Avantfax Cover

Posted on by

A few days ago I had the need to personalized/create a cover page for use with Avantfax, the famous web interface to Hylafax. I had little time to use the service provided by the site Avantfax itself.

I thought it was easier to create cover page, but it is really a nightmare !

If you want to create a text-only cover page, the most convenient is to use a page created in html: to make sure everything works you MUST install html2ps (see link).

Att.: I think that should work with pages with pictures, but I could not get it to work ! I have installaed all the dependencies (ImageMagick, etc etc) but…. nothing…… I have obtained only text in my fax, all the image disappered  !

To obtain  cover page with images, I have used Freehand from adobe: in that page I have used the next value.

XXXX-to
XXXX-to-company
XXXX-to-location
XXXX-to-voice-number
XXXX-to-fax-number
XXXX-regarding
XXXX-from
XXXX-from-company
XXXX-from-location
XXXX-from-voice-number
XXXX-from-fax-number
XXXX-page-count
XXXX-todays-date
XXXX-comments0 … XXXX-comments30

At the end I have save it in freehand format, and exported the file in encapsulated postscript (.eps) (NOT  “encapsulated postscript wtih TIFF Preview”),  and I have renamed the extension of the file  eps in ps: you have the brand new cover for Avantfax (maybe…) !

You can run into a problem ! Some field won’t be reported correctly.

If all works fine if you launch

grep XXXX cover.ps

You MUST obtain someting like next.

0 0 32 0 0 (To / Company: XXXX-to-company) ts
0 0 32 0 0 (Fax number: XXXX-to-fax-number) ts
0 0 32 0 0 (Date: XXXX-todays-date) ts
0 0 32 0 0 (From: XXXX-from) ts

…with all the field used in the cover page. If you do not get all the fields used then the cover-page , that page will not work properly !

My real case:

>grep XXXX cover.ps
0 0 32 0 0 (:XXXX-todays-date) ts
0 0 32 0 0 (XXXX-regarding) ts
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (: XXXX-p) ts
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (XXXX-comment) ts
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (XXXX-comment) ts
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (XXXX-comment) ts
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (XXXX-comment) ts

The field XXXX-page-count and  XXXX-comments0 etc etc disappeared !

To solve I have opened the file with nano in Linux, and I have modified like next.

Old

....
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (: XXXX-p) ts
-0.2159 0 rmoveto }
true
[0 0 0 1]sts
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (age-count) ts
}
....

New

....
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (: XXXX-p) ts
-0.2159 0 rmoveto }
true
[0 0 0 1]sts
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 ( ) ts
}
...........

The same for  XXXX-comment (for all the field related to comment)

Old

....
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
1816.7482 1930.0422 m
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (XXXX-comment) ts
-0.2159 0 rmoveto }
true
[0 0 0 1]sts
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (s0) ts
}
....

New

....{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
1816.7482 1930.0422 m
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 (XXXX-comments0) ts
-0.2159 0 rmoveto }
true
[0 0 0 1]sts
{
f1 [18 0 0 18 0 0] makesetfont
0 0 32 -0.058502 0 ( ) ts
}....

Linkografia
http://www.avantfax.com
http://user.it.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html
http://pbxinaflash.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3645&page=12
http://www.adobe.com/products/freehand/

Email, RSS Follow