Eric P. Allman* *Author's current address:
Britton Lee, Inc., 1919 Addison Suite 105, Berkeley, California 94704.
Project INGRES Electronics Research Laboratory University of California,
Berkeley Berkeley, California 94720
This document describes the
text processing facilities available on the * * is a trademark of AT&T Bell
Laboratories operating system via and the -me macro package. It is assumed
that the reader already is generally familiar with the operating system
and a text editor such as This is intended to be a casual introduction,
and as such not all material is covered. In particular, many variations
and additional features of the -me macro package are not explained. For
a complete discussion of this and other issues, see The -me Reference
Manual and The / Reference Manual. , a computer program that runs on
the operating system, reads an input file prepared by the user and outputs
a formatted paper suitable for publication or framing. The input consists
of or words to be printed, and which give instructions to the program
telling how to format the printed copy. Section 1 describes the basics
of text processing. Section 2 describes the basic requests. Section 3 introduces
displays. Annotations, such as footnotes, are handled in section 4. The
more complex requests which are not discussed in section 2 are covered
in section 5. Finally, section 6 discusses things you will need to know
if you want to typeset documents. If you are a novice, you probably won't
want to read beyond section 4 until you have tried some of the basic features
out. When you have your raw text ready, call the formatter by typing
as a request to the shell: groff -me -T where describes the type of
output device you are using. A complete description of options to the
command can be found in The word is used in this manual to mean a word
or number which appears on the same line as a request which modifies the
meaning of that request. For example, the request .sp spaces one line,
but .sp 4 spaces four lines. The number is an to the request which
says to space four lines instead of one. Arguments are separated from the
request and from each other by spaces. The primary function of is to
words from input lines, output lines with those words, the right hand
margin by inserting extra spaces in the line, and output the result. For
example, the input: Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid
of their party. Four score and seven years ago,... will be read, packed onto
output lines, and justified to produce: Now is the time for all good
men to come to the aid of their party. Four score and seven years ago,...
Sometimes you may want to start a new output line even though the line
you are on is not yet full; for example, at the end of a paragraph. To
do this you can cause a which starts a new output line. Some requests
cause a break automatically, as do blank input lines and input lines beginning
with a space. Not all input lines are text to be formatted. Some of the
input lines are which describe how to format the text. Requests always
have a period or an apostrophe ( as the first character of the input line.
The text formatter also does more complex things, such as automatically
numbering pages, skipping over page folds, putting footnotes in the correct
place, and so forth. I can offer you a few hints for preparing text for
input to . First, keep the input lines short. Short input lines are easier
to edit, and will pack words onto longer lines for you anyhow. In keeping
with this, it is helpful to begin a new line after every period, comma,
or phrase, since common corrections are to add or delete sentences or
phrases. Second, do not put spaces at the end of lines, since this can
sometimes confuse the processor. Third, do not hyphenate words at the
end of lines (except words that should have hyphens in them, such as
is smart enough to hyphenate words for you as needed, but is not smart
enough to take hyphens out and join a word back together. Also, words such
as should not be broken over a line, since then you will get a space
where not wanted, such as
Paragraphs are begun by using the request. For example, the input:
.pp Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Four score and seven years ago,... produces a blank line followed by an
indented first line. The result is: Now is the time for all good men
to come to the aid of their party. Four score and seven years ago,... Notice
that the sentences of the paragraphs begin with a space, since blank
lines and lines beginning with spaces cause a break. For example, if I
had typed: .pp Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid
of their party. Four score and seven years ago,... The output would be:
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their party.
Four score and seven years ago,... A new line begins after the word because
the second line began with a space character. There are many fancier types
of paragraphs, which will be described later. Arbitrary headers and footers
can be put at the top and bottom of every page. Two requests of the form
and define the titles to put at the head and the foot of every page,
respectively. The titles are called titles, that is, there is a left-justified
part, a centered part, and a right-justified part. To separate these three
parts the first character of (whatever it may be) is used as a delimiter.
