gxditview(1)

📦
version 1.24.2 · 11 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 NAME 💖

gxditview — display troff output in X11.

yep that's it, that's the whole job, and it does it flawlessly ✨ (this is the gxditview(1) page from the General Commands Manual, just so you know where we're at 🎀)

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

gxditview [X-toolkit-option ...] [-backingStore backing-store-type]
          [-filename file] [-page page-number] [-printCommand command]
          [-resolution resolution] file

gxditview -help

gxditview --help

gxditview -v

gxditview -version

gxditview --version

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so real talk: gxditview renders the output of GNU troff onto an X11 display. It uses the standard X11 fonts, and those fonts are rendered by the X server. main character energy only 💅

The output of troff(1) is in a page description language documented in groff_out(5). Normally you never even see this stuff, because the groff(1) wrapper automatically runs an output driver to interpret it for you. But groff's -Z option leaves it sitting right there on the standard output stream instead. You can view it by explicitly calling gxditview file. If the file operand is -, gxditview will read the standard input stream — and no, file cannot be omitted, bestie, it's not optional 🙈

GNU troff's page description language is device-independent but not device-agnostic. gxditview can view it for all typesetter devices, but the quality is device-dependent. And it will not display output for terminal (nroff) devices. not it 💀

The best results are achieved with the X* devices for troff's -T option, of which there are four: -TX75, -TX75-12, -TX100, and -TX100-12. They differ by the X resolution (75 or 100 dots per inch) and the base point size (10 or 12 points). They are especially built for gxditview. When using one of these, troff generates output for this device and calls gxditview automatically for viewing. slay 🔥

-X produces good results only with -Tps, -TX75, -TX75-12, -TX100, and -TX100-12. The default resolution for previewing -Tps output is 75dpi; this can be changed with the -resolution option.

While gxditview is running, the left mouse button brings up a menu with several entries:

  • Next Page — Display the next page.
  • Previous Page — Display the previous page.
  • Select Page — Collect a page number from a dialog box and render it.
  • Print — Collect a command from a dialog box and use it to print troff output. The default command initially displayed is controlled by the printCommand application resource, and by the -printCommand option.
  • Open — Collect a file name from a dialog box and render it. The named file should contain troff output. If the file name starts with a bar or pipe symbol, |, it will be interpreted as a command from which to read.
  • Quit — Exit from gxditview.

The menu entries correspond to actions with similar but not identical names, which can also be accessed with keyboard accelerators. Here's the whole keymap, no gatekeeping 🫶

  • n, Space, Return, and Next (PgDn) keys are bound to the NextPage action.
  • p, b, BackSpace, Delete, and Prior (PgUp) keys are bound to the PreviousPage action.
  • The p key with any modifier (Shift, Control, Alt, or Meta) is bound to the Print action.
  • The g key is bound to the SelectPage action.
  • The o key is bound to the OpenFile action.
  • The q key is bound to the Quit action.
  • The r key is bound to a Rerasterize action which rereads the current file, and redisplays the current page; if the current file is a command, the command will be re-executed.
  • Vertical scrolling can be done with the k and j keys; horizontal scrolling is bound to the h and l keys.
  • The arrow keys (up, down, left, and right) are also bound to the obvious scrolling actions.

The paperlength and paperwidth commands in the DESC file describing a groff output device specify the length and width in basic units of the virtual page displayed by gxditview; see groff_font(5).

🎀 X defaults 🎀

This program uses the Dvi widget from the X Toolkit. It understands all of the core resource names and classes, plus these:

  • width (class Width) — Specifies the width of the window.
  • height (class Height) — Specifies the height of the window.
  • foreground (class Foreground) — Specifies the default foreground color.
  • font (class Font) — Specifies the font to be used for error messages.
  • fontMap (class FontMap) — Specifies the mapping from groff font names to X font names. This must be a string containing a sequence of lines. Each line contains two whitespace-separated fields: the groff font name is first, and the XLFD (X Logical Font Description) second. The default is shown in subsection “Default font map” below.

🔤 Default font map 🔤

XLFDs are long and unwieldy, so some lines are shown broken and indented below.

TR  -adobe-times-medium-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
TI  -adobe-times-medium-i-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
TB  -adobe-times-bold-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
TBI -adobe-times-bold-i-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
CR  -adobe-courier-medium-r-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
CI  -adobe-courier-medium-o-normal
        --*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
CB  -adobe-courier-bold-r-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
CBI -adobe-courier-bold-o-normal--*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
HR  -adobe-helvetica-medium-r-normal
        --*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
HI  -adobe-helvetica-medium-o-normal
        --*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
HB  -adobe-helvetica-bold-r-normal
        --*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
HBI -adobe-helvetica-bold-o-normal
        --*-100-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
NR  -adobe-new century schoolbook-medium-r-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
NI  -adobe-new century schoolbook-medium-i-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
NB  -adobe-new century schoolbook-bold-r-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
NBI -adobe-new century schoolbook-bold-i-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-iso8859-1\n\
S   -adobe-symbol-medium-r-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-adobe-fontspecific\n\
SS  -adobe-symbol-medium-r-normal--*-100
        -*-*-*-*-adobe-fontspecific\n\

✨ OPTIONS ✨

-help and --help display a usage message, while -v, -version, and --version show version information; all exit afterward. so you get your answer and then it dips 👑

gxditview accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command-line options along with the additional options listed below.

