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