Any character may be used, but backslash and double quote marks should
be avoided. The percent sign is replaced by the current page number whenever
found in the title. For example, the input: .he ´´%´´ .fo ´Jane Jones´´My Book´
results in the page number centered at the top of each page, in the
lower left corner, and in the lower right corner. will double space
output text automatically if you use the request as is done in this section.
You can revert to single spaced mode by typing A number of requests
allow you to change the way the printed copy looks, sometimes called the
of the output page. Most of these requests adjust the placing of (blank
lines or spaces). In these explanations, characters in italics should be
replaced with values you wish to use; bold characters represent characters
which should actually be typed. The request starts a new page. The request
leaves lines of blank space. can be omitted (meaning skip a single
line) or can be of the form (for inches) or (for centimeters). For
example, the input: .sp 1.5i My thoughts on the subject .sp leaves one
and a half inches of space, followed by the line followed by a single
blank line. The request changes the amount of white space on the left
of the page (the The argument can be of the form (meaning leave spaces
more than you are already leaving), (meaning leave less than you do
now), or just (meaning leave exactly spaces). can be of the form or
also. For example, the input: initial text .in 5 some text .in +1i more
text .in -2c final text produces indented exactly five spaces from the
left margin, indented five spaces plus one inch from the left margin
(fifteen spaces on a pica typewriter), and indented five spaces plus
one inch minus two centimeters from the margin. That is, the output is:
initial text some text more text final text The (temporary indent)
request is used like when the indent should apply to one line only,
after which it should revert to the previous indent. For example, the input:
.in 1i .ti 0 Ware, James R. The Best of Confucius, Halcyon House, 1950.
An excellent book containing translations of most of Confucius´ most delightful
sayings. A definite must for anyone interested in the early foundations
of Chinese philosophy. produces: Ware, James R. The Best of Confucius,
Halcyon House, 1950. An excellent book containing translations of most
of Confucius' most delightful sayings. A definite must for anyone interested
in the early foundations of Chinese philosophy. Text lines can be centered
by using the request. The line after the is centered (horizontally) on
the page. To center more than one line, use (where is the number of
lines to center), followed by the lines. If you want to center many lines
but don't want to count them, type: .ce 1000 lines to center .ce 0 The
request tells to center zero more lines, in other words, stop centering.
All of these requests cause a break; that is, they always start a new
line. If you want to start a new line without performing any other action,
use Displays are sections of text to be set off from the body of the
paper. Major quotes, tables, and figures are types of displays, as are
all the examples used in this document. All displays except centered blocks
are output single spaced. Major quotes are quotes which are several lines
long, and hence are set in from the rest of the text without quote marks
around them. These can be generated using the commands and to surround
the quote. For example, the input: As Weizenbaum points out: .(q It is
said that to explain is to explain away. This maxim is nowhere so well
fulfilled as in the areas of computer programming,... .)q generates as output:
As Weizenbaum points out: It is said that to explain is to explain away.
This maxim is nowhere so well fulfilled as in the areas of computer programming,...
A is an indented, single spaced, unfilled display. Lists should be
used when the material to be printed should not be filled and justified
like normal text, such as columns of figures or the examples used in this
paper. Lists are surrounded by the requests and For example, type: Alternatives
to avoid deadlock are: .(l Lock in a specified order Detect deadlock and
back out one process Lock all resources needed before proceeding .)l will
produce:
Alternatives to avoid deadlock are: Lock in a specified order Detect
deadlock and back out one process Lock all resources needed before proceeding
A is a display of lines which are kept on a single page if possible.
