Re: [Groff] Missing text in PDF with Mom

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Mike,

> So it is my first ever attempt at using Groff.

Welcome!

> The generated pdf file doesn't have any paragraphs when viewed
> by Adobe Reader XI Version 11.00.08 on Windows 8 64-bit.  It is
> nothing but title text.

...and the "- 1 -" page number at the bottom?

> But if I convert the resultant pdf to a PNG using pdftopng 3.04 on
> Fedora, the title text and the paragraph text appears.

That's odd, because it doesn't appear for me;  I get the same as viewing
the PDF.  And if I look at the PDF's contents, I don't think the text is
there.  The qdf(1) program can make the PDF more readable.

    $ qpdf --qdf mike.pdf mike.qdf
    $ grep BaseFont mike.qdf
      /BaseFont /Times-Bold
      /BaseFont /Times-Roman
    $ 
    $ grep -n '(.*)' mike.qdf
    19:  /CreationDate (D:20140905225609-4'00')
    20:  /Creator (groff version 1.22.2)
    21:  /ModDate (D:20140905225609-4'00')
    22:  /Producer (gropdf version 1.22.2)
    104:  /Title (Using Groff/Mom like Markdown)
    172:0.000 Tw [(Using Gr)] TJ
    174:0.000 Tw [(off/Mom lik)] TJ
    176:0.000 Tw [(e Markdo)] TJ
    178:0 Tw (wn) Tj
    196:0 Tw [(-) -83.36 ] TJ
    199:0 Tw [(1) -83.36 ] TJ
    202:0 Tw (-) Tj
    493:<< /Registry (Adobe)
    494:/Ordering (UCS)
    $ 

The initial strings up to line 104 are PDF metadata, then the printable
text follows to 202.

> I'm guessing that I was supposed to embed a font, maybe, in the PDF
> file itself somehow.

No, it's not that, since the fonts used are boring and common and the
missing text isn't in the PDF.  :-)

Cut PDF out of the equation to see if that's where the problem lies.  Go
for PostScript instead and have a third party produce the PDF, e.g.

    groff -mom mike.tr | ps2pdf - mike.pdf

Cheers, Ralph.