html2psrc - configuration file format for html2ps(1)
DESCRIPTION
Configuration files are used for layout control, resource information
etc. Normally, there should always exist a global configuration file.
In this file one typically specify things like: what image conversion
packages are available on the system, the default paper size, the default
text fonts and sizes, etc.
For Unix and Windows systems, the installation script 'install' can be
used to automatically build a global configuration file with all necessary
definitions, and install all files. The files replaced by the installation
are saved. If you for some reason are not satisfied with the new version:
execute the script 'backout' to reinstall your earlier version.
On other systems, you will have to manually create a global
configuration file, and insert the name of this file into the
html2ps script (close to the beginning, the line starting with
"$globrc="). The configuration file should contain a
package block, and perhaps
paper and
hyphenation blocks, described below.
Each user can then have a personal configuration file (by default
$HOME/.html2psrc) that complements/overrides the definitions made in the
global file. It is also possible to specify alternative files on the
command line, using the -f option.
FILE FORMAT
A configuration file can include other configuration files. This is done with:
@import "filename";
The rest of the configuration file consists of zero or more blocks.
A block is given by a block name, followed by the block definition, as in:
BODY {
font-size: 12pt;
font-family: Helvetica;
text-align: justify
}
The block definition, enclosed by curly braces: { }, consists of
key-value pairs and/or other blocks. A key-value pair consists of the key
name followed by a colon, followed by the value. Blocks and key-value pairs
are separated by semicolons. The semicolon may be omitted after a block.
Several blocks can share the same definition. The block names are then
separated be commas, as in:
H2, H4, H6 { font-style: italic }
A comment in a configuration file starts with the characters
"/*" and ends with "*/":
@html2ps {
seq-number: 1; /* Automatic numbering of headings */
}
Notations
Here are some definitions of terms used below:
Flag:
A value of either 0 (absence, inactive etc) or 1 (presence, active etc).
Absolute size:
A real number optionally followed by one of the following two-letter
unit identifiers: cm (centimeters), mm (millimeters), in (inches),
pt (points, 1pt = 1/72 inch), pc (picas, 1pc = 12pt). The default
unit is centimeters.
Relative size:
A size relative to current fontsize. The default and currently only
recognized unit is em. One em equals the size of the current font.
The value should be given as a real number, optionally followed by 'em',
as in '0.25em'.
Whitespace:
Any one of the characters: space, tab, newline, or carriage return.
CSS2 blocks
All blocks, except one: the @html2ps
block, coincides with a subset of the
Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 CSS2 Specification (http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/).
The following default settings for html2ps illustrate just about everything
that currently can be used from the CSS2 specification:
BODY {
font-family: Times;
font-size: 11pt;
text-align: left;
background: white;
}
H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6 {
font-weight: bold;
margin-top: 0.8em;
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
}
H1 { font-size: 19pt }
H2 { font-size: 17pt }
H3 { font-size: 15pt }
H4 { font-size: 13pt }
H5 { font-size: 12pt }
H6 { font-size: 11pt }
P, OL, UL, DL, BLOCKQUOTE, PRE {
margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
P {
line-height: 1.2em;
text-indent: 0;
}
OL, UL, DD { margin-left: 2em }
TT, KBD, PRE { font-family: Courier }
PRE { font-size: 9pt }
BLOCKQUOTE {
margin-left: 1em;
margin-right: 1em;
}
ADDRESS {
margin-top: 0.5em;
margin-bottom: 0.5em;
}
TABLE {
margin-top: 1.3em;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
DIV.noprint { display: none }
DEL { text-decoration: line-through }
A:link, HR { color: black }
@page {
margin-left: 2.5cm;
margin-right: 2.5cm;
margin-top: 3cm;
margin-bottom: 3cm;
}
The program specific block @html2ps:
This block is used to specify parameters that are specific to
html2ps, and not covered by CSS2. The @html2ps block has
several sub-blocks and key-value pairs, these are described in this section.
The package block
This block is used to specify which program
packages are installed on the system. Typically, this is done in the
global configuration file.
PerlMagick
A flag specifying whether the Perl module PerlMagick is installed
or not. The default is 0.