An example of where you would use a keep might be a diagram. Keeps differ
from lists in that lists may be broken over a page boundary whereas keeps
will not. Blocks are the basic kind of keep. They begin with the request
and end with the request If there is not room on the current page for
everything in the block, a new page is begun. This has the unpleasant effect
of leaving blank space at the bottom of the page. When this is not appropriate,
you can use the alternative, called move relative to the text. Hence,
they are good for things which will be referred to by name, such as A
floating keep will appear at the bottom of the current page if it will
fit; otherwise, it will appear at the top of the next page. Floating keeps
begin with the line and end with the line For an example of a floating
keep, see figure 1. .(z .hl Text of keep to be floated. .sp .ce Figure 1.
Example of a Floating Keep. .hl .)z
Figure 1. Example of a Floating Keep.
The request is used to draw a horizontal line so that the figure stands
out from the text. Keeps and lists are normally collected in mode, so
that they are good for tables and such. If you want a display in fill mode
(for text), type (Throughout this section, comments applied to also
apply to and This kind of display will be indented from both margins.
For example, the input: .(l F And now boys and girls, a newer, bigger,
better toy than ever before! Be the first on your block to have your own
computer! Yes kids, you too can have one of these modern data processing
devices. You too can produce beautifully formatted papers without even
batting an eye! .)l will be output as: And now boys and girls, a newer,
bigger, better toy than ever before! Be the first on your block to have
your own computer! Yes kids, you too can have one of these modern data
processing devices. You too can produce beautifully formatted papers without
even batting an eye! Lists and blocks are also normally indented (floating
keeps are normally left justified). To get a left-justified list, type
To get a list centered line-for-line, type For example, to get a filled,
left justified list, enter: .(l L F text of block .)l The input: .(l first
line of unfilled display more lines .)l produces the indented text: first
line of unfilled display more lines Typing the character after the
request produces the left justified result: first line of unfilled display
more lines Using instead of produces the line-at-a-time centered output:
first line of unfilled display more lines Sometimes it may be that
you want to center several lines as a group, rather than centering them
one line at a time. To do this use centered blocks, which are surrounded
by the requests and All the lines are centered as a unit, such that
the longest line is centered and the rest are lined up around that line.
Notice that lines do not move relative to each other using centered blocks,
whereas they do using the argument to keeps. Centered blocks are keeps,
and may be used in conjunction with keeps. For example, to center a group
of lines as a unit and keep them on one page, use: .(b L .(c first line
of unfilled display more lines .)c .)b to produce: first line of unfilled
display more lines If the block requests ( and had been omitted the
result would have been the same, but with no guarantee that the lines
of the centered block would have all been on one page. Note the use of
the argument to this causes the centered block to center within the
entire line rather than within the line minus the indent. Also, the center
requests must be nested the keep requests. There are a number of requests
to save text for later printing. are printed at the bottom of the current
page. is intended to be a variant form of footnote; the text is printed
only when explicitly called for, such as at the end of each chapter.
are a type of delayed text having a tag (usually the page number) attached
to each entry after a row of dots. Indexes are also saved until called
for explicitly. Footnotes begin with the request and end with the request
The current footnote number is maintained automatically, and can be used
by typing \**, to produce a footnote number. Like this. The number is automatically
incremented after every footnote. For example, the input: .(q A man who
is not upright and at the same time is presumptuous; one who is not diligent
and at the same time is ignorant; one who is untruthful and at the same
time is incompetent; such men I do not count among acquaintances.\** .(f
\**James R. Ware, .ul The Best of Confucius, Halcyon House, 1950. Page 77.
.)f .)q generates the result: A man who is not upright and at the same
time is presumptuous; one who is not diligent and at the same time is
ignorant; one who is untruthful and at the same time is incompetent; such
men I do not count among acquaintances. James R. Ware, The Best of Confucius,
Halcyon House, 1950. Page 77. It is important that the footnote appears
the quote, so that you can be sure that the footnote will appear on the
same page as the quote. Delayed text is very similar to a footnote except
that it is printed when called for explicitly. This allows a list of references
to appear (for example) at the end of each chapter, as is the convention
in some disciplines. Use on delayed text instead of as on footnotes.
