Try setting this up and processing it it with
pdfmom filename.mom > filename.pdf
then previewing the .pdf file. Notice how .TN
simply moves over to the next tab, while the combination
.SP/.TAB 1 breaks the line, advances by one extra
linespace, and calls the first tab.
Notice, too, how the QUAD argument passed to tab 3 means
you don’t have to worry about the length of
input lines;
mom
fills
the tab and sets the type flush left.
String tabs (autotabs)
String tabs let you mark off tab positions with
inline escapes
embedded in
input lines.
Left indents and line lengths are calculated from the beginning and
end positions of the marks. This is especially useful when tab
indents and lengths need to be determined from the text that goes in
each tab.
Setting up string tabs is a two-step procedure. First, you enter an
input line in which you mark off where you want tabs to begin and
end. (This is often best done in conjunction with the
SILENT
macro.)
Next, you invoke the
ST
macro for every string tab you defined, and optionally pass quad and
fill information to it. That done, string tabs are called with the
TAB
macro, just like typesetting tabs.
In combination with the
PAD
macro and the groff inline escape
\h
(move horizontally across the page) or mom’s
\*[FWD <distance>]
(move forward) inline, string tabs provide tremendous flexibility in
setting up complex tab structures.
Quickie tutorial on string tabs
Say you want to set up tabs for the
employee evaluation form
used as an example in the
typesetting tabs tutorial.
This time, though, you want to play around with the point size of
type, so you can’t know exactly how long the tabs will be or
where they should start. All you know is
- CRITERION is the longest line in tab 1
- EVALUATION is the longest line in tab 2
- tab 3 should extend to the current right margin
- you want a 1 pica gutter between each tab
This is an ideal job for string tabs.
The first thing you need for string tabs is an
input line
with tab positions marked on it. Tabs are marked with the
inline escapes
\*[ST<n>]
and
\*[ST<n>X],
where <n>
is the number you want the tab to have. (In this example, we
enclose the input line with the
SILENT
macro so the line doesn’t print. We also use the
PAD
macro to permit defining tab 3 as simply “the amount of space
remaining on the input line.”)
The setup looks like this:
Code:
.SILENT
.PAD "\*[ST1]CRITERION\*[ST1X]\*[FWD 12p]\*[ST2]EVALUATION\*[ST2X]\*[FWD 12p]\*[ST3]#\*[ST3X]"
.SILENT OFF
The long line after .PAD looks scary, but
it isn’t really. Here’s what it means when broken down
into its component parts:
- The longest line in tab 1 is “CRITERION”, so we
enclose CRITERION with begin/end markers for string tab 1:
\*[ST1]CRITERION\*[ST1X]
- We want a 1 pica (12 points) gutter between tab 1 and 2,
so we insert 12 points of space with \*[FWD 12p]:
\*[FWD 12p]
- The longest line in tab 2 is “EVALUATION”, so
we enclose EVALUATION with begin/end markers for string
tab 2:
\*[ST2]EVALUATION\*[ST2X]
- We want 1 pica (12 points) between tab 2 and 3, so we
insert it with:
\*[FWD 12p]
- We want tab 3 to be as long as whatever space remains on
the current line length, so we enclose the
pad marker
(#) with begin/end markers for string tab 3:
\*[ST3]#\*[ST3X]
The tabs are now defined, but they require
quad direction
and
fill
information. For each string tab defined above, enter a separate
.ST
line, like this:
.ST 1 L
.ST 2 L
.ST 3 L QUAD
| | |
| | +--fill output lines
| |
tab #--+ +--direction
From here on in, you call the tabs with
.TAB,
.TN,
or
\*[TB+]
just like typesetting tabs (see
typesetting tabs tutorial).
Here’s the complete setup and entry for the sample employee
evaluation form utilizing string tabs.
