Problems with troff output on a laser printer

[Chip Rosenthal]

In article <3026 at sixhub.UUCP> davidsen at sixhub.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>In article <2984 at hsi86.hsi.com> rao at hsi86.hsi.com (Ananth Rao) writes:
>| Has anyone got 'troff' to work with a laser printer, specifically the
>| HP Laserjet III?  
>  I think jetroff does this [...]

Not quite.  Jetroff requires DIT (device independant troff) input.  There
is a `CAT2dit' utility in one of the comp.sources archives which does
translate C/A/T to dit, so in theory you could stuff it between SCO's
troff and jetroff.  In practice, the results are unacceptable.  The problem
is that troff makes it's decisions based upon font metrics on the C/A/T
typesetter, and this give very goofy looking results on a LaserJet.

> [...] I know you can use the ELAN Eroff package and get great results
>doing this.

So true.  Even still, I have chucked Elan's backend and use jetroff.  I've
got some utilities which integrate HP's Type Director fonts into jetroff,
and the results are superb.

However, given it all to do over again, I would certainly investigate
psroff and groff before plunking down $1000 for eroff.
-- 
Chip Rosenthal  512-482-8260  |  If software look-and-feel can be protected,
Unicom Systems Development    |  then I'd like to claim a copyright upon
<chip at chinacat.Unicom.COM>    |  `Memory fault - core dumped'.