If you are using delayed text as your standard reference mechanism, you
can still use footnotes, except that you may want to reference them with
special characters* *Such as an asterisk. rather than numbers. An (actually
more like a table of contents, since the entries are not sorted alphabetically)
resembles delayed text, in that it is saved until called for. However,
each entry has the page number (or some other tag) appended to the last
line of the index entry after a row of dots. Index entries begin with
the request and end with The request may have a argument, which is
the value to print as the It defaults to the current page number. If the
page number given is an underscore ( no page number or line of dots is
printed at all. To get the line of dots without a page number, type which
specifies an explicitly null page number. The request prints the index.
For example, the input: .(x Sealing wax .)x .(x Cabbages and kings .)x _
.(x Why the sea is boiling hot .)x 2.5a .(x Whether pigs have wings .)x ""
.(x This is a terribly long index entry, such as might be used for a list
of illustrations, tables, or figures; I expect it to take at least two
lines. .)x .xp generates: Sealing wax Cabbages and kings Why the sea
is boiling hot Whether pigs have wings This is a terribly long index
entry, such as might be used for a list of illustrations, tables, or figures;
I expect it to take at least two lines. The request may have a single
character argument, specifying the of the index; the normal index is
Thus, several may be maintained simultaneously (such as a list of tables,
table of contents, etc.). Notice that the index must be printed at the
of the paper, rather than at the beginning where it will probably appear
(as a table of contents); the pages may have to be physically rearranged
after printing. A large number of fancier requests exist, notably requests
to provide other sorts of paragraphs, numbered sections of the form (such
as used in this document), and multicolumn output. Paragraphs generally
start with a blank line and with the first line indented. It is possible
to get left-justified block-style paragraphs by using instead of as demonstrated
by the next paragraph. Sometimes you want to use paragraphs that have
the indented, and the first line exdented (opposite of indented) with
a label. This can be done with the request. A word specified on the same
line as is printed in the margin, and the body is lined up at a prespecified
position (normally five spaces). For example, the input: .ip one This is
the first paragraph. Notice how the first line of the resulting paragraph
lines up with the other lines in the paragraph. .ip two And here we are
at the second paragraph already. You may notice that the argument to appears
in the margin. .lp We can continue text... produces as output: This is the
first paragraph. Notice how the first line of the resulting paragraph lines
up with the other lines in the paragraph. And here we are at the second
paragraph already. You may notice that the argument to appears in the
margin. We can continue text without starting a new indented paragraph
by using the request. If you have spaces in the label of a request,
you must use an instead of a regular space. This is typed as a backslash
character ( followed by a space. For example, to print the label enter:
.ip "Part\ 1" If a label of an indented paragraph (that is, the argument
to is longer than the space allocated for the label, will begin a new
line after the label. For example, the input: .ip longlabel This paragraph
had a long label. The first character of text on the first line will not
line up with the text on second and subsequent lines, although they will
line up with each other. will produce: This paragraph had a long label.