  • -page — This option specifies the page number of the document to be displayed.
  • -backingStore backing-store-type — Because redisplay of the rendered troff output can take a perceptible amount of time, this option causes the server to save the window contents so that when it is scrolled around the viewport, the window is painted from contents saved in backing store. backing-store-type can be one of Always, WhenMapped or NotUseful.
  • -printCommand command — The default command displayed in the dialog box for the Print menu entry will be command.
  • -resolution res — troff output file will be displayed at a resolution of res dots per inch, unless the DESC file contains the X11 directive, in which case the device resolution will be used. This corresponds to the Dvi widget's resolution resource. The default is 75.
  • -filename string — The default file name displayed in the dialog box for the Open menu entry will be string. This can be either a file name, or a command starting with |.

The following standard X Toolkit command-line arguments are commonly used with gxditview.

  • -bg color — This option specifies the color to use for the background of the window. The default is white.
  • -bd color — This option specifies the color to use for the border of the window. The default is black.
  • -bw number — This option specifies the width in pixels of the border surrounding the window.
  • -fg color — This option specifies the color to use for displaying text. The default is black.
  • -fn font — This option specifies the font to be used for displaying widget text. The default is fixed.
  • -rv — This option indicates that reverse video should be simulated by swapping the foreground and background colors.
  • -geometry geometry — This option specifies the preferred size and position of the window.
  • -display host:display — This option specifies the X server to contact.
  • -xrm resourcestring — This option specifies a resource string to be used.

💫 EXIT STATUS 💫

gxditview exits with status 0 on successful operation, and status 2 if the program cannot interpret its command-line arguments.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • GROFF_FONT_PATH — A list of directories in which to seek the selected output device's directory of device and font description files. See troff(1) and groff_font(5).

🍓 FILES 🍓

  • /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/GXditview
  • /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/GXditview-color

define X application defaults for gxditview. Users can override these values in the .Xdefaults file, normally located in the user's home directory. See appres(1) and xrdb(1).

  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX100/DESC — describes the X100 output device.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX100/F — describes the font known as F on device X100.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX100-12/DESC — describes the X100-12 output device.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX100-12/F — describes the font known as F on device X100-12.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX75/DESC — describes the X75 output device.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX75/F — describes the font known as F on device X75.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX75-12/DESC — describes the X75-12 output device.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/font/devX75-12/F — describes the font known as F on device X75-12.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/tmac/X.tmac — defines macros for use with the X100, X100-12, X75, and X75-12 output devices. It is automatically loaded by troffrc when any of those output devices is selected.
  • /usr/share/groff/1.24.2/tmac/Xps.tmac — sets up troff to use gxditview as a previewer for device-independent output targeting the ps output device. It is automatically loaded by troffrc when troff is given the options -X and -Tps.

🧚 EXAMPLES 🧚

The following command views this man page with a base point size of 12.

groff -TX100-12 -man gxditview.1

The quality of the result depends mainly on the chosen point size and display resolution; for rapid previewing, however, something like

groff -X -P-resolution -P100 document

yields acceptable results.

👑 AUTHORS 👑

Okay so gxditview didn't just appear out of the void, bestie — it has a whole lineage, a whole family tree, a whole squad 💖. And the icon who built it, gxditview, plus its predecessor xditview, were written by this absolutely stacked cast:

  • Keith Packard (MIT X Consortium) 🎀
  • Richard L. Hyde (Purdue) ✨
  • David Slattengren (Berkeley) 🦋
  • Malcolm Slaney (Schlumberger Palo Alto Research) 🌸
  • Mark Moraes (University of Toronto) 💅
  • James Clark 👑

Not them building the whole thing on top of a whole other thing, generations deep 😭. This program is derived from xditview; and portions of xditview originated in xtroff, which was itself derived from suntroff. It's giving ancestry.com but for display programs, fr fr. 🌈

🔍 SEE ALSO 🔍

If you wanna go deeper (and you know you do 👀), here's the reading list:

And that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 no cap, you now know gxditview better than it knows itself.

This was groff 1.24.2, dated 2026-10-04, living under the name gxditview(1) ⭐ — periodt. 💜

📦 where this page comes from