fax2ps(1)

NAME

       fax2ps - convert a TIFF facsimile to compressed

SYNOPSIS

       fax2ps [ options ] [ file...  ]

DESCRIPTION

       fax2ps  reads  one or more TIFF facsimile image files and prints a com-
       pressed form of
        on the standard output that is suitable for printing.

       By default, each page is scaled to reflect  the  image  dimensions  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.
       Alternate page dimensions can be specified in inches with the -W and -H
       options.

       By default fax2ps generates  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  that is optimized for sending
       pages of text to a 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  specification 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  description, relative to the straightforward  imaging  of  the
       page  with  a image operator.  This algorithm can, however, be ineffec-
       tive for continuous-tone and white-on-black images.  For these  images,
       it  sometimes  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 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 dimen-
                 sions.  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 gener-
       ated due to transmission errors in received facsimile.  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 resultant
        image.

NOTES

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

BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

       tiff2ps(1), libtiff(3)

       Libtiff library home page: http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/

libtiff                        November 2, 2005                      FAX2PS(1)