CopiaFacts™ Reference Manual

CopiaFacts has been tested with document sizes in the table below.  Other document sizes can be specified but normally they will result in a non-faxable output TIF file, whatever method is used to convert the input document for faxing.

Documents converted using the CopiaFacts print drivers

Original Documents may arrive in standard or non-standard formats for faxing.  CopiaFacts expects them, as defaults, to be US Letter size in the USA locale and A4 size elsewhere.  The printer page size is set for each conversion, by default to US Letter if the locale is USA and A4 otherwise.  The default page size can be overridden globally in an environment variable or using $environment, setting DEFAULT_CONVERTER_PAGE to one of the keywords or numbers in the first column of the table below.

You may use other numbers representing one of the standard Windows paper sizes (see this Microsoft link), but many of the Windows paper sizes will not produce a valid faxable TIF output file, so this is not recommended.  

If an original document is close to the standard size, within a tolerance of ¼ inch or 6mm in each dimension, it will normally be scaled to the standard size.

For individual conversions, you can set one of the keywords or numbers in an FS file variable CONVERTER_PAGE.  For specific conversion applications using the CopiaFacts printer drivers, you can also set the printer page size automatically depending on the size of the original document to be converted.  This is done by using the $convert_options keywords AdobeSETP, ExcelSETP, PPTSETP, or WordSETP.  These option keywords cause the printer page size in conversions of the appropriate type to be set based on the page size of the original document. If the document contains multiple different page sizes, only the first is examined.

The dimensions and scaling of the fax image are dependent on many factors: the CopiaFacts print driver properties for the printer; the exact size of the document page(s); and the internal properties of the document (some files embed printer settings).  So the table below only supplies a general guide to settings and results, not a guarantee that the sizes are exactly as shown.

Documents converted using the CopiaFacts built-in converters

Original PDF files are treated in much the same way as with the CopiaFacts print drivers, with the PDF size dictating how the image will be rendered.  Again the table below provides general guidance about the fax output dimensions.  But some of the keywords in the $image_options set also affect the size of the output.  In particular the HEIGHT keyword can cause the image to be rendered with a reduced height, so that after a fax header line has been added the result can still be copied onto a page of the same dimensions as the original.

Where conversions are done 'via PDF' automating either Microsoft Office or LibreOffice to save a PDF which is then processed by the built-in converter, the original document size is the principal factor in determining how it will be scaled, rotated if necessary, and rendered.

Original HTML and image documents (GIF, JPG, PNG, WMF) are rendered first into a bitmap of the standard size determined by the PAGE keyword in the $image_options set, and the compressed to TIF is then processed like an original document of this page size would be handled, and as described in the table below.  However HTML documents can also be paginated and rendered directly into the standard fax width closest to the document size.

Supported Document Sizes Table

The following page sizes have been tested to produce valid faxable TIF output, and only pages of these sizes will cause the CopiaFacts print driver page size to be set using the 'SETP' keywords.  When you specify one of the SETP keywords in $convert_options, pages other than the sizes below will be output using the default page size.

Landscape pages other than A5 and B5 are rotated to fit on a portrait page.  You can select landscape as the default or override paper orientation by adding the word Landscape to the keyword or L to the number.  This option should be regarded as for special purposes only.