At 2024-07-24T10:15:47+0200, me.gr...@mro.name wrote: > to keep it simple I went without macros and figured out the commands > from https://www.gnu.org/software/groff/manual/groff.html without > further help.
I'm glad the manual proved adequate here! I've spent several years attempting to improve it for our users. > For now I may go with https://mro.name/2024/brief-dina4.roff > > Having an automatic header line on subsequent pages would be a plus, > but isn't worth to RTFM e2e. groff's Texinfo manual covers that too. The subsection/node "Page Location Traps" discusses how to do this and offers a simple example of the setup and use of header and footer traps. I'll reproduce the material (in "info" format) from my working copy here. I think it's pretty close to what's in groff 1.23.0's manual (and therefore what's on the GNU website), but there may be improvements or corrections here--I can't remember, since there have been over 1,300 commits to groff Git since 1.23.0 was released. 5.28.1.1 Page Location Traps ............................ A "page location trap" is a vertical position trap that applies to the page; that is, to undiverted output. Many can be present; manage them with the 'wh' and 'ch' requests. -- Request: .wh dist [name] Plant macro NAME as page location trap at DIST. The default scaling unit is 'v'. Non-negative values for DIST set the trap relative to the top of the page; negative values set the trap relative to the bottom of the page. It is not possible to plant a trap less than one basic unit from the page bottom: a DIST of '-0' is interpreted as '0', the top of the page.(1) (*note Page Location Traps-Footnote-1::) An existing _visible_ trap (see below) at DIST is removed; this is 'wh''s sole function if NAME is missing. A trap is sprung only if it is "visible", meaning that its location is reachable on the page(2) (*note Page Location Traps-Footnote-2::) and it is not hidden by another trap at the same location already planted there. A macro package might set headers and footers as follows; this example configures vertical margins of one inch to the body text, and one half-inch to the titles. Observe the use of the no-break control character with 'sp' request to position our text baselines, and the page number character '%' used with the 'tl' request. .\" hdfo.roff .de hd \" page header ' sp .5i ' tl '\\*(Ti''\\*(Da' \" title and date strings ' sp .5i .. .de fo \" page footer ' sp .5i . tl ''%'' . bp .. .wh 0 hd \" trap at top of the page .wh -1i fo \" trap 1 inch from bottom To use these traps, copy the above (or load it from a file with the 'so' or 'mso' requests), then set up the strings it uses. .so hdfo.roff .ds Ti Final Report\" .ds Da 21 May 2023\" .ti On 5 August of last year, this committee tasked me with the investigation of the CFIT (controlled flight into terrain) incident of .\" ...and so on... I notice now that those claims about the margin sizes might be off by one vee; in my experience, a "margin" measures an extent of whitespace (or "negative space"), whereas the `sp` request positions the _text baseline_, and since glyphs are nearly always drawn at least in part _above_ the text baseline, text formatted at a vertical position of 0.5i from the top of the page actually encroaches into a "top margin" of one half-inch. Often that's a fairly subtle point, but when trying to format a document to a national standard, it's important to use precise measurements, lest ruler-wielding enforcers come around to rap one's knuckles. So I will review this material for correctness. Let me know if this was of assistance, and if I can offer more. Regards, Branden
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