The first character of text on the first line will not line up with the
text on second and subsequent lines, although they will line up with each
other. It is possible to change the size of the label by using a second
argument which is the size of the label. For example, the above example
could be done correctly by saying: .ip longlabel 10 which will make the
paragraph indent 10 spaces for this paragraph only. If you have many paragraphs
to indent all the same amount, use the For example, to leave one inch
of space for the label, type: .nr ii 1i somewhere before the first call
to Refer to the reference manual for more information. If is used with
no argument at all no hanging tag will be printed. For example, the input:
.ip [a] This is the first paragraph of the example. We have seen this sort
of example before. .ip This paragraph is lined up with the previous paragraph,
but it has no tag in the margin. produces as output: This is the first
paragraph of the example. We have seen this sort of example before. This
paragraph is lined up with the previous paragraph, but it has no tag in
the margin. A special case of is which automatically numbers paragraphs
sequentially from 1. The numbering is reset at the next or (to be described
in the next section) request. For example, the input: .np This is the first
point. .np This is the second point. Points are just regular paragraphs which
are given sequence numbers automatically by the .np request. .pp This paragraph
will reset numbering by .np. .np For example, we have reverted to numbering
from one now. generates: This is the first point. This is the second
point. Points are just regular paragraphs which are given sequence numbers
automatically by the .np request. This paragraph will reset numbering by
.np. For example, we have reverted to numbering from one now. The request
gives lists of this sort that are identified with bullets rather than
numbers. The paragraphs are also crunched together. For example, the input:
.bu One egg yolk .bu One tablespoon cream or top milk .bu Salt, cayenne,
and lemon juice to taste .bu A generous two tablespoonfuls of butter produces:
By the way, if you put the first three ingredients in a a heavy, deep
pan and whisk the ingredients madly over a medium flame (never taking
your hand off the handle of the pot) until the mixture reaches the consistency
of custard (just a minute or two), then mix in the butter off-heat, you
will have a wonderful Hollandaise sauce. One egg yolk One tablespoon
cream or top milk Salt, cayenne, and lemon juice to taste A generous
two tablespoonfuls of butter Section numbers (such as the ones used
in this document) can be automatically generated using the request. You
must tell the of the section number and a section title. The depth specifies
how many numbers are to appear (separated by decimal points) in the section
number. For example, the section number has a depth of three. Section
numbers are incremented in a fairly intuitive fashion. If you add a number
(increase the depth), the new number starts out at one. If you subtract
section numbers (or keep the same number) the final number is incremented.
For example, the input: .sh 1 "The Preprocessor" .sh 2 "Basic Concepts"
.sh 2 "Control Inputs" .sh 3 .sh 3 .sh 1 "Code Generation" .sh 3 produces
as output the result: 1. The Preprocessor 1.1. Basic Concepts 1.2. Control
Inputs 1.2.1. 1.2.2. 2. Code Generation 2.1.1. You can specify the section number
to begin by placing the section number after the section title, using
spaces instead of dots. For example, the request: .sh 3 "Another section"
7 3 4 will begin the section numbered all subsequent requests will
number relative to this number. There are more complex features which
will cause each section to be indented proportionally to the depth of
the section. For example, if you enter: .nr si each section will be indented
by an amount must have a scaling factor attached, that is, it must be
of the form where is a character telling what units is in. Common values
for are for inches, for centimeters, and for (the width of a single
character). For example, to indent each section one-half inch, type: .nr
si 0.5i After this, sections will be indented by one-half inch per level
of depth in the section number. For example, this document was produced
using the request .nr si 3n at the beginning of the input file, giving
three spaces of indent per section depth. Section headers without automatically
generated numbers can be done using: .uh "Title" which will do a section
heading, but will put no number on the section. There are some requests
which assist in setting up papers. The request initializes for a title
page. There are no headers or footers on a title page, and unlike other
pages you can space down and leave blank space at the top. For example,
a typical title page might appear as: .tp .sp 2i .(l C THE GROWTH OF TOENAILS
IN UPPER PRIMATES .sp by .sp Frank N. Furter .)l .bp The request can be
used to start chapters. Each chapter is automatically numbered from one,
and a heading is printed at the top of each chapter with the chapter number
and the chapter name For example, to begin a chapter called use the
request: .+c "CONCLUSIONS" which will produce, on a new page, the lines
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS with appropriate spacing for a thesis. Also, the
header is moved to the foot of the page on the first page of a chapter.
Although the request was not designed to work only with the request,
it is tuned for the format acceptable for a PhD thesis at Berkeley. If
the title parameter is omitted from the request, the result is a chapter
with no heading. This can also be used at the beginning of a paper; for
example, was used to generate page one of this document. Although papers
traditionally have the abstract, table of contents, and so forth at the
front of the paper, it is more convenient to format and print them last
when using . This is so that index entries can be collected and then printed
for the table of contents (or whatever). At the end of the paper, issue
the request, which begins the preliminary part of the paper. After issuing
this request, the request will begin a preliminary section of the paper.
