stephenc@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Stephen Chung) (04/20/91)
Hi, NetLanders, This must be a dumb question, but here it goes anyway: I have need of a 2400 baud modem with fax. MNP or V42.bis (whatever) is not important. Anybody can recommend a solid and *cheap* one? Please reply to this account since this is a relatively novice question. Thanks a lot. - Stephen
dww@stl.stc.co.uk (David Wright) (04/21/91)
In the referenced article stephenc@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Stephen Chung) writes:
#I have need of a 2400 baud modem with fax. MNP or V42.bis
#(whatever) is not important. Anybody can recommend ...
The March edition of PC World - the one with "PUT IT IN WRITING!" + a
picture of GoCorp's PenPoint notebook-and-pen PC on the front - contained a
survey of "42 FAX Boards from $200 to $1500", plus ad's for some at $199 up.
I found it fairly useful in choosing a board - though I had to pay more like
#200 for the same board in the UK (almost twice as much).
I suspect most of the boards are fine - they all do about the same thing.
What you need to look out for is the software supplied with them, as that
provides the facilities you'll be using. The board I bought in the end
came with Bitfax software, which seems quite good in that it includes
facilities to merge image files with text, plus some basic format conversion
stuff, as well as the usual menus and phone book. But it doesn't appear
to support polling mode (please tell me if a version of it does!), and
although you can view or print out FAXes before you send them if you want,
there appear to be some scaling errors in fine mode - i.e. the image on my
300 dpi printer is not the same size as on the far-end FAX machine.
Regards, "None shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity"
David Wright STL, London Road, Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, UK
dww@stl.stc.co.uk <or> ...uunet!mcsun!ukc!stl!dww <or> FAX: +44 279 432734
<or> /g=David/s=Wright/org=STC Technology Ltd/prmd=STC plc/admd=Gold 400/co=GBneal@mnopltd.UUCP (04/26/91)
->In the referenced article stephenc@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Stephen Chung) writes:
->#I have need of a 2400 baud modem with fax. MNP or V42.bis
->#(whatever) is not important. Anybody can recommend ...
->
->The March edition of PC World - the one with "PUT IT IN WRITING!" + a
->picture of GoCorp's PenPoint notebook-and-pen PC on the front - contained a
->survey of "42 FAX Boards from $200 to $1500", plus ad's for some at $199 up.
->
->I found it fairly useful in choosing a board - though I had to pay more like
->#200 for the same board in the UK (almost twice as much).
->
->I suspect most of the boards are fine - they all do about the same thing.
->What you need to look out for is the software supplied with them, as that
->provides the facilities you'll be using. The board I bought in the end
->came with Bitfax software, which seems quite good in that it includes
->facilities to merge image files with text, plus some basic format conversion
->stuff, as well as the usual menus and phone book. But it doesn't appear
->to support polling mode (please tell me if a version of it does!), and
->although you can view or print out FAXes before you send them if you want,
->there appear to be some scaling errors in fine mode - i.e. the image on my
->300 dpi printer is not the same size as on the far-end FAX machine.
Bitfax reputedly has a TSR to capture printer output and convert it to fax
format. Allegedly this knows how to deal with HP Laserjet format.
Does anyone know how smart the Bitfax capture is? Such as:
- does it recognize fonts being downloaded?
- does it recognize fonts cards?
Or does it ignore almost everything and format all your text as 10cpi
Letter Gothic no matter what?
I will confess that to date we still print everything and then feed it.
We would like to jump into the 21st century, bith with our fonts intact.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neal Rhodes MNOP Ltd (404)- 972-5430
President Lilburn (atlanta) GA 30247 Fax: 978-4741
emory!mnopltd!neal
------------------------------------------------------------------------------dww@stl.stc.co.uk (David Wright) (04/30/91)
In the referenced article gatech!stiatl!mnopltd!neal writes:
#
#Bitfax reputedly has a TSR to capture printer output and convert it to fax
#format. Allegedly this knows how to deal with HP Laserjet format.
#
#Does anyone know how smart the Bitfax capture is? Such as:
# - does it recognize fonts being downloaded?
# - does it recognize fonts cards?
#Or does it ignore almost everything and format all your text as 10cpi
#Letter Gothic no matter what?
Basically, the last. According to the documentation, it extracts the ASCII
characters from the printer feed, and replaces the printer output with its
own fonts. As this is not particularly useful to me I haven't tried it.
Several fonts are supplied, including Gothic. Unfortunately they are all
proportional fonts except for "Courier 10 (fine)", which look well on memos
but are useless for tables. Consequently I have to send anything with
tables or multiple columns in FINE mode! If anyone has a fixed pitch font
that works in NORMAL mode I'd be grateful for a copy.
As well as screen and printer capture - which I'm sure are very useful in
some circumstances - Bitfax will read directly the files of some standard
word processors, including Word Perfect. Again it uses its own fonts though.
If you want images as well as text, you can send - or merge in with text
documents - files in TIFF, IMG or PCX format as well as its own version of
"FAX" (G3). So what I'd like is something that will convert HP Laserjet
output to one of those (or almost any standard image format), so I can for
example send the result of DTP software instead of just the text. Does
such a thing exist?
Regards, "None shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity"
David Wright STL, London Road, Harlow, Essex CM17 9NA, UK
dww@stl.stc.co.uk <or> ...uunet!mcsun!ukc!stl!dww <or> FAX: +44 279 432734
<or> /g=David/s=Wright/org=STC Technology Ltd/prmd=STC plc/admd=Gold 400/co=GB