colcrt

Filter nroff output for terminal display

$ colcrt [file]

$ colcrt -2 [file]

$ colcrt - [file]

$ nroff -man [man.1] | colcrt

colcrt [options] [file...]

colcrt filters nroff output for CRT (terminal) preview. It handles reverse line feeds and translates underlines and half-line motions into forms suitable for terminal display.
The tool is primarily useful for previewing formatted man pages and other nroff output on terminals that cannot handle overstriking. It converts underlining to dashes on a separate line.

-

Print half-lines as full lines, useful for terminals without half-line capability.

Suppress underlining entirely, printing only the text.

Designed for older terminal handling. Modern terminals typically handle nroff output directly. Output may not preserve all formatting. Primarily historical utility.

colcrt is a traditional Unix utility dating back to BSD systems in the 1970s. It was created when terminals had varied capabilities and could not all handle the escape sequences in nroff output. Though rarely needed today, it remains in many Unix distributions.

nroff(1), col(1), ul(1), man(1)