Re: [hylafax-users] ps2pdf, page size problem

["Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@baylink.com>]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2001 at 05:25:52PM +1200, Michael Doerner wrote:
> > You know, I can't imagine any client-side environment where you could
> > view a PDF file where you *couldn't* view a TIFF file directly, with
> > about the same about of "install-a-plugin" labor at worst.
> >
> > I haven't seen the new faxrcvd script you mention in person, but can
> > someone explain to me whyinhell you'd bother?  Just attach the TIFF
> > directly...
> 
> maybe I took a bad approach (?) but I am looking for a format that I can
> view at this and most other Windows-PCs with quite a standard installation,
> no additional software needed.

No... I wasn't dissing you.  I was dissing whomever decided that
wrapping a TIFF into a PDF was a better default approach than just
attaching it directly, which I don't think was you.

> To be able to open/view the tif files, I applied an Internet Explorer plugin
> which is called "alternatiff" (http://www.mieweb.com/alternatiff/). I don't
> know which other standard applications under Windows would be able to open
> the tif's, IE without that plugin couldn't do it here?

No, the browsers won't open TIFF's directly.  But, as you note, there
are plugins that will; and that's a much lower overhead approach.

You could also turn them into PNG's from TIFF format, which would
likely also work; I think ImageMagick has a tool for that.

> I want to be able to forward these received faxes to other users who should
> be able to open these (ideally) without any need to install another
> software. I even would like to open the received faxes from remote through
> webmail running on our host (E-smith server).
>
> On the other hand, Acrobat Reader is nowadays almost a standard on every
> machine, therefore my approach for the pdf format.

Well...

> Is there an easier way to achieve that?

No, not really.  If you want to take AcroRead as a given, then it would
probably be easier, from a deployment standpoint.  I don't think
acroread's penetration is as high as I think you think it is.

Imaging should read those attachments, too, though, I'd expect.  No?

> At http://www.hylafax.org/howto/install.html there are the different
> installation requirements for the various OS or distributions. For Redhat 7
> it tells you the different packages required i.e.. libtiff, ghostscript,
> etc. The last in the row mentioned there is "libgr-devel-2.0.13 or better"
> and the remark there for RH7 says:
> 
> " * on RedHat 7.0 the applicable packages are named nebpbm instead of
> libgr."
> 
> I couldn't find any nebpbm but instead I found netpbm which I believe is
> just a misspelling there. More important for me is the question where this
> package is used/needed for since I didn't come across an obvious
> requirement? So I still haven't applied a "netpbm" RPM on the machine. Could
> that be part of my problem (I doubt)?

Damifino.  That is almost certainly a Lee Howard question, and no doubt
he's already answered it, further down my mailbox.... if not, he likely
will when he wakes up next.  :-)

Cheers,
-- jra

-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra@baylink.com
Member of the Technical Staff     Baylink
The Suncoast Freenet         The Things I Think
Tampa Bay, Florida        http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 804 5015


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