ImageMagick
A flag specifying whether the ImageMagick package is installed
or not. The default is 0.
pbmplus
A flag specifying whether the pbmplus package is installed
or not. The default is 0.
netpbm
A flag specifying whether the netpbm package is installed
or not. The default is 0.
djpeg
A flag specifying whether djpeg is installed or not.
The default is 0.
Ghostscript
A flag specifying whether Ghostscript is installed or not.
The default is 0.
TeX
A flag specifying whether the TeX package is installed or not.
The default is 0.
dvips
A flag specifying whether dvips is installed or not.
The default is 0.
libwww-perl
A flag specifying whether the Perl module library libwww-perl
is installed or not. The default is 0.
geturl
When neither of the Perl packages for retrieving remote documents
are available, it is possible to use some other program like wget or
lynx. This value should be set to a command that retrieves a document
with a complete MIME header, such as "wget -s -q -O-"
or "lynx -source -mime_header".
check
The name of a program used for syntax checking HTML documents.
No default, a good choice is weblint.
path
A colon separated list of directories where the executables from
the program packages are. It is only necessary to include directories
that are not in the PATH for a typical user.
The paper block
The paper size is defined in this block. The size can either be
given as one of the recognized paper types or by giving explicit values for
the paper height and width. As of version 1.0 beta2, one can also use the
@page block in CSS2
for the paper size. The paper block is kept for backwards compatibility.
Also, one can only specify explicit dimensions in @page, not any paper
types by name.
type
Paper type, possible choices are: A0, A1, A2, A3, A4,...,A10,
B0, B1,...,B10, letter, legal, arche, archd, archc, archb, archa,
flsa, flse, halfletter, 11x17, and ledger (this set of paper types
is taken from Aladdin Ghostscript). The default is A4.
height
An absolute size specifying the paper height.
width
An absolute size specifying the paper width.
The option block
This block is used to set default values for the command line
options. The key in the key-value pair is the option name, in either its
long or short form.
twoup
Two column (2-up) output. The default is one column per page.
base
Use URL as a base to expand relative references for in-line
images. This is useful if you have downloaded a document to a local file.
The URL should then be the URL of the original document.
check
Check the syntax of the HTML file (using an external syntax
checker). The default is to not make a syntax check.
toc
Generate a table of contents (ToC). The value should be a string
consisting of one of the letters 'f', 'h', or 't', optionally combined
with the letter 'b':
b
The ToC will be printed first. This requires that Ghostscript is
installed.
f
The ToC will be generated from the links in the converted document.
h
The ToC will be generated from headings and
titles in the converted documents. Note that if the document author
for some strange reason has chosen to use some other means to represent
the headings than the HTML elements H1,...,H6, you are out of luck!
t
The ToC will be generated from links having the attribute
rev=TOC in the converted document.
debug
Generate debugging information. You should always use this
option when reporting problems with html2ps.
DSC
Generate DSC compliant PostScript. This requires Ghostscript and
can take quite some time to do. Note that a PostScript file generated
with this option cannot be used as input to html2ps for reformatting
later.
encoding
The document encoding. Currently recognized values are ISO-8859-1,
EUC-JP, SHIFT-JIS, and ISO-2022-JP (other EUC-xx encodings may also
work). The default is ISO-8859-1.
rcfile
A colon separated list of configuration file names to use
instead of the default personal configuration file $HOME/.html2psrc.
Definitions made in one file override definitions in previous files
(the last file in the list has highest precedence). An empty file
name (as in ':file', 'file1::file3', or 'file:') will expand to the
default personal file. The environment variable HTML2PSPATH is used
to specify the directories where to search for these files. (Note:
this is only supposed to be used on the command line, not
in a configuration file.)
frame
Draw a frame around the text on each page. The default is
to not draw a frame.
grayscale
Convert colour images to grayscale images. Note that the
PostScript file will be smaller when the images are converted to
grayscale. The default is to generate colour images.
help
Show usage information.
hyphenate
Hyphenate the text. This requires TeX
hyphenation pattern files.
scaleimage
Scale in-line images with a factor num.
