groff\_www(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual groff\_www(7)

# [Name](#Name)

groff\_www - GNU *roff* macros for authoring web pages

# [Synopsis](#Synopsis)

`groff -m www` \[*option* ...] \[*file* ...]

# [Description](#Description)

This manual page describes the GNU *www* macro package, which is part of the [*groff*(7)](/man/os/groff/groff.7) document formatting system. This macro file is automatically loaded by the default *troffrc* file when the formatter (usually [*groff*(1)](/man/os/groff/groff.1)) is called with either of the options “**-T html**” or “**-T xhtml**”. The HTML output driver [*grohtml*(1)](/man/os/groff/grohtml.1) is in a beta state; *groff* distributes these macros to encourage its testing.

Macro Meaning **JOBNAME** split output into multiple files **HX** automatic heading level cut-off **BCL** specify colours on a web page **BGIMG** specify background image **URL** create a URL using two parameters **MTO** create an HTML email address **TAG** generate an HTML name **IMG** include an image file **PIMG** include PNG image **MPIMG** place PNG on the margin and wrap text around it **HnS** begin heading **HnE** end heading **LK** emit automatically collected links **HR** produce a horizontal rule **NHR** suppress automatic generation of rules **HTL** record document title as HTML metadata only **HEAD** add data to <head> block **ULS** unordered list begin **ULE** unordered list end **OLS** ordered list begin **OLE** ordered list end **DLS** definition list begin **DLE** definition list end **LI** insert a list item **DC** generate a drop capital **HTML** transmit raw HTML to output driver **CDS** code example begin **CDE** code example end **ALN** place links on left of main text **LNS** start two-column table with links on the left **LNE** end two-column table started with **.LNS** **LINKSTYLE** initialize default URL attributes

# [Macros](#Macros)

[**JOBNAME file-name-stem**](#JOBNAME)

Split output into multiple HTML files. In *ms* documents, a file is split whenever an **.SH** or “**.NH 1**” call is encountered. Its argument is the file name stem used for output files. This option is equivalent to *grohtml*'s **-j** option.

[**HX n**](#HX)

Set section heading level above which *grohtml* is not to automatically generate links to *n.* For example, when used with the [*groff\_ms*(7)](/man/os/groff/groff_ms.7) package, “**.HX 2**” causes *grohtml* to generate a list of links for *ms* macro calls “**.NH 1**” and “**.NH 2**” but not for “**.NH 3**”, whereas “**.HX 0**” generates no hyperlinks to section headings. Giving *groff* the option “**-P -l**” disables automatic heading linkage.

[**BCL foreground background active not-visited visited**](#BCL)

Configure colours used for page foreground, page background, active hypertext link, hypertext links not yet visited, and visited hypertext links.

[**BGIMG file**](#BGIMG)

Set the background image to *file.*

[**URL url** \[*link-text* \[*post*\]\]](#URL)

Generate a hyperlink to *url* with optional *link-text* followed immediately by non-linked text *post.*

If *link-text* is absent, *url* is formatted as the link text. Hyphenation is disabled while formatting a URL; insert explicit break points with the **\\:** escape sequence.

[**MTO address** \[*link-text* \[*post*\]\]](#MTO)

Generate an email hyperlink to *address* with optional *link-text* followed immediately by non-linked text *post.*

If *link-text* is absent, *address* is formatted as the link text. Hyphenation is disabled while formatting a URL; insert explicit break points with the **\\:** escape sequence.

[**TAG name**](#TAG)

Generate an anchor *name* marking its location in the document as a target for hyperlinks.

[**IMG file-name** \[**-C**|**-L**|**-R**\] \[*width* \[*height*\]\]](#IMG)

Insert graphical image *file-name.* The optional second argument aligns the image to the center (**-C**; default), left (**-L**), or right (**-R**). The optional *width* defaults to 100 units (in the context of the HTML renderer) and the optional *height* to the same measurement as *width .*

[**PIMG** \[**-C**|**-L**|**-R**\] *file-name* \[*width* \[*height*\]\]](#PIMG)

Insert graphical image *file-name,* assumed to be in PNG format. Compared to **IMG**, this macro has the advantage of working with both PostScript and HTML devices since it converts *file-name* into EPS format using [*pngtopnm*(1)](/man/os/groff/pngtopnm.1), [*pnmcrop*(1)](/man/os/groff/pnmcrop.1), and [*pnmtops*(1)](/man/os/groff/pnmtops.1). *height* and *width* may be given as percentages (of the line length **\\n\[.l]** and page length **\\n\[.p]**, respectively).