Code:
.PAGE 8.5i 11i 1i 1i 1i
.FAMILY T
.FT R
.PT_SIZE 14
.LS 16
.QUAD LEFT
.KERN
.HY OFF
.SS 0
.SILENT
.PAD "\*[ST1]CRITERION\*[ST1X]\*[FWD 12p]\*[ST2]EVALUATION\*[ST2X]\*[FWD 12p]\*[ST3]#\*[ST3X]"
.SILENT OFF
.ST 1 L
.ST 2 L
.ST 3 L QUAD
.TAB 1
CRITERION\*[TB+]
EVALUATION\*[TB+]
COMMENTS
.SP
.TAB 1
Service\*[TB+]
Good\*[TB+]
Many clients specifically request support from Joe by name.
.SP
.TAB 1
Punctuality\*[TB+]
Satisfactory\*[TB+]
Tends to arrive after 8:00am, but often works through lunch hour.
.SP
.TAB 1
Team spirit\*[TB+]
Needs work\*[TB+]
Persistently gives higher priority to helping clients
than respecting organizational hierarchy.
.TQ
Try setting this up and processing it with
pdfmom filename.mom > filename.pdf
and previewing the .pdf file.
Now, change the point size of the above sample to 12 and preview it
again. You’ll see that the tab structure remains identical
(tab 1=CRITERION, tab 2=EVALUATION, tab 3=space remaining, and the
gutter between tabs is still 1 pica), while the position and length
of the tabs have altered because of the new point size.
Now try increasing the gutters to 2 picas
(\*[FWD 24p] or \*[FWD 2P] instead
of \*[FWD 12p]). Preview the file again, and notice
how the tab structure remains the same, but the gutters are wider.
Tabs macros
- TAB_SET – create typesetting tabs
- \*[ST]...\*[STX] – inline escapes for marking String Tabs
- ST – set String Tabs
- TAB – call tabs
- TN – Tab Next; call next tab in sequence
- \*[TB+] – inline escape to call next tab in sequence
- TQ – Tab Quit
Set up typesetting tabs
Macro: TAB_SET <tab number> <indent> <length> L | R | C | J [ QUAD ]
• <indent> and <length> require a unit of measure
TAB_SET creates typesetting tabs that later can be called with
.TAB.
Typesetting tabs are numbered, and defined by an indent, a length,
and a quad direction, hence TAB_SET has four required arguments:
- a tab number
- an indent (measured from the left margin of the page,
or, if you’re already in a tab, from the left margin of the tab)
- a length
- a direction
To set up a centred tab 6 picas long and 9 points from the left
margin, you’d enter
.TAB_SET 1 9p 6P C
The tab number in the above (”1”) is simply an
identifier. It could have been 4, or 17, or 296. There’s no
need to set up tabs in numerical sequence.
By default, tabs are in
nofill
mode, meaning you can enter text in tabs on a line-for-line basis
without having to use the
BR
macro. If you want a tab to be
filled,
pass the optional argument QUAD,
which will make the tab behave as if you’d entered
.QUAD L | R | C.
For
justified
tabs, simply pass the argument J (without the QUAD argument), like
this:
.TAB 1 9p 6P J
Once tabs are set, they can be called at any time with the
TAB <n>
macro, where <n> is the number of the desired tab.
You can set up any number of typesetting tabs. However, be aware
that
string tabs
are also called with TAB <n>, so be careful that you
don’t set up a typesetting tab numbered, say, 4, when you
already have a string tab numbered 4. Every tab, typesetting or
string, must have a unique numeric identifier.
Note: If you use TAB_SET while
you’re currently inside a tab, the indent argument is the
distance from the tab’s left margin, not the left margin of
the page. Therefore, you should exit tabs (with
.TQ)
before creating new tabs (unless, of course, you want to set up a
tab structure within the confines of an existing tab).
IMPORTANT: Turn all indents off (see
Indents)
before setting up tabs with TAB_SET, or mom may get confused.
Mark positions of string tabs
Inlines: \*[ST<number>]...\*[ST<number>X]
The quad
direction must be
LEFT
or
JUSTIFY
(see
QUAD
and
JUSTIFY)
or the
no-fill mode
set to
LEFT
in order for these inlines to function properly. Please see
IMPORTANT,
below.