The default is 1.
cookie
Enable cookie support, using a netscape formatted cookie
file (requires libwww-perl).
Generate code for printing in landscape mode. The default
is portrait mode.
scalemath
Scale mathematical formulas with a factor num.
The default is 1.
mainchapter
Specifies the start number for automatic numbering of headings
(by setting the seq-number parameter), the default is 1.
number
Insert page numbers. The default is to not number the pages.
startno
Specifies the starting page number, the default is 1.
output
Write the PostScript code to file. The default is
to write to standard output.
original
Use PostScript original images if they exist. For example, if a
document contains an image figure.gif, and an encapsulated PostScript
file named figure.ps exists in the same directory, that file will be
use instead. This only work for documents read as local files. Note:
if the PostScript file is large or contains bitmap images, this must
be combined with the -D option. In HTML 4.0 this can be achieved in a
much better way with:
<PRE>[Maybe some ASCII art for text browsers]</PRE>
</OBJECT>
</OBJECT>
rootdir
When a document is read from a local file, this value specifies
a base directory for resolving relative links starting with "/".
Typically, this should be the directory where your web server's home
page resides.
xref
Insert cross references at every link to
within the set of converted documents.
scaledoc
Scale the entire document with a factor num.
The default is 1.
style
This option complements/overrides definitions made in the
configuration files. The string must follow the configuration
file syntax. (Note: this is only supposed to be used on the
command line, not in a configuration file.)
titlepage
Generate a title page. The default is to not generate one.
text
Text mode, ignore images. The default is to include the images.
underline
Underline text that constitutes a hypertext link. The default
is to not underline.
colour
Produce colour output for text and background, when specified.
The default is black text on white background (mnemonic: coloUr ;-).
version
Print information about the current version of html2ps.
web
Process a web of documents by recursively retrieve and convert
documents that are referenced with hyperlinks. When dealing with remote
documents it will of course be necessary to impose restrictions, to
avoid downloading the entire web... The value should be a string
consisting of one of the letters 'a', 'b', 'l', 'r', or 's', optionally
combined with a combination of the letters 'p', 'L', and a positive
integer:
a
Follow all links.
b
Follow only links to within the same directory, or below, as the
start document.
l
Follow only links specified with
"<LINK rel=NEXT>" in the document.
p
Prompt for each remote document. This mode will automatically be
entered after the first 50 documents.
r
Follow only relative links.
s
Follow only links to within the same server as the start document.
L
With this option, the order in which the documents are processed will
be: first all top level documents, then the documents linked to from
these etc. For example, if the document A has links to B and C, and
B has a link to D, the order will be A-B-C-D.
By default, each document will be followed by the first document
it links to etc; so the default order for the example is
A-B-D-C.
#
A positive integer giving the number of recursive levels. The
default is 4 (when the option is present).
duplex
Generate postscript code for single or double sided printing.
No default, valid values are:
This block is used to specify page margins. The left, right, top
and bottom margins, previously defined with this block, should now be
defined using the @page
construction from CSS2.
middle
An absolute size for the distance between the columns when
printing two columns per page, default is 2cm.
The xref block
At every hyperlink (to within the set of converted documents)
it is possible to have a cross reference inserted. The xref
block is used to control this function.
text
This defines the cross reference text to be inserted; the symbol
$N will expand to the page number, default is "[p $N]".
passes
The number of passes used to insert the cross references.
Normally, only one pass is run. But since the insertion of the page
numbers may effect the page breaks, it might for large documents with
many links be necessary with more than one pass to get the cross
references right. The default is 1.
The quote block
Language specific quotation marks are defined in this block.
These quotation marks are used with the HTML 4.01 element Q for short
quotations. Quotation marks are predefined for a few languages (English,
Swedish, Danish, Norwegian (also Nynorsk and Bokmoal), Finnish, Spanish,
French, German and Italian). It is possible to define different quotation
marks for quotes within quotes.
A quotation mark is defined as a string, using the same encoding as the
converted document (normally ISO-8859-1), and/or with character entities.
Note that quotation mark characters for several languages are not
included in ISO-8859-1, and their corresponding character entities were
not been defined prior to HTML 4.0.
