Introduction
CopiaFacts provides a rich set of options to customize the conversion of documents to monochrome fax formats. The options are specified as a series of white-space separated keywords on one of the $image_options configuration commands.
 | The keywords are listed in this sub-topic. |
The image options can also be specified in an IMAGE_OPTIONS variable value as a set of image options keywords to override the selected $image_options set. This variable has some special features: please read the linked topic before using it. The older variable name QPDF_OPTIONS was originally only deprecated, but is now no longer accepted as a synonym for IMAGE_OPTIONS.
Predefined Option Sets
The principle of using Option Sets is to find a set of image option keywords which work well for a specific type of variables which you encounter, you can specify the set as the value of one of the nine optional $image_options commands. The set number has no significance in processing sequence or priority.
To select a predefined set of $image_options keywords, you specify the $convert_options IMGn keyword, so that it is integrated with the main document conversion options.
Precedence of Option Sets
In increasing order of precedence the following keyword sets are used:
•No image options applied
•The keywords on the $image_options 0 configuration command, if present
•The keywords on an $image_options n command (n = 1..9) selected by $convert_options IMGn
An IMAGE_OPTIONS variable value, if defined, can override a selected option set. If no option sets have been defined in FAXFACTS.CFG, the values from this variable are used alone.
| From CopiaFacts version 8.4.0.220, a new feature allows Option Sets to be tried sequentially, with the next set being used if 'compression' of a document into fax format results in a page size (and hence transmission time) above a set threshold. This is designed both to increase the throughput of faxes and to create higher quality, more legible documents as the received fax. The feature is described in this sub-topic. |
A graphical editor for Image Option sets is available within FFVIEWER. When you have loaded a PDF into FFVIEWER (which will convert and open it as a TIF) there is a button to open the Image Options editor. This allows you to change options and reload the PDF to see the effect of your changes. The editor can then optionally update the $image_options configuration commands.
| For an illustrated example of using the Image Options Editor to set options for a 'problem' document, see this topic. |
The Image Options Editor in FFVIEWER can directly check sample PDF, HTML and Image documents (PNG, GIF, JPG, non-faxable TIF); just drag a file to FFVIEWER to convert and open it, then click the 'gear' icon which will appear in the toolbar. It can also check the conversion of Office documents when you use the built-in converters instead of the print drivers: but first you need to open the document in Word, Excel or PowerPoint and 'save as PDF', then open the PDF with FFVIEWER. This exactly the sequence of operation which the Document Converter used to convert Office documents using the built-in PDF converter.
Option Keywords
The keywords are listed in this sub-topic. Examples of Option Sets can be found in this sub-topic.
