grodvi

grodvi [-C] [-d cps] [-F dir] [-I dir] [-p papersize] [-P arg] [-w name] [files...] | gtroff -Tdvi

-C
    Enable compatibility mode for classical troff (.so/.nx recognition)

-d cps
    Set device resolution in characters per inch (default: 10)

-F dir
    Font description file directory

-I dir
    Device-specific input file directory

-p papersize
    Set paper size (e.g., letter, a4, legal)

-P arg
    Pass arg to the DVI postprocessor

-w name
    Set register name to 1

-a
    Suppress page breaks (form feed)

-b
    Print backtrace on standard error

-c
    Color images in color

-e
    Enable italic corrections

-E
    Enable ellipsis processing

-N
    Do not track empty input lines

-v
    Print version information

-z
    Disable terminal output

grodvi is a device driver for the GNU roff (groff) text formatting system. It converts intermediate device-independent output from gtroff into DVI (DeVice Independent) format, the native output of TeX and LaTeX. This enables high-quality typesetting with support for mathematics, graphics, tables, and fonts.

Users rarely invoke grodvi directly. Instead, use groff -Tdvi file, which pipes through gtroff | grodvi. The resulting .dvi files can be previewed with xdvi, printed via dvips to PostScript, or converted to PDF.

grodvi handles color, embedded images (from pic, grap), and uses TeX font metrics (TFM) and PK fonts for precise rendering. It supports standard paper sizes and custom resolutions, making it ideal for academic documents, manuals, and books requiring TeX compatibility.

Resolution defaults to 720 dpi equivalents, adjustable for output quality.

Requires TeX utilities (e.g., xdvi, dvips) to view/print DVI; limited support for some groff extensions; high-resolution PK fonts needed for best quality.

groff -Tdvi -ms document.ms > document.dvi
xdvi document.dvi   (preview)
dvips document.dvi -o doc.ps   (to PostScript)

Uses texmf fonts; set GROFF_FONT_PATH or -F for custom TFM/PK files.

Part of GNU groff since 1990s, developed by James Clark and Dean Allen as open-source troff replacement; supports DVI for TeX integration.

groff(1), gtroff(1), grops(1), grolj4(1), xdvi(1), dvips(1)