On Jul 23, 2007, at 13:35, Greg Shenaut wrote:

I really don't know where to direct this problem. I have a manuscript that I format with groff -e -ms that has an inline equation using the eqn "sqrt" operator. When I format the manuscript to postscript, and look at it (with gv) or print it on a postscript printer, the square-root radical comes out perfectly. However, when I use ps2pdf to "distill" the postscript to pdf, the equation is a complete mess: it starts OK, prints the √ ok, but then backspaces about an inch, and prints the rest semi-randomly on top of the first part. When I use Adobe or pstopdf, I get slightly different errors, but neither is correct. It appears to be an interaction between how groff generates the postscript code and how the pdf distillers interpret it.

I am using OSX 10.4.10, groff 1.19.2_1, and ghostscript 8.54_0.

For the moment, I've used a little algebra and rewritten the relevant section of my manuscript in such a way as to avoid the square root, but it would be really great if someone could take a look at this for future purposes.

You'll probably have to ask the authors (or mailing lists) of groff or ps2pdf or pstopdf. The topic of this list is using MacPorts to install software, and it sounds like you have already managed to install the software. Using the individual software packages is a matter to be discussed elsewhere.