String tabs need to be marked off with
inline escapes
before being set up with the
ST
macro. Any input line may contain string tab markers. <number>, above, means the numeric
identifier of the tab. The following shows a sample input line with
string tab markers.
\*[ST1]Now is the time\*[ST1X] for all \*[ST2]good men\*ST2X] to come to the aid of the party.
String tab 1 begins at the start of the line and ends after the word
“time”. String tab 2 starts at “good” and
ends after “men”. Inline escapes (e.g., font or point
size changes, or horizontal movements, including
padding)
are taken into account when mom determines the position and length
of string tabs.
Up to nineteen string tabs may be marked (not necessarily all on the
same line, of course), and they must be numbered between 1 and 19.
Once string tabs have been marked in input lines, they have to be
“set” with
.ST,
after which they may be called, by number, with
.TAB.
Note: Lines with string tabs marked off
in them are normal input lines, ie they get printed, just like
any input line. If you want to set up string tabs without the line
printing, use the
SILENT
macro.
IMPORTANT:
Owing to the way groff processes
input lines
and turns them into
output lines,
it is not possible for mom to “guess” the correct
starting position of string tabs marked off in lines that are
centered or set flush right.
Equally, she cannot guess the starting position if a line is fully
justified and broken with
SPREAD.
In other words, in order to use string tabs,
LEFT
must be active, or, if
QUAD LEFT
or
JUSTIFY
are active, the line on which the string tabs are marked must be
broken “manually” with
.BR
(but not
.SPREAD).
To circumvent this behaviour, I recommend using the
PAD
to set up string tabs in centered or flush right lines. Say, for
example, you want to use a string tab to underscore the text of a
centered line with a rule. Rather than this,
.CENTER
\*[ST1]A line of text\*[ST1X]\c
.EL
.ST 1
.TAB 1
.PT_SIZE 24
.ALD 3p
\*[RULE]
.RLD 3p
.TQ
you should do:
.QUAD CENTER
.PAD "#\*[ST1]A line of text\*[ST1X]#"
.EL
.ST 1
.TAB 1
.PT_SIZE 24
.ALD 3p
\*[RULE] \" Note that you can’t use \*[UP ] or \*[DOWN] with \*[RULE]
.RLD 3p
.TQ
Set string tabs
Macro: ST <tab number> L | R | C | J [ QUAD ]
After string tabs have been marked off on an input line (see
\*[ST]...\*[STX]),
you need to “set” them by giving them a direction and,
optionally, the QUAD argument. In this respect, ST is
like
TAB_SET
except that you don’t have to give ST an indent or a
line length (that’s already taken care of, inline, by
\*[ST]...\*[STX]). If you want string tab 1 to be left,
enter
.ST 1 L
If you want it to be left and
filled, enter
.ST 1 L QUAD
If you want it to be justified, enter
.ST 1 J
See the
Quickie tutorial on string tabs
for a full explanation of setting up string tabs.
Call tabs
Macro: TAB <tab number>
Alias: TB
After tabs have been defined (either with
TAB_SET
or
ST),
TAB moves to whatever tab number you pass it as an argument. For
example,
.TAB 3
moves you to tab 3.
Note: TAB breaks the line preceding it and
advances 1 linespace. Hence,
.TAB 1
A line of text in tab 1.
.TAB 2
A line of text in tab 2.
produces, on output
A line of text in tab 1.
A line of text in tab 2.
If you want the tabs to line up, use
TN
(Tab Next)
or, more conveniently, the inline escape
\*[TB+]:
.TAB 1
A line of text in tab 1.\*[TB+]
A line of text in tab 2.
which produces
A line of text in tab 1. A line of text in tab 2.
If the text in your tabs runs to several lines, and you want the
first lines of each tab to align, you must use the
multi-column macros.
Additional note: Any indents
in effect prior to calling a tab are automatically turned off by
TAB. If you were happily zipping down the page with a left indent
of 2 picas turned on, and you call a tab whose indent from the left
margin is 6 picas, your new distance from the left margin will be 6
picas, not 6 picas plus the 2 pica indent.
