NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | GRN COMMANDS | NOTES ABOUT GROFF | GREMLIN FILE FORMAT | ELEMENT SPECIFICATIONS | NOTES ON COORDINATES | NOTES ON SUN/X11 COORDINATES | FILES | SEE ALSO | COPYING | AUTHORS | COLOPHON

GRN(1)                     General Commands Manual                    GRN(1)

NAME         top

       grn - groff preprocessor for gremlin files

SYNOPSIS         top

       grn [ -Cv ] [ -Tdev ] [ -Mdir ] [ -Fdir ] [ file... ]

DESCRIPTION         top

       grn is a preprocessor for including gremlin pictures in groff input.
       grn writes to standard output, processing only input lines between
       two that start with .GS and .GE.  Those lines must contain grn
       commands (see below).  These commands request a gremlin file, and the
       picture in that file is converted and placed in the troff input
       stream.  The .GS request may be followed by a C, L, or R to center,
       left, or right justify the whole gremlin picture (default
       justification is center).  If no file is mentioned, the standard
       input is read.  At the end of the picture, the position on the page
       is the bottom of the gremlin picture.  If the grn entry is ended with
       .GF instead of .GE, the position is left at the top of the picture.
       Please note that currently only the -me macro package has support for
       .GS, .GE, and .GF.
       The following command-line options are understood:
       -Tdev  Prepare output for printer dev.  The default device is ps.
              See groff(1) for acceptable devices.
       -Mdir  Prepend dir to the default search path for gremlin files.  The
              default path is (in that order) the current directory, the
              home directory, /usr/local/lib/groff/site-tmac,
              /usr/local/share/groff/site-tmac, and
              /usr/local/share/groff/1.22.3/tmac.
       -Fdir  Search dir for subdirectories devname (name is the name of the
              device) for the DESC file before the default font directories
              /usr/local/share/groff/site-font,
              /usr/local/share/groff/1.22.3/font, and /usr/lib/font.
       -C     Recognize .GS and .GE (and .GF) even when followed by a
              character other than space or newline.
       -v     Print the version number.
       It is possible to have whitespace between a command line option and
       its parameter.

GRN COMMANDS         top

       Each input line between .GS and .GE may have one grn command.
       Commands consist of one or two strings separated by white space, the
       first string being the command and the second its operand.  Commands
       may be upper or lower case and abbreviated down to one character.
       Commands that affect a picture's environment (those listed before
       default, see below) are only in effect for the current picture: The
       environment is reinitialized to the defaults at the start of the next
       picture.  The commands are as follows:
       1 N
       2 N
       3 N
       4 N    Set gremlin's text size number 1 (2, 3, or 4) to N points.
              The default is 12 (16, 24, and 36, respectively).
       roman f
       italics f
       bold f
       special f
              Set the roman (italics, bold, or special) font to troff's font
              f (either a name or number).  The default is R (I, B, and S,
              respectively).
       l f
       stipple f
              Set the stipple font to troff's stipple font f (name or
              number).  The command stipple may be abbreviated down as far
              as ‘st’ (to avoid confusion with special).  There is no
              default for stipples (unless one is set by the default
              command), and it is invalid to include a gremlin picture with
              polygons without specifying a stipple font.
       x N
       scale N
              Magnify the picture (in addition to any default magnification)
              by N, a floating point number larger than zero.  The command
              scale may be abbreviated down to ‘sc’.
       narrow N
       medium N
       thick N
              Set the thickness of gremlin's narrow (medium and thick,
              respectively) lines to N times 0.15pt (this value can be
              changed at compile time).  The default is 1.0 (3.0 and 5.0,
              respectively), which corresponds to 0.15pt (0.45pt and 0.75pt,
              respectively).  A thickness value of zero selects the smallest
              available line thickness.  Negative values cause the line
              thickness to be proportional to the current point size.
       pointscale <off/on>
              Scale text to match the picture.  Gremlin text is usually
              printed in the point size specified with the commands 1, 2, 3,
              or 4, regardless of any scaling factors in the picture.
              Setting pointscale will cause the point sizes to scale with
              the picture (within troff's limitations, of course).  An
              operand of anything but off will turn text scaling on.
       default
              Reset the picture environment defaults to the settings in the
              current picture.  This is meant to be used as a global
              parameter setting mechanism at the beginning of the troff
              input file, but can be used at any time to reset the default
              settings.
       width N
              Forces the picture to be N inches wide.  This overrides any
              scaling factors present in the same picture.  ‘width 0’ is
              ignored.
       height N
              Forces picture to be N inches high, overriding other scaling
              factors.  If both ‘width’ and ‘height’ are specified the
              tighter constraint will determine the scale of the picture.
              Height and width commands are not saved with a default
              command.  They will, however, affect point size scaling if
              that option is set.
       file name
              Get picture from gremlin file name located the current
              directory (or in the library directory; see the -M option
              above).  If two file commands are given, the second one
              overrides the first.  If name doesn't exist, an error message
              is reported and processing continues from the .GE line.

