Provided by: groff_1.23.0-9_amd64 
Name
grodvi - groff output driver for TeX DVI format
Synopsis
grodvi [-dl] [-F dir] [-p paper-format] [-w n] [file ...]
grodvi --help
grodvi -v
grodvi --version
Description
The GNU roff DVI output driver translates the output of troff(1) into TeX DVI format. Normally, grodvi
is invoked by groff(1) when the latter is given the “-T dvi” option. (In this installation, ps is the
default output device.) Use groff's -P option to pass any options shown above to grodvi. If no file
arguments are given, or if file is “-”, grodvi reads the standard input stream. Output is written to the
standard output stream.
The DVI file generated by grodvi can interpreted by any correctly written DVI driver. troff drawing
primitives are implemented using tpic version 2 specials. If the driver does not support these, \D
escape sequences will not produce any output.
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files can be easily included; use the PSPIC macro. pspic.tmac is loaded
automatically by dvi.tmac. See groff_tmac(5).
The default color used by the \m and \M escape sequences is black. Currently, the stroke color for \D
drawing escape sequences is black; fill color values are translated to gray.
In groff, as in AT&T troff, the \N escape sequence can be used to access any glyph in the current font by
its position in the corresponding TFM file.
By design, the DVI format doesn't care about the physical dimensions of the output medium. Instead,
grodvi emits the equivalent to TeX's \special{papersize=width,length} on the first page; dvips (or
another DVI driver) then sets the page size accordingly. If either the page width or length is not
positive, no papersize special is output.
A device control escape sequence \X'anything' is translated to the same DVI file instructions as would be
produced by \special{anything} in TeX; anything cannot contain a newline.
Typefaces
grodvi supports the standard four styles: R (roman), I (italic), B (bold), and BI (bold-italic). Fonts
are grouped into families T and H having members in each style. “CM” abbreviates “Computer Modern”.
TR CM Roman (cmr10)
TI CM Text Italic (cmti10)
TB CM Bold Extended Roman (cmbx10)
TBI CM Bold Extended Text Italic (cmbxti10)
HR CM Sans Serif (cmss10)
HI CM Slanted Sans Serif (cmssi10)
HB CM Sans Serif Bold Extended (cmssbx10)
HBI CM Slanted Sans Serif Bold Extended (cmssbxo10)
The following fonts are not members of a family.
CW CM Typewriter Text (cmtt10)
CWI CM Italic Typewriter Text (cmitt10)
Special fonts include MI (cmmi10), S (cmsy10), EX (cmex10), SC (cmtex10, only for CW), and, perhaps
surprisingly, TR, TI, and CW, because TeX places some glyphs in text fonts that troff generally does not.
For italic fonts, CWI is used instead of CW.
Finally, the symbol fonts of the American Mathematical Society are available as special fonts SA (msam10)
and SB (msbm10). They are are not mounted by default.
The troff option -mec loads the ec.tmac macro file, employing the EC and TC fonts instead of CM. These
are designed similarly to the Computer Modern fonts; further, they provide Euro \[Eu] and per mille \[%0]
glyphs. ec.tmac must be loaded before any language-specific macro files because it does not set up the
codes necessary for automatic hyphenation.
Font description files
Use tfmtodit(1) to create groff font description files from TFM (TeX font metrics) files. The font
description file should contain the following additional directives, which tfmtodit generates
automatically.
internalname name
The name of the TFM file (without the .tfm extension) is name.
checksum n
The checksum in the TFM file is n.
designsize n
The design size in the TFM file is n.
Drawing commands
grodvi supports an additional drawing command.
\D'R dh dv'
Draw a rule (solid black rectangle) with one corner at the drawing position, and the diagonally
opposite corner at the drawing position +(dh,dv), which becomes the new drawing position
afterward. This command produces a rule in the DVI file and so can be printed even with a driver
that does not support tpic specials, unlike the other \D commands.
Options
--help displays a usage message, while -v and --version show version information; all exit afterward.
-d Do not use tpic specials to implement drawing commands. Horizontal and vertical lines are
implemented by rules. Other drawing commands are ignored.
-F dir Prepend directory dir/devname to the search path for font and device description files; name is
the name of the device, usually dvi.
-l Use landscape orientation rather than portrait.
-p paper-format
Set physical dimensions of output medium, overriding the papersize, paperlength, and paperwidth
directives in the DESC file. paper-format can be any argument accepted by the papersize
directive; see groff_font(5).
-w n Draw rules (lines) with a thickness of n thousandths of an em. The default thickness is 40
(0.04 em).
Environment
GROFF_FONT_PATH
lists directories in which to search for devdvi, grodvi's directory of device and font description
files. See troff(1) and groff_font(5).
Files
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devdvi/DESC
describes the dvi output device.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/font/devdvi/F
describes the font known as F on device dvi.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/dvi.tmac
defines font mappings, special characters, and colors for use with the dvi output device. It is
automatically loaded by troffrc when the dvi output device is selected.
/usr/share/groff/1.23.0/tmac/ec.tmac
configures the dvi output device to use the EC and TC font families instead of CM (Computer
Modern).
Bugs
DVI files produced by grodvi use a different resolution (57,816 units per inch) from those produced by
TeX. Incorrectly written drivers which assume the resolution used by TeX, rather than using the
resolution specified in the DVI file, will not work with grodvi.
When using the -d option with boxed tables, vertical and horizontal lines can sometimes protrude by one
pixel. This is a consequence of the way TeX requires that the heights and widths of rules be rounded.
See also
“What are the EC fonts?”; TeX FAQ: Frequently Asked Question List for TeX
tfmtodit(1), groff(1), troff(1), groff_out(5), groff_font(5), groff_char(7), groff_tmac(5)
groff 1.23.0 3 June 2025 grodvi(1)