Tab Next
Macro: TN
Inline escape: \*[TB+]
TN moves over to the next tab in numeric sequence (tab n+1) without
advancing on the page. See the
NOTE
in the description of the TAB macro for an example of how TN works.
In tabs that aren’t given the QUAD
argument when they’re set up with
TAB_SET
or
ST,
you must terminate the line preceding .TN
with the \c inline escape. Conversely,
if you did give a QUAD argument to TAB_SET or ST, the
\c must not be used.
If you find remembering whether to put in the
\c bothersome, you may prefer to use the
inline escape
alternative to
.TN,
\*[TB+],
which works consistently regardless of the fill mode.
Note: You must put text in the
input line
immediately after TN. Stacking of TN’s is not
allowed. In other words, you cannot do
.TAB 1
Some text\c
.TN
Some more text\c
.TN
.TN
Yet more text
The above example, assuming tabs numbered from 1 to 4, should be entered
.TAB 1
Some text\c
.TN
Some more text\c
.TN
\&\c
.TN
Yet more text
\& is a zero-width, non-printing character that groff
recognizes as valid input, hence meets the requirement for input
text following .TN.
Tab Quit
Macro: TQ
TQ takes you out of whatever tab you were in, advances 1 linespace,
and restores the left margin, line length, quad direction and
fill mode
that were in effect prior to invoking any tabs.
Multiple columns
Tabs are not by nature columnar, which is to say that if the text
inside a tab runs to several lines, calling another tab does not
automatically move to the
baseline
of the first line in the previous tab. To demonstrate:
.TAB 1
Carrots
Potatoes
Broccoli
.TAB 2
$1.99/5 lbs
$0.25/lb
$0.99/bunch
produces, on output
Carrots
Potatoes
Broccoli
$1.99/5 lbs
$0.25/lb
$0.99/bunch
The multi-column macros allow you to set tabs in columnar fashion,
rather than line by line. When you invoke multi-column mode (with
.MCO –
Multi-Column On),
mom saves the position of the current baseline.
.MCR
(Multi-Column Return)
at any point while multi-columns are on returns you to the saved
position. Exiting multi-columns
(.MCX –
Multi-Column eXit)
quits the current tab (if you’re in one) and moves you to the
bottom of the longest column. (Note that you do not have to use
multi-columns in conjunction with tabs.)
Using our example above, but setting it in multi-column mode,
.MCO
.TAB 1
Carrots
Potatoes
Broccoli
.MCR
.TAB 2
$1.99/5 lbs
$0.25/lb
$0.99/bunch
.MCX
produces
Carrots $1.99/5 lbs
Potatoes $0.25/lb
Broccoli $0.99/bunch
Additional Note:
Do not use multi-columns with
DOCTYPE SLIDES
because MCX uses the lowest line on the page to determine column
depth. Owing to the fact that both headers and footers are printed
prior to slides receiving text, MCX will always go to the
footer position. If you need functionality similar to MCO/MCX, use
the groff requests .mk and .rt. See
info groff --index-search=mk.
Multi-columns macros
- MCO – begin multi-column setting
- MCR – return to top of column
- MCX – exit multi-columns
Begin multi-column setting
Macro: MCO
MCO (Multi-Column On) is the macro you use to begin multi-column
setting. It marks the current
baseline
as the top of your columns, for use later with
MCR.
See the
introduction to columns
for an explanation of multi-columns and some sample
input.
Return to top of column
Macro: MCR
Once you’ve turned multi-columns on (with
.MCO),
.MCR, at any time, returns you to the top of
your columns.
Exit multi-columns
Macro: MCX [ <distance to advance below longest column> ]
• Optional argument requires a unit of measure
MCX takes you out of any tab you were in (by silently invoking
.TQ)
and advances to the bottom of the longest column.
