jonathan@cs.pitt.edu (Jonathan Eunice) (04/13/91)
I recently posted: | I read in the May, 1991 MacUser that Group 3 faxes have a Standard | resolution of 203x98 dpi, and a Fine resolution of 203x196 dpi. The | sample shown (p. 107) makes Fine look *much better* than Standard. Do | most standalone fax machines support the Fine resolution? I've | received a fair number of faxes, and I can't recall any that looked | anywhere near as good as MacUser's example. Is this just because no | one is using Fine mode, or is it because it hasn't been available on | many fax machines? Quick summary of responses: Almost all recent fax machines, and probably all computer fax modems, support Fine mode. It does cost more and take longer to use becuase of the extra data sent. People don't use it for the extra cost, the extra time, and perhaps most often, because it's not the default setting on many fax machines so people don't know/think to use it. Most respondents seem to agree that imaging in the computer, rather than scanning a document, is as important/more important than the Fine/Standard mode. PostScript (and by extension, similar imaging techniques such as ATM) are considered a big win. Thanks to all who responded. Here are the detailed responses, slightly edited: ----- From: hqm@ai.mit.edu (Henry Minsky) Almost every fax machine supports Fine resolution: Of course, computer generated fax images look MUCH better than scanned data. ----- From: troby@diana.cair.du.edu (Thorn Roby) My impression is that most machines made in the last two years have fine mode, but most people don't select it either because it takes too long or they don't know about it. The transmitting machine must be set in fine mode, then the receiving machine responds whether it can handle it. Also be aware that the improvement will be much more obvious in material which is generated electronically (e.g, text converted to fax format without ever being optically scanned). ----- From: "Michael J. McInerny" <mcinerny+@andrew.cmu.edu> Most people send faxes in standard or "draft" mode because that's what the fax machines default to. Most fax machines can send and receive in fine mode, but you have to push a button to make it send in fine mode. And, we all know that people are stupid and/or lazy, and that's why the button doesn't get pushed. Of course, there are those who know how to push the fine mode button, but choose not to because fine mode takes longer (50-100%) and costs more. And, we all know that people who are not stupid and/or lazy are likely to be cheap, the "Fine" button still doesn't get pushed. On our e-mail --> fax gateway, the CCITT G3 pages are precomputed, and cannot be changed on the fly. Since we use PostScript to image the pages, they are imaged at 200dpi for clarity. This increases transmission time, but results in excellent output (you've never seen a fax so good!). Personally, when I need to send a fax, I try to send it in fine mode, just for clarity's sake. I want my copy to look good on the other end, for a good impression. I think that if people saw how shitty their output looked, more would opt for the "Fine" mode. ----- From: wdr@wang.com (William Ricker) The faxes I've sent have sometimes gone out Fine, sometimes Normal, because I forget to check what the machine is set to when I dial. (Well, when I sent the Accident diagram to *my* agency, I made sure to set it to fine, since they'd be re-sending it... and Nyquist would trash it if they re-faxed a Normal at Normal!) Your phonebill will about double if you send about twice as many bits... even if compression helps, you're paying the telco (if direct analog dial rather than packet switched future) equal amount for dead-air while waiting for paper to slide through. It did take longer to transmit the same accident report at Fine than at Normal, so if *I* were responsible for the long-distance bill, I'd probably be petty & ban Fine transimission by long-lines except where the "art" necessitated it. Since the FAX I used ocasionally is usually used to send to India,I'm not surprised the usually use Normal. Greshams law in effect, perhaps? If people do not insist on the very best, they won't get it. (Converse of Maugham's observation.) ----- From: friedl@mtndew.Tustin.CA.US (Stephen J. Friedl) I write computer fax software for a living, so I think I am pretty qualified to talk about this :-) I don't think I've ever seen a Group 3 fax machine that didn't support fine mode, and surely all computer faxes support it. Fine mode does take twice as long to send as standard mode (twice as many scanlines) but the increased clarity can make quite a difference. Note that the clarity of computer fax is not so much due to fine mode as it is to the rasterization of the characters. When you fax a sheet of paper, the pixels go where the scanner happens to put them, but the computer can put them where they *really* need to go. This makes a huge difference in quality, and with a well-designed font, you can't detect any difference between fine and standard resolutions. The best fax font I've seen is Fujitsu's[*] Roxbury font. Of course, doing PostScript-to-fax will knock your socks off. [*] = we sell Fujitsu's fax modem, so I guess I'm biased, but *nobody* has such a good font for fax.