gxditview

gxditview [options] [files]

-geometry geom
    Specify window geometry (e.g., 800x600+100+100)

-display host:display
    X server to connect to

-bg color
    Background color

-fg color
    Foreground (text) color

-bd color
    Border color

-fn fontname
    Default font name

-landscape
    Landscape page orientation

-portrait
    Portrait orientation (default)

-name iconname
    Icon/window name

-title title
    Window title

-rv
    Reverse video (invert colors)

-verbose
    Print verbose messages

-page n
    Start at page n (default 1)

-safer
    Disable shell escapes for security

-magstep n
    Magnify by 1.2ⁿ factor

gxditview is a display program for device-independent troff (ditroff) output files. It renders formatted documents produced by ditroff on an X11 display, supporting interactive navigation such as scrolling, page turning, searching, and magnification.

Originally developed to visualize output from the Berkeley ditroff formatter, it interprets the intermediate devpost or similar device codes, mapping them to X fonts and graphics primitives. Users invoke it on .ditroff files generated by processing troff input with macros like man, ms, or mm.

The viewer supports multiple pages, allowing jumps to specific pages, landscape/portrait modes, and color customization. It handles PostScript-like output but displays directly via Xlib, without requiring a PostScript interpreter. Modern usage often pairs it with groff pipelines, e.g., groff -Tditroff file | gxditview.

While functional on X11 environments, it lacks modern features like PDF export or anti-aliasing, making it less common today compared to GUI viewers like evince or okular.

Deprecated on modern desktops; lacks font hinting and PDF support. Requires X11. May fail with complex fonts or large files.
Input must be pure ditroff; use groff -Z or groff -Tditroff to generate.

Expects binary ditroff stream, optionally prefixed with devname: (e.g., X100:foo.ditroff). Multiple files concatenate.

Space/n: next page; b/p: prev; gN: goto page N; q: quit; Ctrl-+/-: zoom.

0 on success; 1 on errors (file I/O, X connect, parse fails).

Developed in 1980s at UC Berkeley for ditroff (device-independent troff). Integrated into X11R4 (1989) as part of Imake build. Maintained in groff suite since 1990s; last major updates pre-2000.

groff(1), troff(1), ditroff(1), xdvi(1), gv(1)