Without an argument, MCX advances 1 linespace below the longest
column. Linespace, in this instance, is the
leading
in effect at the moment MCX is invoked.
If you pass the <distance> argument to MCX, it
advances 1 linespace below the longest column (see above) PLUS the
distance specified by the argument. The argument requires a unit
of measure; therefore, to advance an extra 6 points below where MCX
would normally place you, you’d enter
.MCX 6p
Note: If you wish to advance a precise
distance below the
baseline
of the longest column, use MCX with an argument of 0 (zero; no unit
of measure required) in conjunction with the
ALD
macro, like this:
.MCX 0
.ALD 24p
The above advances to precisely 24 points below the baseline
of the longest column.
Indents
With mom’s indents, you can indent from the left, the right,
or both margins. In addition, mom provides temporary left indents
(ie only one line is indented, as at the start of a paragraph)
and “hanging” left indents (the reverse of a temporary
indent; the first line isn’t indented, subsequent lines are).
How mom handles indents
Mom provides five kinds of indents: left, right, both, temporary,
and hanging. Each is invoked by its own name:
- IL – Indent Left
- IR – Indent Right
- IB – Indent Both
- HI – Hanging Indent
- TI – Temporary Indent
In addition, there are four macros to control exiting from
indents:
- IQ – quit all active indents
- ILX – exit indent style left
- IRX – exit indent style right
- IBX – exit indent style both
This section deals exclusively with IL, IR and IB. For an
explanation of hanging and temporary indents—how they work and
how to use them—see
Hanging indents
and
Temporary indents.
The first time you invoke any of mom’s indents, you must
supply a measure. For example,
.IL 2P
indents text 2 picas from the left margin (or current tab indent).
When you want to exit the above indent, use either
.IQ
or
.ILX
The next time you want the same indent, invoke it without the
argument, like this:
.IL
As you can see, once you’ve supplied a measure to an indent
macro, mom stores the value, obviating the need to repeat it on
subsequent invocations. And mom doesn’t just store the
measure—she hangs on to it tenaciously. Arguments passed to
IL, IR and IB are additive. Consider the following:
.LL 20P
.IR 2P \"Indent right by 2 picas
A first block of text...
...
...
.IQ \"Turn indent off
A second block of text...
...
...
.IR 2P \"Indent right by an additional 2 picas (ie 4 picas)
A third block of text...
...
...
The first block of text is right indented by 2 picas (ie the line
length is shortened by 2 picas to 18 picas). The second block of
text, after IQ, is, as you’d expect, set to the full measure.
The third block of text—the one to pay attention to—is
not right indented by 2 picas, but rather by 4 picas. Mom adds
the value of arguments to IL, IR and IB to whatever value is already
in effect.
If you wanted the third block of text in the example above to be
right indented by just 2 picas (the original measure given to IR),
you would enter .IR without an argument.
Because indent arguments are additive, putting a minus sign in front
of the argument can be used to subtract from the current value.
In the following example, the first line is indented 18 points,
the second is indented 36 points (18 + 18), and the third is again
indented 18 points (36 - 18).
.IL 18p \"Indent left by 18 points = 18 points
Now is the time
.IL 18p \"Indent left by 18 points more = 36 points
for all good men to come
.IL -18p \"Indent left by 18 points less = 18 points
to the aid of the party.
Sometimes, you may want to clear out the stored indent
values—let mom start indenting with a clean slate, as it
were. Giving the optional argument CLEAR to any of the
“indent quit” macros resets them to zero.
- IQ CLEAR – quit and clear all indents
- ILX CLEAR – quit and clear indent style left
- IRX CLEAR – quit and clear indent style right
- IBX CLEAR – quit and clear indent style both
Indent styles may be combined and manipulated separately. You
could, for example, have a left indent of 4 picas and a right indent
of 6 picas and control each separately, as in the following example.
.IL 4P \"Indent left 4 picas
.IR 6P \"Indent right 6 picas
Some text
.IRX \"Turn off the right indent only
More text \"Text is still indented 4 picas left
If, at .IRX, you wanted the text afterwards to have no
indents (either left or right), you would enter .IQ,
which exits all indent styles at once.
