groff
Shares rank 7 of 11 typesetting systems by recommenders
Free, long-established typesetting system for manuscripts and publishing. Basic syntax is easy, but typographical marks need escaping.
5 people recommended groff in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and none criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026.
Summary written by Claude from 9 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 7 of those comments still count.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- mixed feelings
- 1
- warn against or regret it
- 0
The record
Recommended in 5 of 12 months
In 5 different threads.
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 12 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
- Recommended in 5 threadsNeeds 5 or more, met.
- The biggest thread supplies 40% of its recommendersNeeds half or less, met.
The same rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. Mixed feelings count toward neither side. How the badge works
What people say about it
Reasons grouped from a sample of 7 of the 7 opinions about it, picked in proportion to how many people recommend it, have mixed feelings and criticize it. Each mark is one comment in the sample. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Easy basic syntax
“using simple groff is very capable for basic manuscripts without having to fall down a deep dark rabbit hole”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)” “the basic syntax can be easy enough”
Comment from 27 Jun 2026 in “WordStar: A Writer's Word Processor (1996)”
Other typesetting systems people recommend
The four most recommended other typesetting systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 11 typesetting systems, rankedWhat people said
All 7 opinions about it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Better is to use the typesetting language”
“using simple groff is very capable for basic manuscripts without having to fall down a deep dark rabbit hole”
“the basic syntax can be easy enough”
“Groff + troff+pic+eqn already do that, no Texlive needed.”
“groff can produce output with links in it, and does by default in HTML mode!”
“I tried to tell a friend about WYGIWYM stuff like LaTeX, groff, and Typst”
“using pandoc with groff is the most readable way to read markdown on the terminal”
Counts come from 1,791,911 Hacker News comments labeled by Claude, November 2025 to October 2026, with data through October 31, 2026. Counts updated 2 Nov 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.