fax2ps(1)

FAX2PS(1)                USER COMMANDS                  FAX2PS(1)

NAME

     fax2ps - convert a TIFF facsimile to compressed POSTSCRIPT

SYNOPSIS

     fax2ps [ options ] [ file...  ]

DESCRIPTION

     fax2ps reads one or more  TIFF  facsimile  image  files  and
     prints  a compressed form of POSTSCRIPT on the standard out-
     put that is suitable for printing.

     By default, each page is scaled to reflect the image  dimen-
     sions  and  resolutions  stored  in the file.  The -x and -y
     options can be used to specify the horizontal  and  vertical
     image  resolutions  (lines/inch),  respectively.   If the -S
     option is specified, each page is scaled to fill  an  output
     page.   The default output page is 8.5 by 11 inches.  Alter-
     nate page dimensions can be specified in inches with the  -W
     and -H options.

     By default fax2ps generates POSTSCRIPT for all pages in  the
     file.  The -p option can be used to select one or more pages
     from a multi-page document.

     fax2ps generates a compressed form  of  POSTSCRIPT  that  is
     optimized  for sending pages of text to a POSTSCRIPT printer
     attached to a host through  a  low-speed  link  (such  as  a
     serial  line).   Each  output  page is filled with white and
     then only the black areas are drawn.  The POSTSCRIPT specif-
     ication  of  the  black  drawing  operations is optimized by
     using a special font that encodes the  move-draw  operations
     required  to  fill  the  black  regions  on  the page.  This
     compression scheme  typically  results  in  a  substantially
     reduced POSTSCRIPT description, relative to the straightfor-
     ward imaging of the page with a POSTSCRIPT  image  operator.
     This  algorithm can, however, be ineffective for continuous-
     tone and white-on-black images.  For these images, it  some-
     times  is  more  efficient  to  send the raster bitmap image
     directly; see tiff2ps(1).

OPTIONS

     -p number Print only the indicated page.  Multiple pages may
               be  printed  by  specifying  this option more than
               once.

     -x resolution
               Use resolution as the  horizontal  resolution,  in
               dots/inch,  of  the  image  data.  By default this
               value is taken from the file.

     -y resolution
               Use resolution  as  the  vertical  resolution,  in

                   Last change: March 16, 1995                  1

FAX2PS(1)                USER COMMANDS                  FAX2PS(1)

               lines/inch,  of  the  image data.  By default this
               value is taken from the file.

     -S        Scale each page of image data to fill  the  output
               page  dimensions.  By default images are presented
               according to the dimension information recorded in
               the TIFF file.

     -W width  Use width as the width, in inches, of  the  output
               page.

     -H height Use height as the height, in inches, of the output
               page.

DIAGNOSTICS

     Some messages about malformed TIFF images come from the TIFF
     library.

     Various messages about badly formatted facsimile images  may
     be  generated  due  to  transmission errors in received fac-
     simile.  fax2ps attempts to recover from such data errors by
     resynchronizing decoding at the end of the current scanline.
     This can result in long horizontal black lines in the resul-
     tant POSTSCRIPT image.

NOTES

     If the destination printer supports POSTSCRIPT Level II then
     it  is  always  faster  to just send the encoded bitmap gen-
     erated by the tiff2ps(1) program.

BUGS

     fax2ps should probably figure out when it is  doing  a  poor
     job  of  compressing the output and just generate POSTSCRIPT
     to image the bitmap raster instead.

SEE ALSO

     tiff2ps(1), libtiff(3)

                   Last change: March 16, 1995                  2