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
       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(1) 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

       tiff2ps(1), libtiff(3)

       Libtiff library home page: http://www.simplesystems.org/libtiff/