Re: flexfax: textfmt

[Yannick Cote <Yanick@Kumite.qc.ca>]

On Sun, May 09, 1999 at 11:21:01AM +0100, David Woolley wrote:
> [ Re-wrapped to internet standards ]
> > We are sending fax from text files that we print in compressed mode,
> > i.e 132 colomns. Is there a $^%&%^ way to do it simply ? I tried to use
> > smaller fonts etc..but it does not do what i want. This is too small. In
> > fact, i try to find a way to reproduce dot matrix behavior when it
> > compress the text. The font stays at the same height but is compress to
> > fit in 132 colomns.
> 
> This may be inadvisable with faxes, because of the limited horizontal
> resolution++, but, given that there isn't much demand for very narrow 
> mono-spaced fonts, I think you will need to change the code to stretch
> a normal font.  You can either change the prologue to use a postscript
> scale operator to shrink everything in x direction, or you can specify an
> asymmetric font transformation when you load the font (makefont instead
> of scalefont).
> 
> In the former case, you may have to adjust the code that deals with
> line lengths.  In the latter case, you may need to adjust the code that
> deals with font metrics.
> 
> Before doing this, I would suggest trying the following:
> 
> - use a small font, but increase the line height to compensate;
> 
> - print in landscape with a small font (this is the most common solution to
>   wide printout);
> 
> - set the text into postscript with an external utility.
> 
> Note, simple setting of mono-spaced text into postscript needs less than
> a page of code if you don't parameterise it and don't do word wrapping.
> 
> ++ standard faxes have a higher resolution horizontally than vertically,
>    you are trying to compromise the resolution in the dimension in which
>    the designers considered most resolution was needed.

you are trying to compromise the resolution
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In fact, this was ok for me. But my boss wants HylaFAX doing the same as 
'Trufax' does with SCO Unix. So what do i have to do ? I have to dig even
if i know im losing my time for such details. But i have no choice, im
not the boss person.

	-Thanks