Re: flexfax: PostScript to <nice> gif

[David Woolley <david@djwhome.demon.co.uk>]

>     I have nice b/w PostScript files generated from TeX and I need to
> send
> them as gifs. I cannot get any reasonable quality conversion from gs
> whatever format I try (gif directly is not available as -sDEVICE,
> isn't?).

It is available in older versions, but one of the patent holders on 
the LZW algorithm was in financial trouble a few years ago and started
enforcing it, with the result that no new freeware sold or written in the
USA could generate GIF files (the patent may expire soon).

I believe the build instructions indicate that it is possible to use
the old versions of the GIF driver if you are outside the scope of
the patent, or your country (basically everyone except the USA and
Japan, but see www.freepatents.org) doesn't recognize software patents.

> Tiffs come of excellent quality. For gifs either size is enormous 
> (what possibly on Earth can make them so huge in b/w text???) or quality

ghostscript will probably image them at 300 dpi unless you override the
resolution (-r parameter).]  It might image at 198 dpi for TIFF fax
formats.  Standard screen resolutions are 72, 96 and 120 for
640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768, respectively.

> is not suitable for printing good copies from Netscape. 

Current generation GUI browsers understand PNG, which was developed in
response to the patents problem, is supported by ghostscript, and 
compresses better than GIF, although not as well as group 4 fax,
at least for typical fax images.

Also consider whether your audience can handle .PDF; much add on hardware
documentation is in this format, so it is often installed and is a free
download; it may be best if the original is text or line drawings rather
than a scan.