tbleps
Convert tbl-formatted Tables into Encapsulated PostScript

tbleps converts tables formatted for troff's tbl(1)
preprocessor directly into Encapsulated PostScript,
without going through troff.

This makes it possible to write tables in tbl format
and use them in non-troff (e.g., LaTeX) documents.
LaTeX does have its own table-generator, of course,
but, amazingly, it doesn't have the n column specifier.
Also, tbl format can often be more readable than LaTeX.

tbleps is written in Perl and depends on the 
PostScript::FontMetrics CPAN package.

It also depends on being able to run
"locate times/ptmr8a.afm" to find the font metrics
for Times-Roman.

Russ Cox
September 2007 [sic]
Examples

Input tbl | troff tbleps 

.TS
center, box;
c  s  s  s
c  s  s  s
c |c |c |c
c |c |c |c
l |n |n |n.
1970 Federal Budget Transfers
\s-2(in billions of dollars)\s0
=
State	Taxes	Money	Net
\^	collected	spent	\^
_
New York	22.91	21.35	\-1.56
New Jersey	8.33	6.96	\-1.37
Connecticut	4.12	3.10	\-1.02
Maine	0.74	0.67	\-0.07
California	22.29	22.42	+0.13
New Mexico	0.70	1.49	+0.79
Georgia	3.30	4.28	+0.98
Mississippi	1.15	2.32	+1.17
Texas	9.33	11.13	+1.80
.TE


.TS
center;
l6 n.
13	13
4.2	4\&.2
26.4.12	26.4\&.12
abc	abc
abc\e&	abc\&
43\e&3.22	43\&3.22
749.12	749\&.12
.TE


.TS
c s s
l n n.
Overall title
Item-a	34.22	9.1
Item-b	12.65	.02
Items: c,d,e	23	5.8
Total	69.87	14.92
.TE


.TS
box;
c c c
l l l.
Language	Authors	Runs on

Fortran	Many	Almost anything
PL/1	IBM	360/370
C	BTL	11/45,H6000,370
BLISS	Carnegie-Mellon	PDP-10,11
IDS	Honeywell	H6000
Pascal	Stanford	370
.TE


.TS
allbox;
c s s
c c c
n n n.
AT&T Common Stock
Year	Price	Dividend
1971	41-54	$2.60
2	41-54	2.70
3	46-55	2.87
4	40-53	3.24
5	45-52	3.40
6	51-59	.95*
.TE


.TS
box;
c s s
c | c | c
l | l | n.
Major New York Bridges
=
Bridge	Designer	Length
_
Brooklyn	J. A. Roebling	1595
Manhattan	G. Lindenthal	1470
Williamsburg	L. L. Buck	1600
_
Queensborough	Palmer &	1182
	  Hornbostel
_
		1380
Triborough	O. H. Ammann	_
		383
_
Bronx Whitestone	O. H. Ammann	2300
Throgs Neck	O. H. Ammann	1800
_
George Washington	O. H. Ammann	3500
.TE


.TS
c c
np-2 | n |.
	Stack
	_
1	46
	_
2	23
	_
3	15
	_
4	6.5
	_
5	2.1
	_
.TE


.TS
box;
L L L
L L _
L L | LB
L L _
L L L.
january	february	march
april	may
june	july	Months
august	september
october	november	december
.TE


.TS
box;
cfB s s s.
Composition of Foods
_
.T&
c  |c s s
c  |c s s
c   |c  |c  |c.
Food	Percent by Weight
\^	_
\^	Protein	Fat	Carbo-
\^	\^	\^	hydrate
_
.T&
l  |n  |n  |n.
Apples	.4	.5	13.0
Halibut	18.4	5.2	...
Lima beans	7.5	.8	22.0
Milk	3.3	4.0	5.0
Mushrooms	3.5	.4	6.0
Rye bread	9.0	.6	52.7
.TE


.TS
box, tab(:);
cb s s s s
cp-2 s s s s
c ||c |c |c |c
c ||c |c |c |c
r2 ||n2 |n2 |n2 |n.
Readability of Text
Line Width and Leading for 10-Point Type
=
Line:Set:1-Point:2-Point:4-Point
Width:Solid:Leading:Leading:Leading
_
9 Pica:\-9.3:\-6.0:\-5.3:\-7.1
14 Pica:\-4.5:\-0.6:\-0.3:\-1.7
19 Pica:\-5.0:\-5.1: 0.0:\-2.0
31 Pica:\-3.7:\-3.8:\-2.4:\-3.6
43 Pica:\-9.1:\-9.0:\-5.9:\-8.8
.TE


.TS
c s
cip-2 s
l n
a n.
Some London Transport Statistics
(Year 1964)
Railway route miles	244
Tube	66
Sub-surface	22
Surface	156
.sp .5
.T&
l r
a r.
Passenger traffic \(mi railway
Journeys	674 million
Average length	4.55 miles
Passenger miles	3,066 million
.T&
l r
a r.
Passenger traffic \(mi road
Journeys	2,252 million
Average length	2.26 miles
Passenger miles	5,094 million
.T&
l n
a n.
.sp .5
Vehicles	12,521
Railway motor cars	2,905
Railway trailer cars	1,269
Total railway	4,174
Omnibuses	8,347
.T&
l n
a n.
.sp .5
Staff	73,739
Administrative, etc.	5,582
Civil engineering	5,134
Electrical eng.	1,714
Mech. eng. \(mi railway	4,310
Mech. eng. \(mi road	9,152
Railway operations	8,930
Road operations	35,946
Other	2,971
.TE