groff_hdtbl - Heidelberger table macros for GNU roff
The hdtbl macros consist of four base and three optional macros,
controlled by about twenty arguments. The syntax is simple and similar to the
HTML table model and nearly as flexible: You can write sequences of
tokens (macro calls with their arguments and content data), separated by
blanks and beginning with a macro call, into the same line to get compact and
cleanly arrranged input. An advantage of hdtbl is that the tables are
constructed without calling a preprocessor; this means that groff's
full macro capabilities are available. On the other hand, table processing
with hdtbl is much slower than using the tbl(1) preprocessor. A
further advantage is that the HTML-like syntax of hdtbl will be easily
converted to HTML; this is not implemented yet.
In this and the next section, we present examples to help users understand the
basic workflow of hdtbl. First of all, you must load the
hdtbl.tmac file. As with nearly all other groff macro packages, there
are two possibilities to do so: Either add the line
to your roff file before using any macros of the
hdtbl package, or add the option
to the command line of groff (before the document file which
contains hdtbl macros). Then you can include on or more tables in
your document, where each one must be started and ended with the .TBL and
.ETB macros, respectively.
In this man page, we approximate the result of each example in the
tty format to be as generic as possible since hdtbl currently
only supports the PS and PDF output devices.
The simplest well-formed table consists of just single calls to
the four base table macros in the right order. Here we construct a table
with only one cell.
.TBL
.TR
.TD
contents of the table cell
.ETB
A tty representation is
+------------------------------------------------------+
| contents-of-the-table-cell |
+------------------------------------------------------+
Equivalent to the above is the following notation.
.TBL .TR .TD "contents of the table cell" .ETB
By default, the formatted table is inserted into the surrounding
text at the place of its definition. If the vertical space isn't sufficient,
it is placed at the top of the next page. Tables can also be stored for
later insertion.
Using ‘row-number*column-number’ as
the data for the table cells, a table with two rows and two columns can be
written as
.TBL cols=2
. TR .TD 1*1 .TD 1*2
. TR .TD 2*1 .TD 2*2
.ETB
A tty representation is
+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| 1*1 | 1*2 |
+--------------------------+---------------------------+
| 2*1 | 2*2 |
+--------------------------+---------------------------+
Here we see a difference from HTML tables: The number of columns
must be explicitly specified using the ‘cols=m’
argument (or indirectly via the ‘width’ argument, see
below).
The contents of a table cell is arbitrary; for example, it can be
another table, without restriction to the nesting depth. A given table
layout can be either constructed with suitably nested tables or with proper
arguments to .TD and .TH, controlling column and row spanning. Note,
however, that this table
.TBL
. TR
. TD
. nop 1*1 1*2
. TR
. TD
. TBL cols=2 border=
. TR
. TD
. nop 2*1
. TD
. nop 2*2
. ETB
.ETB
and this table
.TBL cols=2
. TR
. TD colspan=2
. nop 1*1 1*2
. TR
. TD
. nop 2*1
. TD
. nop 2*2
.ETB
are similar but not identical (the use of .nop is purely cosmetic
to get proper indentation).
The first table looks like
+------------------------------------------------------+
| 1*1 1*2 |
+------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| 2*1 2*2 |
| |
+------------------------------------------------------+
and the second one like
+------------------------------------------------------+
| 1*1 1*2 |
+---------------------------+--------------------------+
| 2*1 | 2*2 |
+---------------------------+--------------------------+
Here the latter table in a more compact form.
.TBL cols=2 .TR ".TD colspan=2" 1*1 1*2
. TR .TD 2*1 .TD 2*2 .ETB
If a macro has one or more arguments (see below), and it is not
starting a line, everything belonging to this macro including the macro
itself must be enclosed in double quotes.
The order of macro calls and other tokens follows the HTML model. In the
following list, valid predecessors and successors of all hdtbl macros
are given, together with the possible arguments.
Macro arguments are separated by blanks. The order of arguments is
arbitrary; they are of the form
key=value
or
key='value1 [value2 [...]]'
with the only exception of the optional argument of the macro
.ETB, which is the string ‘hold’. Another possible form is
"key=value1 [value2 [...]]"
However, this is limited to the case where the macro is the first
one in the line and not already enclosed in double quotes.
Argument values specified below as c are colors
predefined by groff or colors defined by the user with the .defcolor
request. Argument values d are decimal numbers with or without
decimal point. Argument values m are natural numbers. Argument
values n are numerical values with the usual groff
scaling indicators. Some of the arguments are specific to one or two macros,
but most of them can be specified with .TBL, .TR, .TD, and .TH. These common
arguments are explained in the next subsection.
Most of the argument default values can be changed by the user by
setting corresponding default registers or strings, as listed below.
