FAXMAIL

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: May 12, 1993
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NAME

faxmail - convert a mail message to PostScripttm for sending as facsimile  

SYNOPSIS

faxmail [ -b bold-font ] [ -i italic-font ] [ -f font-name ] [ -F font-file ] [ -p pointsize ] [ -n ] [ -s pagesize-name ] [ -w ] [ -1234 ] [ -x x-margin ] [ -y y-margin ] [ -H page-height ] [ -W page-width ]  

DESCRIPTION

Faxmail takes an electronic mail message on standard input and generates a PostScripttm document on the standard output that is suitable for transmission as a facsimile. The resultant document fills the area of a default page and is created in a stylized format that is described below. Faxmail is intended to be invoked directly by the mail system. For example, mail aliases may be created to automatically transmit electronic mail; e.g.


     sam: "|${BIN}/faxmail | ${BIN}/sendfax -d sam@5551212 -n"

Faxmail formats a mail message according to the following rules. First, it strips all header information except the following:

From        To          Cc          Subject
Date        Summary     Keywords

(The Summary and Keywords header lines are useful when forwarding news articles.) Header lines that are kept have the tag set in a ``Helvetica-Bold'' font and the value set in a ``Helvetica-Oblique'' font. The -b and -i options can be used to override the bold and italic fonts used to set the header lines.

The body of the mail message is wrapped at line boundaries (unless the -w option is specified) and set in a body font. By default, faxmail searches for a file containing a personalized body font by using the account name specified in the From address line of the header. If a From line is found, faxmail will look for a file .faxfont.ps in the sender's home directory. This file should contain a PostScript description for a font whose name is the name of the account. For example, if the following line, is encountered,


      From: Sam Leffler <sam@sgi.com>

faxmail will look for the file ~sam/.faxfont.ps on the current machine. If this file exists, it should contain a description for a font named ``sam''.

If no personalized body font is found, or if the -n option is specified on the command line, faxmail will set the body of the mail message in a ``Courier-Bold'' font. The -f option can be used to specify an alternate default PostScript font name to use. The -F option can be used to specify the name of a file containing a PostScript font description. In the latter case, the font's PostScript name should be the same as the filename; e.g. /tmp/MyFont.ps must define a font named ``MyFont''.

By default, faxmail sets all text in 12 point type on an 8.5" by 11" page with .5" top and bottom margins and .35" left and right hand margins. The -p option may be used to specify an alternate point size. The -x and -y options can be used to specify alternate margins (in inches). The -s option can be used to specify a non-default page size by name or the -W and -H options can be used to specify specific page dimensions in inches.

Faxmail can also format multiple pages of text in an n-up format; where n is 1, 2, 3, or 4. That is, 1-up generates 1 ouput page per input page (default), 2-up generates 1 output page for each 4 input pages, 3-up generates 1 output page for each 9 input pages, and 4-up generates 1 output page for reach 16 input pages.  

NOTES

The personalized body fonts are intended to be fonts that represent a person's handwriting. As such, faxmail should inject some randomness into the formatting of the body in order to make the result look more realistic.  

BUGS

The set of header lines accepted and stripped is fixed. The rule for deducing body font names can be error prone (it depends on the user's account name). It would be nice to set some of the formatting parameters, such as the n-up control, according to header information.  

FILES

${LIBDATA}/pagesizes    page size database

${AFMDIR}              for font metrics
 

SEE ALSO

flexfax(1), sendfax(1)


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
NOTES
BUGS
FILES
SEE ALSO

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Time: 10:15:15 GMT, January 04, 2023