A word of advice: Indents are best used only when you have a
compelling reason not to change the current left margin or line
length. In many instances where indents might seem expedient,
it’s better to use tabs, or actually change the left margin
or the line length. Mom’s indenting macros are flexible and
powerful, but easy to get tangled up in.
Indents macros
- IL – Indent left
- IR – Indent right
- IB – Indent both
- TI – Temporary indent, left
- HI – Hanging Indent
- IQ – Quit indents, all
- ILX – Exit indent style left
- IRX – Exit indent style right
- IBX – Exit indent style both
Indent left
Macro: IL [ <measure> ]
• The optional argument requires a unit of measure
IL indents text from the left margin of the page, or if you’re
in a tab, from the left edge of the tab. Once IL is on, the left
indent is applied uniformly to every subsequent line of text, even
if you change the line length.
The first time you invoke .IL, you must give it a
measure. Subsequent invocations with a measure add to the previous
measure. A minus sign may be prepended to the argument to subtract
from the current measure. The
\w
inline escape
may be used to specify a text-dependent measure, in which case no
unit of measure is required. For example,
.IL \w'margarine'
indents text by the width of the word “margarine”.
With no argument, IL after an ILX indents by its last active value. See the
explanation of how mom handles indents
for more details.
Note: Calling a tab (with
.TAB <n>)
automatically cancels any active indents.
Additional note: Invoking IL
automatically turns off IB.
Indent right
Macro: IR [ <measure> ]
• The optional argument requires a unit of measure
IR indents text from the right margin of the page, or if
you’re in a tab, from the end of the tab.
The first time you invoke .IR, you must give it a
measure. Subsequent invocations with a measure add to the previous
indent measure. A minus sign may be prepended to the argument to
subtract from the current indent measure. The
\w
inline escape
may be used to specify a text-dependent measure, in which case no
unit of measure is required. For example,
.IR \w'jello'
indents text by the width of the word “jello”.
With no argument, IR after an IRX indents by its last active value. See the
explanation of how mom handles indents
for more details.
Note: Calling a tab (with
.TAB <n>)
automatically cancels any active indents.
Additional note: Invoking IR
automatically turns off IB.
Indent both
Macro: IB [ <indent-1> <indent-2> ]
• The optional arguments require a unit of measure
IB allows you to set or invoke a left and a right indent at the same
time.
If you supply only an indent-1 argument, the argument is
the amount to indent from both the left and right margins. If you
give both indent-1 and indent-2, the first is
the indent from the left margin and the second is the indent from
the right margin.
As with IL and IR, the measures are added to the values previously
passed to the macro. Hence, if you wish to change just one of the
values, you must give an argument of zero to the other. (A word of
advice: If you need to manipulate left and right indents separately,
use a combination of IL and IR instead of IB. You’ll save
yourself a lot of grief.)
A minus sign may be prepended to the arguments to subtract from
their current values. The
\w
inline escape
may be used to specify text-dependent measures, in which case no
unit of measure is required. For example,
.IB \w’margarine’ \w'jello'
left indents text by the width of the word “margarine”
and right indents by the width of “jello”.
Like IL and IR, IB with no argument after an IBX indents by its
last active values. See the
explanation of how mom handles indents
for more details.
Note: Calling a tab (with
.TAB <n>)
automatically cancels any active indents.
Additional note: Invoking IB
automatically turns off IL and IR.
Temporary (left) indent
Macro: TI [ <measure> ]
• The optional argument requires a unit of measure
A temporary indent is one that applies only to the first line of
text that comes after it. Its chief use is indenting the first line
of paragraphs. (Mom’s
PP
macro, for example, uses a temporary indent.)
The first time you invoke .TI, you must give
it a measure. If you want to indent the first line of a paragraph
by, say, 2
ems,
do
.TI 2m
Subsequent invocations of TI do not require you to supply a measure;
mom keeps track of the last measure you gave it.