Most notably, this prints the page number restarted from one in lower
case Roman numbers. may be used repeatedly to begin different parts of
the front material for example, the abstract, the table of contents, acknowledgments,
list of illustrations, etc. The request may also be used to begin the
bibliographic section at the end of the paper. For example, the paper might
appear as outlined in figure 2. (In this figure, comments begin with the
sequence
.th \" set for thesis mode .fo ´´DRAFT´´ \" define footer for each
page .tp \" begin title page .(l C \" center a large block THE GROWTH OF TOENAILS
IN UPPER PRIMATES .sp by .sp Frank Furter .)l \" end centered part .+c INTRODUCTION \"
begin chapter named "INTRODUCTION" .(x t \" make an entry into index `t' Introduction
.)x \" end of index entry text of chapter one .+c "NEXT CHAPTER" \" begin another
chapter .(x t \" enter into index `t' again Next Chapter .)x text of chapter
two .+c CONCLUSIONS .(x t Conclusions .)x text of chapter three .++ B \" begin
bibliographic information .+c BIBLIOGRAPHY \" begin another `chapter' .(x t
Bibliography .)x text of bibliography .++ P \" begin preliminary material
.+c "TABLE OF CONTENTS" .xp t \" print index `t' collected above .+c PREFACE \"
begin another preliminary section text of preface
Figure 2. Outline
of a Sample Paper Two special programs exist to format special types
of material. sets equations. arranges to print extremely pretty tables
in a variety of formats. This document will only describe the embellishments
to the standard features; consult the reference manuals for those processors
for a description of their use. The program is described fully in the
document Typesetting Mathematics - User's Guide by Brian W. Kernighan and
Lorinda L. Cherry. Equations are centered, and are kept on one page. They
are introduced by the request and terminated by the request. The request
may take an equation number as an optional argument, which is printed
vertically centered on the right hand side of the equation. If the equation
becomes too long it should be split between two lines. To do this, type:
.EQ (eq 34) text of equation 34 .EN C .EQ continuation of equation 34 .EN
The on the request specifies that the equation will be continued. The
program produces tables. It is fully described (including numerous examples)
in the document Tbl - A Program to Format Tables by M. E. Lesk. Tables begin
with the request and end with the request. Tables are normally kept on
a single page. If you have a table which is too big to fit on a single
page, so that you know it will extend to several pages, begin the table
with the request and put the request after the part of the table which
you want duplicated at the top of every page that the table is printed
on. For example, a table definition for a long table might look like:
.TS H c s s n n n. THE TABLE TITLE .TH text of the table .TE You can
get two column output automatically by using the request This causes
everything after it to be output in two-column form. The request will start
a new column; it differs from in that may leave a totally blank column
when it starts a new page. To revert to single column output, use A
is a collection of requests and text which may be used by stating a simple
request. Macros begin with the line (where is the name of the macro
to be defined) and end with the line consisting of two dots. After defining
the macro, stating the line is the same as stating all the other lines.
For example, to define a macro that spaces 3 lines and then centers the
next input line, enter: .de SS .sp 3 .ce .. and use it by typing: .SS Title
Line (beginning of text) Macro names may be one or two characters. In
order to avoid conflicts with names in -me, always use upper case letters
as names. The only names to avoid are and Sometimes you may want
to put a footnote or index entry inside a keep. For example, if you want
to maintain a you will want to do something like: .(z .(c text of figure
.)c .ce Figure 5. .(x f Figure 5 .)x .)z which you may hope will give you a
figure with a label and an entry in the index (presumably a list of figures
index). Unfortunately, the index entry is read and interpreted when the
keep is read, not when it is printed, so the page number in the index
is likely to be wrong. The solution is to use the magic string at the
beginning of all the lines dealing with the index. In other words, you
should use: .(z .(c Text of figure .)c .ce Figure 5. \!.(x f \!Figure 5 \!.)x .)z
which will defer the processing of the index until the figure is output.
