NAME

rem2pdf - draw a PDF calendar from Remind output

SYNOPSIS

    remind -pp [options] file | rem2pdf [options] > output.pdf

DESCRIPTION

rem2pdf reads the standard input, which should be the results of running remind with the -p, -pp or -ppp options. It emits PDF code that draws a calendar to standard output.

rem2pdf uses the Pango text formatting library (<https://pango.gnome.org/>) and the Cairo graphics library (<https://www.cairographics.org/>) to produce its output. The CPAN modules Pango (<https://metacpan.org/pod/Pango>) and Cairo (<https://metacpan.org/pod/Cairo>) are prerequisites.

rem2pdf assumes that its input stream is valid UTF-8. If this is not the case, it may render output incorrectly or even fail to render output at all.

OPTIONS

--landscape, -l: Print the calendar in landscape orientation. Essentially, this swaps the width and height of the output media.
--small-calendars=n, -cn: Control the inclusion of small calendars for the previous and next month. Possible values for n are:

0: Do not draw any small calendares
1: Place the small calendars at the bottom-right if there is room; otherwise, place them at the top-left.
2: Place the small calendars at the top-left if there is room; otherwise, place them at the bottom-right.
3: Place the previous month's small calendar at the top-left and the next month's at the bottom-right if there is room; otherwise, follow n=1. A moment's thought reveals that an option which splits the calendars if there is room and otherwise follows n=2 yields the same results.

--left-numbers, -x

Draw the day numbers in the top-left corner of each day's box rather than the default top-right.

--fill-page, -e

Make the calendar fill the available space on the page.

--media=media, -mmedia

Specify the paper size (Letter, A4, etc.) For a list of valid media sizes, run:

    rem2pdf --media=help

The default media size will be marked with an asterisk.

--width=n, -wn, --height=m, -hm

Rather than specifying a named media size, directly specify the width and height of the output in 1/72ths of an inch. You must specify both width and height for the options to be respected.

--title-font=font

Specify the font used for the calendar title. It can be any font that the Pango library on your system can use. The default is Sans. If you choose a font with spaces in its name, you may need to quote this argument.

--header-font=font

Specify the font used for the weekday names. The default is Sans.

--daynum-font=font

Specify the font used for the day numbers. The default is Sans Bold Oblique.

--entry-font=font

Specify the font used for calendar entries. The default is Sans.

--small-cal-font=font

Specify the font used for the small next- and previous-month calendars. The default is Sans.

--title-size=n

Specify the size of the title font in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 14. This size, and indeed all following sizes, may be specified as floating-point numbers.

--header-size=n

Specify the size of the header font in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 14.

--daynum-size=n

Specify the size of the day number font in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 14.

--entry-size=n

Specify the size of the calendar entry font in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 8.

--border-size=n

Specify the size of the blank border between the contents of a calendar box and the centre of the lines surrounding it, in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 4.

--line-thickness=n

Specify the thickness of the lines drawn on the calendar. The default is 1.

--margin-top=n

The size of the margin at the top of the page in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 36.

--margin-bottom=n

The size of the margin at the bottom of the page in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 36.

--margin-left=n

The size of the margin at the left of the page in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 36.

--margin-right=n

The size of the margin at the right of the page in 1/72ths of an inch. The default is 36.

--verbose, -v

Print (on STDERR) the name of the month and year for each month that is rendered.

USAGE

To use rem2df, pipe the output of remind with one of the -p, -pp or -ppp options into rem2pdf. The PDF output will be sent to standard output. So for example, to print a 12-month calendar for the year 2030, use:

  remind -pp12 /dev/null Jan 2030 | rem2pdf -e -l -c=3 | lpr

You can concatenate multiple remind runs. For example, the following will produce a PDF calendar for January through March of 2023, and June of 2023 (for a total of four pages);

  (remind -pp3 Jan 2023 /dev/null ; \
   remind -p June 2023 /dev/null) | rem2pdf -e -l -c=3 > cal.pdf

FORMATTED TEXT

rem2pdf supports a SPECIAL reminder type called PANGO. This lets you format text using the Pango markup language, described at <https://docs.gtk.org/Pango/pango_markup.html>. Here are some examples:

  REM Mon SPECIAL PANGO <b>Bold</b> and <i>italic</i>
  REM Tue SPECIAL PANGO <span face="zapf chancery">Fancy</span>
  REM Wed SPECIAL PANGO <span foreground="red"><b>Bold red</b></span>

Other back-ends such as rem2ps and rem2html will ignore PANGO special reminders.

Neither remind nor rem2pdf will check the markup to ensure it is syntactically correct. If you use invalid Pango markup, the Pango library will print a warning and rem2pdf will not render any output for the invalid reminder.

ABSOLUTELY-POSITIONED TEXT

If your PANGO special reminder starts with "@ x,y" where x and y are floating-point numbers, then the Pango marked-up test is positioned absolutely with respect to the day's box (and is not counted when calculating the box's height.)

A positive x value positions the left edge of the text x points to the right of the left side of the calendar box, while a negative x value positions the right edge of the text x points to the left of the right side of the calendar box.

A positive y value positions the top edge of the text y points below the top of the calendar box, while a negative y value positions the bottom edge of the text y points above the bottom of the calendar box.

If you use absolutely-positioned text, it's up to you to make sure it doesn't overlap other text; rem2pdf takes no special precautions to prevent this.

As an example, this places Sunrise and Sunset times at the bottom left of each calendar box:

  REM SPECIAL PANGO @1,-1 <span size="4800"><i>Rise [sunrise($U)] Set [sunset($U)]</i></span>

(Note that Pango expresses font sizes in 1024's of a point, so a size of 4800 works out to about 4.6 points.)

AUTHOR

Rem2PDF was written by Dianne Skoll <dianne@skoll.ca>