Quotation marks for a language can be defined explicitly in a sub-block
of the quote block. One can also identify the set of quotation
marks with another previously defined language, using a key-value pair.
The sub-block/key name should equal the language code as defined in
ISO 639. The language sub-block can have the following key-values:
open
The quote opening character(s).
close
The quote closing character(s). If undefined, it will equal
open.
open2
The quote opening character(s) for quotes within quotes. If undefined,
it will equal open.
close2
The quote closing character(s) for quotes within quotes. If undefined,
it will equal close.
Example: English and Spanish use the same set of quotation marks -
at least according to my book on typography. These (already known to
html2ps) are defined with:
quote {
en {
open: "“";
close: "”";
open2: "`";
close2: "'";
}
es: en;
}
The toc block
When a table of contents (ToC) is generated from document
headings and titles, the appearance is controlled by this block.
heading
A string with HTML code specifying a heading used on the first
ToC page.
level
The maximum heading level used for building the ToC. The
default is 6, which means that all headings will generate
ToC entries.
indent
The ToC entries are indented proportional to the corresponding
heading level. This value specifies the size of the indentation.
The default is 1em.
The titlepage block
When a title page is generated, its appearance is controlled by
this block.
content
A string with HTML code specifying a heading used on the
title page, The default is
"<DIV align=center>
<H1><BIG>$T</BIG></H1>
<H2>$[author]</H2></DIV>".
margin-top
The size of the top margin on the title page,
The default is 4cm.
The font block
Currently, html2ps recognizes the fonts: Times,
New-Century-Schoolbook, Helvetica, Helvetica-Narrow, Palatino, Avantgarde,
Bookman, and Courier. To add a new font (family), choose a name (consisting
of letters, digits, hyphens, and underscores) for the font. Then define a
sub-block to the font block, with the same name as the chosen
font name. This block can contain two key-value pairs:
names
A string containing four PostScript font names, separated by
whitespace, corresponding to the font styles normal, italic, bold, and
bold-italic. If less than four names are given, the first is used for
the missing names. Note that PostScript font names are case sensitive.
files
A string of four file names, separated by whitespace, for files
containing font definitions for the four font styles as specified above.
Example: A font 'myfont' has its four font styles defined in local files.
To use this font in all tables in the converted documents, one can use
something like:
Hyphenation pattern files for different languages are specified
in sub-blocks within this block. The blocks names should equal the
language code as defined in ISO 639. These language blocks can contain
the following two key-values:
file
A hyphenation pattern file in TeX format for this language.
extfile
A file containing a list of hyphenation exceptions for this language.
The exception file should contain words, separated by whitespaces, with
hyphens inserted where hyphenation is allowed, as in:
"in-fra-struc-ture white-space".
For example, for English (with language code 'en') one can have a block
like:
en {
file: "/opt/tex/lib/macros/hyphen.tex";
extfile: "/opt/tdb/lib/html2ps/enhyphext";
}
The hyphenation block itself can furthermore have these
key-values:
min
A positive integer defining the minimum number of letters a word
must contain to make it a candidate for hyphenation.
The default is 8.
start
A positive integer defining the minimum number of letters that
must precede the hyphen when a word is hyphenated.
The default is 4.
end
A positive integer defining the minimum number of letters that
must follow the hyphen when a word is hyphenated.
The default is 3.
The header block
This block is used to specify page headers. It is possible to
define left, center, and right headers. Different headers for odd and even
pages can be specified. Some symbols can be used that will expand to
document title, author, date etc. See below.
left
A left aligned header. If the alternate flag in this
block is set to 1, this will be the right header on even pages.
center
A centered header.
right
A right aligned header. If the alternate flag in this
block is set to 1, this will be the left header on even pages.
odd-left
A left aligned header on odd pages.
odd-center
A centered header on odd pages.
odd-right
A right aligned header on odd pages.
even-left
A left aligned header on even pages.
even-center
A centered header on even pages.
even-right
A right aligned header on even pages.
font-family
The font used for the header, default is Helvetica.
font-size
The font size for the header, default is 8pt.
font-style
The default is "normal".
font-weight
The default is "normal".
color
The header color, default is black.
alternate
A flag indicating whether the headers given by the
left and right keys should change place on
even pages. Typically used for double sided printing.
