addftinfo(1)

addftinfo(1)

okay so welcome to the General Commands Manual, bestie — this is addftinfo(1), and we're about to give troff fonts the extra metrics info that groff needs. 💖

🎀 Name 🎀

addftinfo — add font metrics to troff fonts for use with groff.

✨ Synopsis ✨

addftinfo [-asc-height n] [-body-depth n] [-body-height n]
          [-cap-height n] [-comma-depth n] [-desc-depth n]
          [-fig-height n] [-x-height n] resolution unit-width font

addftinfo --help

addftinfo -v

addftinfo --version

🦋 Description 🦋

addftinfo reads an AT&T troff font description file called font, adds the further font metric information required by GNU troff(1), and writes the combined result to the standard output stream. The info it adds is derived from the font's existing parameters and from assumptions about traditional troff names for characters. Among the font metrics added are the heights and depths of characters — aka how far each character extends vertically above and below the baseline. 💅

The resolution and unit-width arguments should be the same as the corresponding parameters in the DESC file. font is the name of the file describing the font; if font ends with “I”, the font is assumed to be oblique (or italic). 🦋

🎀 Options 🎀

• --help — displays a usage message, then exits.
• -v, --version — show version information, then exit.

All of those exit afterward, periodt. ✨

All the other options change parameters that are used to derive the heights and depths. Like the existing quantities in the font description file, each value n is in scaled points — that's inches/resolution for a font whose type size is unit-width — see groff_font(5). 🫶

• -asc-height n — height of characters with ascenders, such as “b”, “d”, or “l”
• -body-depth n — depth of characters such as parentheses
• -body-height n — height of characters such as parentheses
• -cap-height n — height of uppercase letters such as “A”
• -comma-depth n — depth of a comma
• -desc-depth n — depth of characters with descenders, such as “p”, “q”, or “y”
• -fig-height — height of figures (numerals)
• -x-height n — height of lowercase letters without ascenders such as “x”

bestie, addftinfo makes no attempt to use the specified parameters to infer unspecified parameters. If a parameter is not specified, the default will be used. The defaults are chosen to produce reasonable values for a Times font. No mind-reading here, iykyk. 😭

💅 Exit status 💅

addftinfo exits with status 0 on successful operation, and status 2 if the program cannot interpret its command-line arguments. Slay when it works, dramatic exit when the args don't parse. 💀

🌸 See also 🌸

groff_font(5), groff(1), groff_char(7)

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💖 This page is addftinfo(1) from groff 1.24.2, dated 2026-10-01 — that's the whole vibe, bestie; now go add those metrics and make those fonts iconic. 🌈👑