Re: Footer trap in a A4 PDF

[G. Branden Robinson]

Hi Matteo,

At 2023-08-25T14:25:06+0200, Matteo Bini wrote:
> I'm writing some documents that will be exported in PDF with A4 paper
> size. I'm using my own macro package.
[...]
> This is how I output to PDF:
> groff -K utf8 -m mymacro -M . -P -pa4 -T pdf in.roff > out.pdf
> 
> I would expect the word "footer" to pop up at -2c from the page bottom,
> then a page break. Footer does pop up, and there's the page break too,
> however it does not show up at -2c from the bottom. It's lower.
> 
> What am I doing wrong?

I couldn't reproduce your problem with groff 1.23.0.  I used the
attached input document, very similar to yours, but combining the page
layout and page content stuff.

With the `pl` request commented and the `-P -pa4` option sequence
omitted, I get a page that numbers 54 lines before springing the footer
trap, which writes the word "footer" and breaks the page.

$ groff -K utf8 -T pdf ATTIC/bini.roff >| ATTIC/bini.pdf

If I uncomment the `pl` request and restore the option sequence...

$ groff -K utf8 -P -pa4 -T pdf ATTIC/bini.roff >| ATTIC/bini.pdf

...I get a page that is noticeably longer, numbering 58 lines before the
footer trap springs.  The visible bottom margin sizes _look_, to my
eyeballs, about the same size.

(Once upon a time, like 25 years ago, there was a tool called xruler or
similar that made it easy to measure distances on the screen.
Unfortunately, I guess as parcel of "making Linux ready for the
desktop", this sort of practical application was discarded as being too
ugly.  Didn't help with that streamlined, configuration-free experience
Sun was going for by taking over GNOME development, and didn't promote
TrollTech's private dialect of C++, so it got consigned to the flames.)

...but I digress.

Please verify that you can reproduce the results I'm getting.  If you
can, we'll look into the matter of achieving precise margin sizes, an
area I have recently come to feel is under-documented in groff.

If you _can't_ reproduce my results, we need to sort that out; there may
be a bug somewhere wanting squashing.

Regards,
Branden

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