The default is 1.
The footer block
This block is used to specify page footers. It is possible to
define left, center, and right footers. Different footers for odd and even
pages can be specified. Some symbols can be used that will expand to
document title, author, date etc. See below.
left
A left aligned footer. If the alternate flag in
this block is set to 1, this will be the right footer on even pages.
center
A centered footer.
right
A right aligned footer. If the alternate flag in
this block is set to 1, this will be the left footer on even pages.
odd-left
A left aligned footer on odd pages.
odd-center
A centered footer on odd pages.
odd-right
A right aligned footer on odd pages.
even-left
A left aligned footer on even pages.
even-center
A centered footer on even pages.
even-right
A right aligned footer on even pages.
font-family
The font used for the footer, default is Helvetica.
font-size
The font size for the footer, default is 8pt.
font-style
The default is "normal".
font-weight
The default is "normal".
color
The footer color, default is black.
alternate
A flag indicating whether the footers given by the
left and right keys should change place on
even pages. Typically used for double sided printing.
The default is 1.
The frame block
The appearance of the optional frame (drawn on each page) is
controlled by this block.
width
The width of the frame, default is 0.6pt.
margin
The size of the frame margin, default is 0.5cm.
color
The colour of the frame, default is black.
The justify block
This block specifies the maximum amount of extra space inserted
between words and letters when text justification is in effect.
word
Maximum amount of extra space inserted between words.
The default is 15pt.
letter
Maximum amount of extra space inserted between letters
within words. The default is 0pt.
The draft block
It is possible to have some text written in a large font diagonally
across each page. Typically this is a word, written in a very light colour,
indicating that the document is a draft.
text
The text to be printed, default is "DRAFT".
print
A flag specifying whether the draft text should be printed or not.
If unspecified, the draft text is printed when the document head contains
<META name="Status" content="Draft">.
The 16 standard colour names from HTML 4.01 (although their
use in HTML elements are now deprecated) are recognized by html2ps.
Use this block to extend this list of colours. This is done with
key-value pairs, where the key is the colour name, and the value is
the colour given as a hexadecimal RGB value, for example: "brown:
A52A2A;".
Key-value pairs in the @html2ps block
html2psrc
The name of the default personal configuration file.
The default is $HOME/.html2psrc.
imgalt
Specifies which text should be written as a replacement
for in-line images when the IMG element has no ALT attribute.
The default is "[IMAGE]".
datefmt
The symbol $D can be used in page headers and footers to insert the
current date/time; the value of the datefmt key specifies the
format used. The syntax is the same as in the strftime(3) routine. The
default is "%e %b %Y %R", which gives a date
string like "10 Dec 2005 18:29".
locale
The locale (language code) used for formating language dependent
parts of the date/time in datefmt. If unspecified, the value
is taken from environment variables, see setlocale(3). No default.
doc-sep
A string of HTML code that will be inserted between the
documents when more than one are converted. The default is
"<!--NewPage-->", which will cause
a page break. You may use (almost) any HTML code, for example
"<HR><HR>" or
"<IMG src=...>".
ball-radius
The radius, given as a relative size, of the balls used in
unordered lists. The default is 0.25em.
numbstyle
Page numbering style, 0=arabic, 1=roman. The default is 0.
showurl
When this flag is set to 1, the URL for external links are shown
within parentheses after the link. The default is 0.
seq-number
When this flag is set, the headings in the document will be
sequentially numbered: H1 headings will be numbered 1, 2,..., H2 headings
1.1, 1.2, etc. The starting number for H1 can be changed using the -M
(--mainchapter) option. The default is 0.
extrapage
A flag specifying whether an extra (empty) page should be printed,
when necessary, to ensure that the title page, the table of contents, and
the document itself will start on odd pages. This is typically
desirable for double sided printing. The default is 1.
break-table
A flag specifying if a table should be broken across two pages
when it does not fit on the current page, but it does on a page of its own.
