Convert man page while reading it to pdf in urxvt. No need to quit reading or open another terminal instance/tab. Bind the desired keyboard shortcut and this extension will do all the heavy lifting for you.

Installation

Simply place the script in /usr/lib/urxvt/perl/ for system-wide availability or in ~/.urxvt/ext/ for user-only availability. You can also put it in a folder of your choice, but then you have to add this line to your .Xdefaults/.Xresources:

URxvt.perl-lib: /home/user/your/folder/
# extension to activate
URxvt.perl-ext-common           : man

# keyboard shortcut to trigger the extension
URxvt.keysym.Control-Shift-X    : perl:man:topdf

You can convert man pages with your mouse, by default this functionallity is disabled so not to confuse any other extensions, such as url-select.

To enable this functionallity add the following to your .Xdefaults/.Xresources:

URxvt.perl-ext-common           : selection-to-clipboard,man

# 3 is the "right" mouse click button
URxvt.man2pdf.button: 3

# Mark the man page name with
# your left mouse button and right click
# to start the conversion process

Requirements

• ghostscript
• urxvt (rxvt-unicode) compiled with support for perl