NOTES ABOUT GROFF         top

       Since grn is a preprocessor, it doesn't know about current indents,
       point sizes, margins, number registers, etc.  Consequently, no troff
       input can be placed between the .GS and .GE requests.  However,
       gremlin text is now processed by troff, so anything valid in a single
       line of troff input is valid in a line of gremlin text (barring ‘.’
       directives at the beginning of a line).  Thus, it is possible to have
       equations within a gremlin figure by including in the gremlin file
       eqn expressions enclosed by previously defined delimiters (e.g. $$).
       When using grn along with other preprocessors, it is best to run tbl
       before grn, pic, and/or ideal to avoid overworking tbl.  Eqn should
       always be run last.
       A picture is considered an entity, but that doesn't stop troff from
       trying to break it up if it falls off the end of a page.  Placing the
       picture between ‘keeps’ in -me macros will ensure proper placement.
       grn uses troff's number registers g1 through g9 and sets registers g1
       and g2 to the width and height of the gremlin figure (in device
       units) before entering the .GS request (this is for those who want to
       rewrite these macros).

GREMLIN FILE FORMAT         top

       There exist two distinct gremlin file formats, the original format
       from the AED graphic terminal version, and the SUN or X11 version.
       An extension to the SUN/X11 version allowing reference points with
       negative coordinates is not compatible with the AED version.  As long
       as a gremlin file does not contain negative coordinates, either
       format will be read correctly by either version of gremlin or grn.
       The other difference to the SUN/X11 format is the use of names for
       picture objects (e.g., POLYGON, CURVE) instead of numbers.  Files
       representing the same picture are shown in Table 1 in each format.
                       sungremlinfile        gremlinfile
                       0 240.00 128.00       0 240.00 128.00
                       CENTCENT              2
                       240.00 128.00         240.00 128.00
                       185.00 120.00         185.00 120.00
                       240.00 120.00         240.00 120.00
                       296.00 120.00         296.00 120.00
                       *                     -1.00 -1.00
                       2 3                   2 3
                       10 A Triangle         10 A Triangle
                       POLYGON               6
                       224.00 416.00         224.00 416.00
                       96.00 160.00          96.00 160.00
                       384.00 160.00         384.00 160.00
                       *                     -1.00 -1.00
                       5 1                   5 1
                       0                     0
                       -1                    -1
                              Table 1.  File examples
       ·      The first line of each gremlin file contains either the string
              gremlinfile (AED version) or sungremlinfile (SUN/X11)
       ·      The second line of the file contains an orientation, and x and
              y values for a positioning point, separated by spaces.  The
              orientation, either 0 or 1, is ignored by the SUN/X11 version.
              0 means that gremlin will display things in horizontal format
              (drawing area wider than it is tall, with menu across top).  1
              means that gremlin will display things in vertical format
              (drawing area taller than it is wide, with menu on left side).
              x and y are floating point values giving a positioning point
              to be used when this file is read into another file.  The
              stuff on this line really isn't all that important; a value of
              “1 0.00 0.00” is suggested.
       ·      The rest of the file consists of zero or more element
              specifications.  After the last element specification is a
              line containing the string “-1”.
       ·      Lines longer than 127 characters are chopped to this limit.

