robert@towers.uucp (Robert Hoquim) (06/01/91)
I am in need of a way to take a Postscript file and convert it to a tiff
file for transmission over a fax modem. The software for the fax is the
DigiFax software by DigiBoard Inc., which should have no effect on the
conversion software, just thought I would throw it in. If anyone has any
information about such a utility that can go one way or both please let me
know. The OS of choice is ISC, but anything in source or even DOS (vpix?)
would sure be of help.
Bob
--------
Robert Hoquim - (robert@towers) - voice: 317-255-6807 - fax: 317-259-7289
Small Systems Specialists - 8500 N. Meridian - Indianapolis, IN 46260
-- Providing HIGH Performance Unix Systems to YOU is Our ONLY goal! --wes@kofax.uucp (Wes Chalfant) (06/18/91)
In article <1991May31.181617.16503@towers.uucp> robert@towers.uucp (Robert Hoquim) writes: > >I am in need of a way to take a Postscript file and convert it to a tiff >file for transmission over a fax modem. The software for the fax is the >DigiFax software by DigiBoard Inc., which should have no effect on the >conversion software, just thought I would throw it in. If anyone has any >information about such a utility that can go one way or both please let me >know. The OS of choice is ISC, but anything in source or even DOS (vpix?) >would sure be of help. Depending on what you want to buy and what you want to port, there are a couple of alternatives. The GNU Ghostscript program does a very nice job of composing a bitmap image of postscript input. You would probably want to write your own ghostscript "driver"; for what you want to do, that is really quite easy. Your driver would tell the Ghostscript kernel what resolution to use (you would probably use either standard or "fine" FAX modes, which are approx. 200x100 and 200x200 pixels per inch, respectively) and what to do with the bitmap after it was composed in memory (probably to write it out as a TIFF file). Ghostscript is available either directly from the Free Software Foundation or through an archive site for GNU software (e.g. uunet). Depending on what the DigiFax software supports (I'm not that familiar with it, but have talked to them a little), you could write the bitmap out either as a "raw" TIFF image (no compression, very easy) or as a group 3 compressed image (harder, but doable in s/w if you're not in a big hurry). For dealing with TIFF files in general, I recommend that you look at the libtiff software developed by Sam Leffler <sam@okeeffe.berkeley.edu>. You can get this via FTP from ucbvax.berkeley.edu (pub/tiff/*.tar.Z) or uunet.uu.net (graphics/tiff.tar.Z); you can also get this from uunet via modem (either as a subscriber to uunet or via their "anonymous UUCP" 900 numbers). For some higher end FAX applications, people use hardware interfaces to high speed scanners and printers that do compression/decompression on the fly; that is where Kofax comes in. For the type of application that you describe (FAX only), such solutions may be overkill. If you are integrating document image processing into your system in general, though, you might look at some of these hardware solutions as well. All of the above should work with ISC UNIX very well.
dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk (Matthew Farwell) (06/18/91)
In article <1991Jun17.183228.23939@kofax.uucp> wes@kofax.uucp (Wes Chalfant) writes: >In article <1991May31.181617.16503@towers.uucp> robert@towers.uucp (Robert Hoquim) writes: >>I am in need of a way to take a Postscript file and convert it to a tiff >>file for transmission over a fax modem. The software for the fax is the >>DigiFax software by DigiBoard Inc., which should have no effect on the >>conversion software, just thought I would throw it in. If anyone has any >>information about such a utility that can go one way or both please let me >>know. The OS of choice is ISC, but anything in source or even DOS (vpix?) >>would sure be of help. > > Depending on what you want to buy and what you want to port, >there are a couple of alternatives. > > The GNU Ghostscript program does a very nice job of composing a >bitmap image of postscript input. You would probably want to write >your own ghostscript "driver"; for what you want to do, that is really >quite easy. Your driver would tell the Ghostscript kernel what >resolution to use (you would probably use either standard or "fine" >FAX modes, which are approx. 200x100 and 200x200 pixels per inch, >respectively) and what to do with the bitmap after it was composed in >memory (probably to write it out as a TIFF file). Ghostscript is >available either directly from the Free Software Foundation or through >an archive site for GNU software (e.g. uunet). Also available is Jef Posanker's pbmplus package. You can convert between all sorts of formats with that particular package. It should work under ISC. Dylan. -- Matthew J Farwell: dylan@ibmpcug.co.uk || ...!uunet!ukc!ibmpcug!dylan But you're wrong Steve. You see, its only solitaire.