If the document isn't processed with “**-T html**” or “**-T xhtml**”, you must use [*groff*(1)](/man/os/groff/groff.1)'s **-U** option.

[**MPIMG** \[**-L**|**-R**\] \[**-G gap**\] *file-name* \[*width* \[*height*\]\]](#MPIMG)

As **PIMG**, but place the image at a margin and wrap text around it. The image is aligned the to the left (**-L**, default) or right (**-R**) margin. **-G gap** imposes horizontal space of *gap* pixels between the picture and the text that wraps around it. The default *gap* is zero.

[**HnS n**](#HnS)

Begin heading at level *n.*

[**HnE**](#HnE)

End heading text.

[**LK**](#LK)

Direct *grohtml* to emit the list of automatically generated hyperlinks at this location.

[**HR**](#HR)

Generate a full-width horizontal rule when used with “**-T html**” or “**-T xhtml**”.

[**NHR**](#NHR)

Suppress the horizontal rules at the document's top and bottom that *grohtml* emits by default.

[**HTL**](#HTL)

Generate an HTML title only. This differs from [*groff\_ms*(7)](/man/os/groff/groff_ms.7)'s **TL** macro, which generates both an HTML title and an <H1> heading. Use it to provide an HTML title as document metadata but not as formatted text. The title ends when vertical space (**.sp**) or a break (**.br**) is seen.

[**HEAD**](#HEAD)

Add arbitrary data to the HTML <head> element. Ignored if not processed with “**-T html**” or “**-T xhtml**”.

[**HTML**](#HTML)

All text after this macro is treated as raw HTML. Ignored if not processed with “**-T html**” or “**-T xhtml**”.

[**DC L text** \[*color*\]](#DC)

Format a “drop cap”—a large character *L* (usually a capital letter) at a larger size and with a lower text baseline than the following *text,* such that the cap-heights of *L* and *text* align, in the specified *color* (default: black).

[**CDS**](#CDS)

Begin code display; a monospaced font is selected and filling is disabled.

[**CDE**](#CDE)

End code display.

[**ALN** \[*color* \[*width-percentage*\]\]](#ALN)

Enable a “navigation pane” containing links to section headings, aligned to the left of running text, and configure its rendering parameters. Columnation is achieved with an HTML table. *color* indicates an HTML background color to be used in the navigation column; the default is **#eeeeee**. *width-percentage* allocates the given percentage of the navigation pane's table column; the default is **30**. Call this macro at most once, at the beginning of the document.

[**LNS**](#LNS)

Begin text indexed by the navigation pane configured by **ALN**.

[**LNE**](#LNE)

End text indexed by navigation pane started by **LNS**.

[**LINKSTYLE color** \[*font-style* \[*open-glyph close-glyph*\]\]](#LINKSTYLE)

Configure rendering of formatted hyperlink targets for devices other than **html** and **xhtml**; render targets in *color* (default: blue) using the typeface *font-style* (default: **CR**) bracketed with *open-glyph* and *close-glyph* (defaults: **\\\[la]** and **\\\[ra]**, respectively).

# [Section heading links](#Section_heading_links)

By default *grohtml* generates links to all section headings and places these at the top of the HTML document. Configure this behavior with **HX** and/or **LK**.

# [Limitations of *grohtml*](#Limitations_of_)

[*tbl*(1)](/man/os/groff/tbl.1) tables are rendered as PNG images.

All URLs currently are treated as consuming no textual space in *groff*. This could be considered as a bug since it causes some problems. To circumvent this, *www.tmac* inserts a zero-width character which expands to a harmless space (only if run with **-Thtml** or **-Txhtml**).

Some of the macros, like **ALN**, **LNS**, and **LNE**, are integrated only with the [*groff\_ms*(7)](/man/os/groff/groff_ms.7) package.

# [Files](#Files)

*/usr/share/groff/1.24.2/tmac/www.tmac*

# [Authors](#Authors)

The *www* macro package was written by [Gaius Mulley](mailto:gaius@glam.ac.uk), with additions by [Werner Lemberg](mailto:wl@gnu.org) and [Bernd Warken](mailto:groff-bernd.warken-72@web.de).

# [See also](#See_also)

[*groff*(1)](/man/os/groff/groff.1), [*troff*(1)](/man/os/groff/troff.1), [*grohtml*(1)](/man/os/groff/grohtml.1), [*netpbm*(1)](/man/os/groff/netpbm.1)

2026-10-01 groff 1.24.2

---

Document: groff_www(7) from groff 1.24.2-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/groff.git