- .TBL [args]
- Begin a new table.
predecessor: .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .CPTN, .TR
arguments:
- border=[n]
- Thickness of the surrounding box border. ‘border=’ (no
value) means neither a surrounding box border nor any horizontal or
vertical separator lines between the table rows and cells.
‘border=0’ suppresses the surrounding box border, but still
allows separator lines between cells and rows.
Default: ‘border=.1n’ (register
‘t*b’).
- bc=c
- Border color.
Default: ‘bc=red4’ (string ‘t*bc’).
- cols=m
- Number of table columns. This argument is necessary if more than one
column is in the table and no ‘width’ arguments are present.
Default: ‘cols=1’ (register
‘t*cols’).
- cpd=n
- Cell padding, i.e., the extra space between the cell space border and the
cell contents.
Default: ‘cpd=.5n’ (register
‘t*cpd’).
- csp=n
- Cell spacing, i.e., the extra space between the table border or vertical
or horizontal lines between cells and the cellspace.
Default: ‘csp=.5n’ (register
‘t*csp’).
- tal=l|c|r
- Horizontal alignment of the table, if it is smaller than the line width.
‘tal=l’: left alignment. ‘tal=c’: centered
alignment. ‘tal=r’: right alignment.
Default: ‘tal=l’ (register ‘t*tal’).
- width='w1 [w2 [...]]'
- Widths of table cells. w1, w2, ... are either
numbers of type n or natural numbers with the pseudo-scaling
indicator ‘%’, with the meaning “percent of the
actual line length (or column length for inner tables,
respectively)”. If there are less width values than table columns,
the last width value is used for the remaining cells. The argument
- for example indicates that the first column is 1.5 inches wide; the
remaining columns take 1/10 of the column length each.
Default: The table width equals the outer line length or column
length; the columns have equal widths.
- height=n
- Height of the table. If the table with its contents is lower
than n, the last row is stretched to this value.
- .CPTN [args]
- Text of caption.
- The (optionally numbered) table caption. .CPTN is optional.
predecessor: .TBL
successor: .TR
arguments:
- val=t|b
- Vertical alignment of the table caption. ‘val=t’: The
caption is placed above the table. ‘val=b’: The caption is
placed below the table.
Default: ‘val=t’ (string ‘t*cptn’).
- .TR [args]
- Begin a new table row.
predecessor: .TBL, .CPTN, .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell
contents
successor: .TD, .TH
arguments:
- height=n
- The height of the row. If a cell in the row is higher
than n, this value is ignored; otherwise the row
height is stretched to n.
- .TD [args [cell contents]]
- Begin a table data cell.
- .TH [args [cell contents]]
- Begin a table header cell.
- Arguments and cell contents can be mixed. The macro .TH is not really
necessary and differs from .TD only in three default settings, similar to
the <TH> and <TD> HTML tags: The contents of .TH is
horizontally and vertically centered and typeset in boldface.
predecessor: .TR, .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .TD, .TH, .TR, .ETB, cell contents
arguments:
- colspan=m
- The width of this cell is the sum of the widths of the m
cells above and below this row.
- rowspan=m
- The height of this cell is the sum of the heights of the m cells
left and right of this column.
- Remark: Overlapping of column and row spanning, as in the following
table fragment (the overlapping happens in the second cell in the second
row), is invalid and causes incorrect results.
-
.TR .TD 1*1 ".TD 1*2 rowspan=2" .TD 1*3
.TR ".TD 2*1 colspan=2" .TD 2*3
A working example for headers and cells with colspan is
.TBL cols=3
. TR ".TH colspan=2" header1+2 .TH header3
. TR .TD 1*1 .TD 1*2 .TD 1*3
. TR .TD 2*1 ".TD colspan=2" 2*2+3
.ETB
This looks like
+------------------------------+---------------+
| header1+2 | header3 |
+--------------+---------------+---------------+
| 1*1 | 1*2 | 1*3 |
+--------------+---------------+---------------+
| 2*1 | 2*2+3 |
+--------------+-------------------------------+
A working example with rowspan is
.TBL cols=3
. TR
. TD 1*1
. TD rowspan=2 1+2*2
. TD 1*3
.
. TR
. TD 2*1
. TD 2*3
.ETB
which looks like
+--------------+---------------+---------------+
| 1*1 | 1+2*2 | 1*3 |
+--------------+ +---------------+
| 2*1 | | 2*3 |
+--------------+---------------+---------------+
- .ETB [hold]
- End of the table.
- This macro finishes a table. It causes one of the following actions.
- •
- If the argument ‘hold’ is given, the table is held until it
is freed by calling the macro .t*free, which in turn prints the table
immediately, either at the current position or at the top of the next page
if its height is larger than the remaining space on the page.
