pdfmom(1)

💅 NAME 💅

okay so bestie, listen: pdfmom — she makes PDF documents from your files using the mom macro package for groff. that's the whole vibe. ✨

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

pdfmom [--roff] [-Tpdf] [groff-options] [file ...]

pdfmom [--roff] -Tps [pdfroff-options] [groff-options] [file ...]

pdfmom -v

pdfmom --version

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

so pdfmom is lowkey a wrapper around groff(1) — she's the friend who handles the paperwork so you can just make PDF documents out of files formatted with the mom macros. iconic behavior honestly. 💖

if you throw the --roff option at her, the wrapper will work with macro packages other than groff_mom(7) too. and that's also true if you rename the wrapper or link it as a pseudonym — like, say you create a pdfms link that points at the pdfmom executable, congrats, you just made yourself a wrapper for producing PDFs with the ms package. slay. ✨

heads up bestie: pdfmom prints to standard output, so you're gonna have to redirect that to a destination file most of the time. and if you want your final PDF to be all cute and small, pipe the output through ps2pdf(1).

if you call her with the -Tpdf option (which is, btw, the default), pdfmom processes your files using groff's native PDF driver, gropdf(1). but if you give her -Tps, the processing gets passed over to pdfroff, who uses groff's PostScript driver. either way, multiple runs of the source file happen so that any forward references in the document get satisfied. no cap. 🦋

pdfmom accepts all the same options as groff. and if -Tps is given, the options associated with pdfroff are accepted as well. when pdfmom calls pdfroff, the options -mpdfmark -mom --no-toc are implied and like, should not be given on the command line. equally, you don't need to supply the -mom or -m mom options when -Tps is absent. periodt. 💅

a quick rundown of the flags, for the girlies keeping score:

• --roff — lets the wrapper play nice with macro packages other than groff_mom(7).
• -Tpdf — processes files with groff's native PDF driver, gropdf(1). this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get. main character energy.
• -Tps — hands processing over to pdfroff, which uses groff's PostScript driver. also opens you up to the pdfroff options.
• -v, --version — shows her version info and dips. ✌️
• --help — prints a usage message and exits. very helpful, very demure.

PDF integration with the mom macros is discussed in full in the manual “Producing PDFs with groff and mom” — which, yes, was itself produced with pdfmom. she's self-referential like that. 💀

and if you call her with -v or --version, pdfmom displays her version information and exits. using --help displays a usage message and exits. simple as that. 🌈

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

pdfmom was written by Deri James and Peter Schaffter, and is maintained by James. we love a collab. 🫶

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

• /usr/share/doc/groff-1.24.2/pdf/mom-pdf.pdf — “Producing PDFs with groff and mom”, by Deri James and Peter Schaffter. this file, together with its source, mom-pdf.mom, is part of the groff distribution. 📄
• groff(1), gropdf(1), pdfroff(1), ps2pdf(1)

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okay that's the whole page, bestie — go make something gorgeous. this one's running under groff 1.24.2, dated 2026-10-01, and yes she's a pdfmom(1) girlie through and through. mwah 💋💖