ELEMENT SPECIFICATIONS         top

       ·      The first line of each element contains a single decimal
              number giving the type of the element (AED version) or its
              ASCII name (SUN/X11 version).  See Table 2.
                     gremlin File Format − Object Type Specification
                 AED Number   SUN/X11 Name           Description
                      0       BOTLEFT        bottom-left-justified text
                      1       BOTRIGHT       bottom-right-justified text
                      2       CENTCENT       center-justified text
                      3       VECTOR         vector
                      4       ARC            arc
                      5       CURVE          curve
                      6       POLYGON        polygon
                      7       BSPLINE        b-spline
                      8       BEZIER         Bézier
                     10       TOPLEFT        top-left-justified text
                     11       TOPCENT        top-center-justified text
                     12       TOPRIGHT       top-right-justified text
                     13       CENTLEFT       left-center-justified text
                     14       CENTRIGHT      right-center-justified text
                     15       BOTCENT        bottom-center-justified text
                                         Table 2.
                           Type Specifications in gremlin Files
       ·      After the object type comes a variable number of lines, each
              specifying a point used to display the element.  Each line
              contains an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate in floating point
              format, separated by spaces.  The list of points is terminated
              by a line containing the string “-1.0 -1.0” (AED version) or a
              single asterisk, “*” (SUN/X11 version).
       ·      After the points comes a line containing two decimal values,
              giving the brush and size for the element.  The brush
              determines the style in which things are drawn.  For vectors,
              arcs, and curves there are six valid brush values:
                             1 −       thin dotted lines
                             2 −       thin dot-dashed lines
                             3 −       thick solid lines
                             4 −       thin dashed lines
                             5 −       thin solid lines
                             6 −       medium solid lines
              For polygons, one more value, 0, is valid.  It specifies a
              polygon with an invisible border.  For text, the brush selects
              a font as follows:
                           1 −       roman (R font in groff)
                           2 −       italics (I font in groff)
                           3 −       bold (B font in groff)
                           4 −       special (S font in groff)
              If you're using grn to run your pictures through groff, the
              font is really just a starting font: The text string can
              contain formatting sequences like “\fI” or “\d” which may
              change the font (as well as do many other things).  For text,
              the size field is a decimal value between 1 and 4.  It selects
              the size of the font in which the text will be drawn.  For
              polygons, this size field is interpreted as a stipple number
              to fill the polygon with.  The number is used to index into a
              stipple font at print time.
       ·      The last line of each element contains a decimal number and a
              string of characters, separated by a single space.  The number
              is a count of the number of characters in the string.  This
              information is only used for text elements, and contains the
              text string.  There can be spaces inside the text.  For arcs,
              curves, and vectors, this line of the element contains the
              string “0”.

NOTES ON COORDINATES         top

       gremlin was designed for AEDs, and its coordinates reflect the AED
       coordinate space.  For vertical pictures, x-values range 116 to 511,
       and y-values from 0 to 483.  For horizontal pictures, x-values range
       from 0 to 511 and y-values range from 0 to 367.  Although you needn't
       absolutely stick to this range, you'get best results if you at least
       stay in this vicinity.  Also, point lists are terminated by a point
       of (-1, -1), so you shouldn't ever use negative coordinates.  gremlin
       writes out coordinates using format “%f1.2”; it's probably a good
       idea to use the same format if you want to modify the grn code.

NOTES ON SUN/X11 COORDINATES         top

       There is no longer a restriction on the range of coordinates used to
       create objects in the SUN/X11 version of gremlin.  However, files
       with negative coordinates will cause problems if displayed on the
       AED.

FILES         top

       /usr/local/share/groff/1.22.3/font/devname/DESC
              Device description file for device name.

SEE ALSO         top

       gremlin(1), groff(1), pic(1), ideal(1)

COPYING         top

       Copyright © 2000-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
       Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
       manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
       preserved on all copies.
       Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
       this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
       the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
       permission notice identical to this one.
       Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
       manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified
       versions, except that this permission notice may be included in
       translations approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in
       the original English.

AUTHORS         top

       David Slattengren and Barry Roitblat wrote the original Berkeley grn.
       Daniel Senderowicz and Werner Lemberg modified it for groff.

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the groff (GNU troff) project.  Information
       about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.  If you have a bug report for
       this manual page, see ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/groff/⟩.  This
       page was obtained from the tarball groff-1.22.3.tar.gz fetched from
       ⟨ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/⟩ on 2017-07-05.  If you discover any
       rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you believe
       there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or you have
       corrections or improvements to the information in this COLOPHON
       (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail to
       man-pages@man7.org
Groff Version 1.22.3           4 November 2014                        GRN(1)

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