printfax
enables you to print out QFAX G3 files, either
produced using text2g3
or received using qfax
or
LFAX
. printfax
supports four widespread printers
standards, HP PCL3 (and better), (LaserJet & DeskJet), Epson 24 bit and
Epson 9 pin, and compatible emulations and Postscript.
Details of the way that printfax supports different page and paper sizes are given in section Page and Paper sizes printfax
printfax also includes some pseudo devices such as PIC in full and half sizes and GIF.
ex printfax;`-o dev [-t name] [-x] [-a] [-c n] [-s n] [-q] [-b] [-v] [-r range] [-J|j jump] [-P eol] [-l | file]' where
-o dev
-t name
-x
-a
printfax
is invoked
automatically by qfax
for automatic printing of received fax; you
then get notification of the sender TSI or name (depending of your
use of `ALIAS') in the popup.
-sn
-cn
-q
-v
-b
-l
printfax
to print the last received file.
-r range
ex printfax;'-r3,5,7-9,12 somefile_fax'
-j skip
-J skip
-P eol
file
text2g3
.
Due to Pointer Environment overheads, the -a and -v options are mutually
exclusive, printfax
will display the progress indicator unless
you request the popup, if it is possible (i.e. the stdout device is a
console). The popup is only displayed if you have the Pointer
Environment.
Printer names are denoted as
hp-pcl
eps-24
eps-9
ps
ps-ltr
Some pseudo-devices are also defined.
pbm
pic
pic-scaled
gif
gif-paged
The pseudo-devices allow alternative fax viewers, for example the `qspv' PIC viewer using name pic-scaled. See section PRVIEW keyword
These devices may be used as:
ex printfax;'-t pic-scaled myfax_fax'
The output from this command would be a number of half scale PIC files, one file per page, as follows (for a three page fax).
pfax001_pic-scaled : REM 1st page pfax002_pic-scaled pfax003_pic-scaled : REM last page
When a alternate viewer (PRVIEW) is defined, it will display the first page of the fax; printfax will continue to decode subsequent pages.
The file name (for paged devices) is fixed as pfax[pageno]_[type_name], unless it is defined using the PRVIEW keyword or -o option. A 'C' numeric format string in the file name will cause the page number to be substituted. Single file devices (hp-pcl, eps*, ps, gif) have a default output name of prtqfax_[type-name], (e.g. prtqfax_ps]).
The Postscript option will give better results than the HP option on >300dpi printers (for example HP-LJ4M+). It also means that printing is possible, via 'ghostscipt' (gs), for printers not support in printfax (for example, the Canon BJ range, Epson Stylus at 360 dpi (in preference to printfax Epson 24 mode (180dpi))).
Users should not that the author's knowledge of Postscript is limited and may not work on non-A4 faxes.
The `type' argument is optional, the default is HP-pcl. (i.e. it's optional if you have an HP printer)
REMark to a ram file using EPS24 mode ex printfax;'-o ram1_test_dmp -t eps-24 win1_test_fax*' copy ram1_test_dmp, ser1h ex printfax;'-o prt ram2_test_fax_001' : REM to HP printer on prt ex printfax;'-tpic-scaled -oram1_pf_%02x' : REM named PIC files : automatic viewing if : PRVIEW configured
printfax
options may be supplied using the PFAXINI keyword in
`qfax_dat'.
The printfax
Epson 9 pin emulation is fairly simple. It was
designed for ease of implementation and compatibility. The quality is
not great, but it is readable.
If printfax
is used to print faxes automatically then is runs as
a independent low priority job. It will wait until the output device is
free before it tries to allocate its large memory buffers and decode a
fax. You can RJOB it if you want to abort it. It does not open any
screen windows in this non-interactive mode.
printfax
(and via `PFAXINI', qfv
) include a number
of optimisations for HP LaserJet compatible printers (LJ II, III, IV,
and Deskjets).
A reduced image is printed using the `-s' (specific flag) set to 1
(`-s1'). In this mode, printfax
/qfv
does not scale
the image, but prints it at pixel size (fax is 200 dpi, HP is 300 dpi),
so the image is 2/3 of full size, but will only require half the memory
both to be transmitted to the printer and to be printed. This should
make it possible to print complex fax on a 1Mb laser printer.
HP mode defaults to 300dpi, you can set 150 dpi with `-s 2' (and reduced and 150 dpi) with `-s 3'. The 150 dpi option is optimised for ease of implementation, not quality.
printfax
and qfv
support HP Method 2 (TIFF packbits)
compression as an option `-c 2'. This is the most supported of the
various HP schemes (i.e IIP, all Deskjets, IIIx, IV series).
printfax
and qfv
also support HP Method 3 (Delta)
compression as an option `-c 3'. This is supported by later HP
models (PCL5 devices, i.e IIIP, IV, DeskJet 500 series (500, 500C, 550
etc) and presumably other (newer) models as well).
In this mode, printfax
/qfv
chooses the most efficient
method 0/2/3 (none, TIFF, Delta) for each line. This is denoted this
below as Adaptive.
In QFAX v2.5 (and later), HP compression mode 9 (-c9)is also supported.
Compression also works with `-s1, -s2 -s3', so this mode may give a large saving in transmission time.
For example, for a typical 2000 scan line fax.
Invocation HP Printer Comment data size printfax file 298115 bytes ; full file printfax -c2 file 180967 bytes ; full file, TIFF compression printfax -c3 file 35516 bytes ; full file, Adaptive compression printfax -s1 file 143597 bytes ; reduced file printfax -c2 -s1 file 96599 bytes ; reduced file, TIFF compression printfax -c3 -s1 file 27596 bytes ; reduced file, Adaptive compression
The fax decoding and PCL encoding times (to a ram disk) are essentially the same for each compression method so with a serial printer connection, this may result in a large time saving. The savings will be particularly good for PCL5 devices (LJ IIIP and later, and Deskjet 500 etc).
The adaptive mode (none/TIFF/Delta) is very efficient with normal resolution faxes, as it only sends four bytes for every other line.