Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 11 Jun 91 10:29:16 BST From: Ralf Bayer Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Easy Fax to ASCII? Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 450, Message 9 of 11 Lines: 47 In telecom 11/445 William Vajk writes: > In article Claudio Nieder writes: >> We are looking for a solution which can be implemented without any >> costly program development etc. The best solution would be if there >> already exists some product which would make the fax machine appear >> to the program like a local printer, so that no change to the existing >> software is necessary. > [stuff about the complicated fax protocol deleted] > There was another fax related message here the other day, and I was in > process of responding when the computer went bye-bye. It was a request > for an easy conversion to ascii from fax. Because of the graphic > nature of fax, and the fact that there is no assurance of the style > and pitch of type received, one would actually have to be at the edge > of some serious AI to achieve the goal requested. Anyone who has used > an optical scanner and worked to convert a long document to ascii from > typed sheets can attest to the difficulties of accurate conversion > given only one character set to decipher. Couldn't agree more. Given the looks of many faxes, humans have sometimes a hard time to figure it out, let alone computers. > On the other hand, to convert from ascii to fax is relatively easy, > but certainly not easy enough to make a fax machine into a computer > peripheral. Well, that's not quite true. There are several vendors of fax cards with associated software. These things transfer ASCII directly into fax format, and the quality of the resulting fax is much better than one printed out and scanned in. These fax cards plug into a standard PC. They are also able to receive faxes, but they only store the FAX/TIFF/whatever graphics format on disk, no conversion to ASCII provided. Setting the thing up to accept input from a serial or parallel PC port and sending it out over the fax line shouldn't be that difficult. It might be necessary to dedicate the PC to the job, though (but then again, clones are dirt cheap today, aren't they?). Ralf Bayer Motorola European Cellular Infrastructure Division .uunet!motcid!glas!bayerr Standard Disclaimers Apply.