# troff

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/troff/

5 people recommended troff in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 12 months, in 5 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Already installed on many systems and powerful for typesetting; critics say it is dated and not ideal for top-quality typesetting.

Summary written by Claude from 8 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 6 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Already installed on many systems (1 comment in the sample): "I feel like a lot of people don't know about the power of the roff suites and that it is installed by default on a…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47931561))
- Powerful roff suite for typesetting (1 comment in the sample): "To appreciate troff, nroff and the whole runoff family" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49251537))

## Other typesetting systems people recommend

- [Typst](https://hackerapproved.com/p/typst/): 164 recommend, 26 mixed, 26 criticize
- [LaTeX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/latex/): 85 recommend, 40 mixed, 76 criticize
- [Quarto](https://hackerapproved.com/p/quarto/): 24 recommend, 3 mixed, 5 criticize
- [TeX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tex/): 21 recommend, 6 mixed, 11 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "troff", https://hackerapproved.com/p/troff/ (5 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.