This will guarantee that the page number in the index is correct. The same
comments apply to blocks (with and as well. With a little care, you
can prepare documents that will print nicely on either a regular terminal
or when phototypeset using the formatting program. A is a style of
type. There are three fonts that are available simultaneously, Times Roman,
Times Italic, and Times Bold, plus the special math font. The normal font
is Roman. There are ways of switching between fonts. The requests and
switch to Roman, italic, bold, and bold-italic fonts respectively. You
can set a single word in some font by typing (for example): .i word which
will set in italics but does not affect the surrounding text. Notice
that if you are setting more than one word in whatever font, you must
surround that word with double quote marks (`"') so that it will appear
to the processor as a single word. The quote marks will not appear in
the formatted text. If you do want a quote mark to appear, you should quote
the entire string (even if a single word), and use quote marks where
you want one to appear. For example, if you want to produce the text:
in italics, you must type: .i """Master Control\|""" The produces a
very narrow space so that the does not overlap the quote sign in , like
this: There are also some available. The input: .(b .u underlined .bx
"words in a box" .)b generates Notice that pseudo font requests set
only the single parameter in the pseudo font; ordinary font requests will
begin setting all text in the special font if you do not provide a parameter.
No more than one word should appear with these three font requests in
the middle of lines. This is because of the way justifies text. For example,
if you were to issue the requests: .u "some bold italics" and .bx "words
in a box" in the middle of a line would produce and which I think
you will agree does not look good. The second parameter of all font requests
is set in the original font. For example, the font request: .b bold face
generates in bold font, but sets in the font of the surrounding text,
resulting in: To set the two words and both in type: .b "bold face"
You can mix fonts in a word by using the special sequence at the end
of a line to indicate this allows input lines to be joined together without
a space between them. For example, the input: .u under \c .i italics generates
but if we had typed: .u under .i italics the result would have been
as two words. The phototypesetter supports different sizes of type,
measured in points. The default point size is 10 points for most text,
8 points for footnotes. To change the pointsize, type: .sz where is
the size wanted in points. The (distance between the bottom of most letters
(the between adjacent lines) is set to be proportional to the type size.
These pointsize changes are For example, to reset the pointsize of basic
text to twelve point, use: .nr pp 12 .nr sp 12 .nr tp 12 to reset the default
pointsize of paragraphs, section headers, and titles respectively. If you
only want to set the names of sections in a larger pointsize, use: .nr
sp 11 alone this sets section titles (e.g., above) in a larger font than
the default. A single word or phrase can be set in a smaller pointsize
than the surrounding text using the request. This is especially convenient
for words that are all capitals, due to the optical illusion that makes
them look even larger than they actually are. For example: .sm UNIX prints
as rather than UNIX. Warning: changing point sizes on the phototypesetter
is a slow mechanical operation. On laser printers it may require loading
new fonts. Size changes should be considered carefully. It is conventional
when using the typesetter to use pairs of grave and acute accents to generate
double quotes, rather than the double quote character (`"'). This is because
it looks better to use grave and acute accents; for example, compare "quote"
to ``quote''. You may use the sequences and to stand for the left and right
quote respectively. For example, use: \*(lqSome things aren´t true even
if they did happen.\*(rq to generate the result: As a shorthand, the
special font request: .q "quoted text" will generate Notice that you
must surround the material to be quoted with double quote marks if it
is more than one word.
I would like to thank Bob Epstein, Bill Joy,
and Larry Rowe for having the courage to use the -me macros to produce
non-trivial papers during the development stages; Ricki Blau, Pamela Humphrey,
and Jim Joyce for their help with the documentation phase; peter kessler
for numerous complaints years after I was with this project, most accompanied
by fixes (hence forcing me to fix several small bugs); and the plethora
of people who have contributed ideas and have given support for the project.
This document was 'ed on td and applies to the version of the -me macros
included with version .