NAME

       fax2ps - convert a TIFF facsimile to compressed PostScript™

SYNOPSIS

       fax2ps [ options ] [ file … ]

DESCRIPTION

       fax2ps  reads  one  or  more TIFF facsimile image files and prints a compressed form of PostScript 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 PostScript 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 PostScript that is  optimized  for  sending  pages  of  text  to  a
       PostScript 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 PostScript 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
       PostScript description, relative to the straightforward imaging of  the  page  with  a  PostScript  image
       operator.   This  algorithm  can,  however, be ineffective for continuous-tone and white-on-black images.
       For these images, it sometimes is more efficient to send  the  raster  bitmap  image  directly;  see  .BR
       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 dimensions.  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 generated 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  PostScript
       image.

NOTES

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

BUGS

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

SEE ALSO

       :doc`tiff2ps` (1), libtiff (3tiff)

AUTHOR

       LibTIFF contributors

COPYRIGHT

       1988-2024, LibTIFF contributors

4.5                                               Sep 05, 2024                                         FAX2PS(1)