The default is 0 (avoid breaking tables when possible).
forms
This flag is used to specify whether FORM elements in the document
should be processed or ignored. Some forms may be suitable for printing out
and be filled out (with a pen), others are not. The default is 1.
textarea-data
When a TEXTAREA element contains prefilled data, the text will be
used as labels if this flag is set, otherwise ignored. The default is
0.
page-break
Set this flag to 0 to suppress the normal behavior of generating
page breaks from the comment <!--NewPage--> etc, as
specified below. The default is 1.
expand-acronyms
A flag specifying whether acronyms, given by the ACRONYM element,
should be expanded or not. The default is 0.
spoof
Some web servers return different documents depending on which user
agent is used to retrieve the document. You can fool the web server that
a certain browser is used, by setting this value to the identification
used by the browser, such as "Mozilla/4.0". This only works if you are
using one of the Perl packages to retrieve remote documents.
ssi
When this flag is set, some Server Side Includes will be processed
when the document is read from a local file. Examples are
<!--#include file=...>,
<!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED">,
<!--#config timefmt=...>. The default is 1.
prefilled
This flag controls whether the content of form elements should be
rendered or not. That is, when this flag is set, the content of TEXTAREA
elements, and the value of the value attribute of text INPUT elements will
be shown. Also, checked radio buttons and checkboxes will be marked.
The default is 0.
SYMBOLS
The following symbols can be used on the title page, the page headers/footers,
and in the heading for the table of contents:
Symbols of the form "$[name]"
will expand to the value of the content attribute of
META elements, having either of the attributes
"name=name" or
"http-equiv=name" (case insensitive string matching).
For example, when a document containing:
<META name="expires" content="31 Dec 2006">
is converted, using a configuration file with:
footer { left: "Expires: $[expires]" }
this left footer will be inserted:
Expires: 31 Dec 2006
In addition, these symbols are defined:
$T
Current document title.
$A
Author of current document, as specified with <META name="Author"
content="..."> in the document head.
$U
The URL, or file name, of current document.
$N
Page number.
$H
Current document heading (level 1-3).
$D
Current date/time. The format is given by the datefmt key.
So $A is equivalent to $[author], but kept for
backwards compatibility.
To avoid symbol expansion, precede the dollar sign with a backslash,
as in "\$T".
HINTS
I imagine that a typical use of configuration files can be something
along the following lines.
System specific definitions (e.g. specification of available program packages)
and global defaults (paper type etc) are defined in the global configuration
file.
If there is more than one user of the program on the system, each user can
also have a personal configuration file with his/hers own personal preferences.
(On a single user system one can use the global configuration file for this
purpose as well.)
One may also develop a collection of configuration files for typical
situations. These files are placed in a directory that is searched by html2ps
(the search path is defined with the environment variable HTML2PSPATH).
For example, to print a document as slides - in landscape mode, with
large text in Helvetica, and a thick frame - one can create a
configuration file, called 'slides' say, containing:
@html2ps {
option {
landscape: 1;
frame: 1;
}
frame { width: 3pt }
}
BODY {
font-family: Helvetica;
font-size: 20pt;
}
H1 { font-size: 35pt }
H2 { font-size: 32pt }
H3 { font-size: 29pt }
H4 { font-size: 26pt }
H5 { font-size: 23pt }
H6 { font-size: 20pt }
PRE { font-size: 18pt }
Then use the command:
html2ps -f slides ...
to convert the document. Note that with this command the file 'slides' is used
instead of the personal configuration file. If you want both to
be used, giving precedence to definitions made in the file 'slides', use
the command:
html2ps -f :slides ...
(The page breaks between the slides can for example be generated by
adding '<HR class=PAGE-BREAK>' to the HTML document.)
For features that are frequently turned on and off, and that cannot be
controlled by command line options, it may be a good idea to create small
configuration files as "building blocks". For example a file 'A4' for
printing on A4 paper (if you have some other default paper type):
@html2ps { paper { type: A4 } }
and a file 'hnum' for automatic numbering of headings:
@html2ps { seq-number: 1 }
Combining this with the previous example: to convert a document for printing
on A4 sized slides with all headings numbered, use the command:
