GeoFax may very well be the first program of it's kind ever developed for the Commodore 64 or 128. You now have the capability to exchange a fax document over the telephone lines with a facsimile machine or even another computer running it's own version of fax software.
For those who are not familiar with faxes, a fax document is simply one big graphic, sort of like a GeoPaint file, only in a higher resolution.
GeoFax will allow you to send and receive GeoPaint files. When you select a GeoPaint file to send, GeoFax will convert it into a fax document as it is being tranmitted to the other machine. Likewise, when you are receiving a fax document from another machine, GeoFax will automatically convert it into a GeoPaint file as it saves it to your disk or prints it on your printer.
You can choose whether or not you wish to have each incoming fax saved to disk. If you do not have enough disk space available, you might want to only have the incoming faxes sent to your printer.
GeoFax also allows incoming faxes to be saved to disk in the same form as they are being received, as a GeoFax document, rather than being converted to a GeoPaint file. This allows you to retain all of the resolution of the document. The advantage here is that GeoFax can also print this file for you as long as your printer supports a higher resolution than the fax document. The fax document will have a resolution of 216 dots per inch horizontally and 98 dots per inch vertically. Most printers today can print with a higher resolution than this. Some special printer drivers are supplied with GeoFax for this purpose. Your regular printer driver will not work in this case, because it expects the standard GEOS resolution of 80 x 72 dpi.
When you wish to send a fax to someone else, your GeoPaint files will come out on the other machine just like you see them in GeoPaint. Many other computers allow their own incoming faxes to also be imported into a paint program. Because of this, you now have a very handy method for exchanging graphics between your computer and another computer of a different type. You might also realize that by faxing a document into your computer, GeoFax can be utilized as a method for digitizing images or scanning whole pages into GeoPaint. A real fax machine can be connected directly to your fax modem for this purpose. You will discover that GeoFax can be a very useful tool for purposes other than just sending and receiving faxes.
Once a document is saved to disk, GeoFax also includes a function that let's you convert between the two formats of GeoPaint and GeoFax.
Some of the features that
Once a document is saved to disk, GeoFax also includes a function that let's you convert between the two formats of GeoPaint and GeoFax.
Some of the features that are included in the release version of GeoFax are not in this demo version. The actual fax routines have been removed from this demo. As well, the routines
for converting between formats are not included.
When you first boot up this demo, you will be presented with a simulation of a fax machine on your screen. On the front panel are six different switches. Here is a brief description of each switch:
START - begin an incoming or outgoing fax session.
AUTO - switch GeoFax into auto-answer mode.
SEND - select a file to send and put GeoFax into send mode. Otherwise GeoFax is always in receive mode.
PRINT - print an existing GeoPaint or GeoFax document.
DISK - select a file for conversion. You can also perform other duties through this function.
OFF - quit GeoFax and exit.
Above each of these switches are LED's. The LED's indicate the various modes that GeoFax might be in. A blinking LED indicates an error has been detected. When the DISK LED is lit, you have chosen to save incoming faxes to disk. The PRINT LED means that incoming faxes will be printed as they are received. The SEND LED means you are in send mode and ready to send a document. The AUTO LED means that you are in auto-answer mode. The START LED is lit during a fax transmission and will blink if an error is encountered.
This demo will simulate an outgoing fax. Just click on the SEND button and then choose to send a GeoPaint file. From the file requester, select a GeoPaint file and click on OPEN. Click on OK and you are ready to go. At this point GeoFax is waiting for you to click on the START switch. Now you will see a simulation of GeoFax sending a document.
The STOP key is very useful while printing or during fax transfers. Just press and hold the STOP key to abort an operation in progress.
In order to use GeoFax, you must have GEOS 64 V2.0 or GEOS 128 V2.0 (in 40 column mode). For GeoFax to properly work at the higher speeds allowed by the faster fax modems, a SwiftLink 232 cartridge, available from Creative Micro Designs, is mandatory. And of course, a fax modem is required. Presently, the fax modem must have Group 3, Class 2 capabilities.
To determine if your existing modem is compatible, load up your favorite terminal program and enter the following A
To determine if your existing modem is compatible, load up your favorite terminal program and enter the following AT command from terminal mode:
AT+FCLASS=?
If your modem responds with any of the following, it will work with GeoFax:
0,1,2 or
The '2' here indicates that it is a fax modem capable of Class 2. If only a 0 and a 1 appear, then it is a Class 1 fax modem. If you get an ERROR with this command, then your modem will not work at all with GeoFax. For those that only have Class 1 capabilities, an upgrade to GeoFax is planned that will allow those modems to work. If I get enough requests for Class 1 compatibility, I will work on this as soon as possible. Write to me and let me know what you have.
GeoFax will work from 2400 bps to 9600 bps depending on the capabilities of your modem. GeoFax will automatically configure itself to your modem's capability.
Other than that, GeoFax will run on a single-drive GEOS system, although two drives are recommended. This would depend on the amount of incoming faxes that you expect to receive.
GeoFax will begin shipping by the end of January, 1995. To order, send a check or money order for $39.95 plus $4.00 for shipping and handling to:
Maurice Randall
P.O. Box 606
426 Sumpter St.
Charlotte MI 48813
PH: (517) 543-5202
As always, thank you very much for your interest in my software. Together we may continue to search for that 8-bit limit!
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