Because temporary indents are temporary, there’s no need to
turn them off.
IMPORTANT: Unlike IL, IR and IB,
measures given to TI are NOT additive. In the following example,
the second .TI 2P is exactly 2 picas.
.TI 1P
The beginning of a paragraph...
.TI 2P
The beginning of another paragraph...
Hanging indent
Macro: HI [ <measure> ]
• The optional argument requires a unit of measure
A hanging indent looks like this:
The 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, at length I would be avenged...
The first line of text “hangs” outside the left margin.
In order to use hanging indents, you must first have a left indent
active (set with either
.IL
or
.IB).
Mom will not hang text outside the left margin set with
.L_MARGIN
or outside the left margin of a tab.
The first time you invoke .HI, you must give
it a measure. If you want the first line of a paragraph to hang by,
say, 1 pica, do
.IL 1P
.HI 1P
Subsequent invocations of HI do not require you to supply a measure;
mom keeps track of the last measure you gave it.
Generally speaking, you should invoke HI immediately prior to the
line you want hung (ie without any intervening
control lines).
And because hanging indents affect only one line, there’s no
need to turn them off.
IMPORTANT: Unlike IL, IR and IB,
measures given to HI are NOT additive. Each time you pass a measure
to HI, the measure is treated literally.
Recipe: A numbered list using hanging indents
Note: mom has macros for setting lists (see
Nested lists).
This recipe exists to demonstrate the use of hanging indents only.
.PAGE 8.5i 11i 1i 1i 1i 1i
.FAMILY T
.FT R
.PT_SIZE 12
.LS 14
.JUSTIFY
.KERN
.SS 0
.IL \w'\0\0.'
.HI \w'\0\0.'
1.\0The most important point to be considered is whether the
answer to the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything
really is 42. We have no-one’s word on the subject except
Mr. Adams’.
.HI
2.\0If the answer to the meaning of Life, the Universe,
and Everything is indeed 42, what impact does this have on
the politics of representation? 42 is, after all not a
prime number. Are we to infer that prime numbers don’t
deserve equal rights and equal access in the universe?
.HI
3.\0If 42 is deemed non-exclusionary, how do we present it
as the answer and, at the same time, forestall debate on its
exclusionary implications?
First, we invoke a left indent with a measure equal to the width of
2
figures spaces
plus a period (using the
\w
inline escape). At this point, the left indent is active; text
afterwards would normally be indented. However, we invoke a
hanging indent of exactly the same width, which hangs the first
line (and first line only!) to the left of the indent by the
same distance (in this case, that means “out to the left
margin”). Because we begin the first line with a number,
a period, and a figure space, the actual text (“The most
important point...”) starts at exactly the same spot as the
indented lines that follow.
Notice that subsequent invocations of .HI don’t
require a measure to be given.
Paste the example above into a file and preview it with
pdfmom filename.mom > filename.pdf
to see hanging indents in action.
Quitting indents
Macro: IQ [ CLEAR ] (quit any/all indents — see IMPORTANT NOTE)
Macro:
ILX [ CLEAR ] (exit Indent Left)
Macro:
IRX [ CLEAR ] (exit Indent Right)
Macro:
IBX [ CLEAR ] (exit Indent Both)
IMPORTANT NOTE: The original macro
for quitting all indents was IX. This usage has been deprecated in
favour of IQ. IX will continue to behave as before, but mom will
issue a warning to stderr indicating that you should update your
documents.
As a consequence of this change, ILX, IRX and IBX may now also be
invoked as ILQ, IRQ and IBQ. Both forms are acceptable.
Without an argument, the macros to quit indents merely restore your
original margins and line length. The measures stored in the indent
macros themselves are saved so you can call them again without
having to supply a measure.
If you pass these macros the optional argument CLEAR,
they not only restore your original left margin and line length, but
also clear any values associated with a particular indent style.
The next time you need an indent of the same style, you have to
supply a measure again.
.IQ CLEAR, as you’d suspect,
quits and clears the values for all indent styles at once.