Just a remark on these fax file formats: Fax progs (and fax machines)
are "hardwired" to transmit/receive strictly defined, bitmapped "tokens"
(these are defined in the T-4 list of the pertinent ITU standard) to
fill a line bytewise, and send these linewise. (All that in half
duplex, and switching back and forth between data and command mode, the
latter fixed to 300bps.)
While the fax machine expands the byte stream directly to print the
lines bitwise, a fax program has to store the data in an appropriate
form. Which is where you have the differences between the various progs.
BGFAX for long time used either Q(uick)fax or Z(yxel)fax file formats,
adding TIFf rather recently. All are kind of run-length encoding (and
compressing) formats which store the - rather long - bitstream of the
transmitted fax lines more efficiently (i.e. less disk space, and
useable by other [screen/printing] progs. or easily translatable to
such, for instance to PCX).
Now, inbetween (computer-linked) faxmodems, or by eMail, one could send
the compressed file as well directly, instead of the bullier and slower
fax format and connection. Would be meaningful for scanned material
only, though <bg>.
(Top of absurdity is that "automated" fax traffic where a text is saved
bytewise, transformed to bitmapped files, these again transformed to the
fax-transmittable bitstream, that one received by a computer-linked
faxmodem, in turn transformed to some kind of compressed storage format,
then printed out from that one to be read by some OCR prog. in order to
be readable as byte defined "text" in a word processor.)
// Heimo Claasen // <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> // Brussels 1999-12-05
HomePage of ReRead - and much to read ==> http://www.inti.be/hammer
ps - BGFAX's viewer in earlier times didn't work with Hercules
screens, so I set it up with the ZyXel-Zfax viewer/printer prog (which
is good for conversions too). Still use it like that - as fax is
black/white anyway, it runs on an old XT which otherwise would gather
dust in the corner only. Unbeatably cheap faxmachine, the second-hand
modem (does he 14.4 Kbps faxes sure) was less than US$ 10 (equiv.) -hc
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