- •
- Otherwise, if the table is higher than the remaining space on the page, it
is printed at the top of the next page.
- •
- If neither of the two above constraints hold, the table is printed
immediately at the place of its definition.
predecessor: .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
successor: .TBL, .TR, .TD, .TH, .ETB, cell contents
arguments:
- hold
- Prevent the table from being printed until it is freed by calling the
macro .t*free. This argument is ignored for inner (nested) tables.
- .t*free [n]
- Free the next held table or n held tables. Call this
utility macro to print tables which are held by using the
‘hold’ argument of the .ETB macro.
The arguments described in this section can be specified with the .TBL and .TR
macros, but they are eventually passed on to the table cells. If omitted, the
defaults take place, which the user can change by setting the corresponding
default registers or strings, as documented below. Setting an argument with
the .TBL macro has the same effect as setting it for all rows in the table.
Setting an argument with a .TR macro has the same effect as setting it for all
the .TH or .TD macro in this row.
- bgc=[c]
- The background color of the table cells. This includes the area specified
with the ‘csp’ argument. The argument ‘bgc=’
(no value) suppresses a background color; this makes the background
transparent.
Default: ‘bgc=bisque’ (string
‘t*bgc’).
- fgc=c
- The foreground color of the cell contents.
Default: ‘fgc=red4’ (string
‘t*fgc’).
- ff=name
- The font family for the table. name is one of the groff font
families, for example A for the AvantGarde fonts or HN for
Helvetica-Narrow.
Default: The font family found before the table (string
‘t*ff’).
- fst=style
- The font style for the table. One of R, B, I, or BI for roman,
bold, italic, or bold italic, respectively. As
with roff's .ft request the ‘fst’ argument can be
used to specify the font family and font style together, for example
‘fst=HNBI’ instead of ‘ff=HN’ and
‘fst=BI’.
Default: The font style in use right before the table (string
‘t*fst’).
- fsz='d1 [d2]'
- A decimal or fractional factor d1, by which the point size
for the table is changed, and d2, by which the vertical line
spacing is changed. If d2 is omitted, value d1 is taken for
both.
Default: ‘fsz='1.0 1.0'’ (string
‘t*fsz’).
- hal=l|c|b|r
- Horizontal alignment of the cell contents in the table.
‘hal=l’: left alignment. ‘hal=c’: centered
alignment. ‘hal=b’: both (left and right) alignment.
‘hal=r’: right alignment.
Default: ‘hal=b’ (string ‘t*hal’).
- val=t|m|b
- Vertical alignment of the cell contents in the table for cells lower than
the current row. ‘val=t’: alignment below the top of the
cell. ‘val=m’: alignment in the middle of the cell.
‘val=b’: alignment above the cell bottom.
Default: ‘val=t’ (string ‘t*val’).
- hl=[s|d]
- Horizontal line between the rows. If specified with .TD or .TH this is a
separator line to the cell below. ‘hl=’ (no value): no
separator line. ‘hl=s’: a single separator line between the
rows. ‘hl=d’: a double separator line.
- The thickness of the separator lines is the half of the border thickness,
but at least 0.1 inches. The distance between the double lines is
equal to the line thickness.
- Remark: Together with ‘border=0’ for proper
formatting the value of ‘csp’ must be at least
.05 inches for single separator lines and .15 inches for
double separator lines.
Default: ‘hl=s’ (string ‘t*hl’).
- vl=[s|d]
- Vertical separator line between the cells. If specified with .TD or .TH
this is a separator line to the cell on the right. ‘vl=s’: a
single separator line between the cells. ‘vl=d’: a double
separator line. ‘vl=’ (no value): no vertical cell separator
lines. For more information see the documentation of the
‘hl’ argument above.
Default: ‘vl=s’ (string ‘t*vl’).
Before creating the first table, you should configure default values to minimize
the markup needed in each table. The following example sets up defaults
suitable for typical papers:
.ds t*bgc white\" background color
.ds t*fgc black\" foreground color
.ds t*bc black\" border color
.nr t*cpd 0.1n\" cell padding
The file examples/common.roff provides another example
setup in the “minimal Page setup” section.
A table which does not fit on a partially filled page is printed
automatically on the top of the next page if you append the little utility
macro t*hm to the page header macro of your document's main macro package.
For example, say
if you use the ms macro package.
The macro t*EM checks for held or kept tables, and for missing ETB
macros (table not closed). You can append this macro to the
“end” macro of your document's main macro package. For
example:
.am pg@end-text
. t*EM
..
If you use the ms macro package.
- groff(1)
- provides an overview of GNU roff and details how to invoke
groff at the command line.
- groff(7)
- summarizes the roff language and GNU extensions to it.
- tbl(1)
- describes the traditional roff preprocessor for tables.