Technical information

INSTALLATION AND ADMINISTRATION GUIDE
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usually wrappers which rely on third-party tools that actually create the output TIFF file. Internal formatters are
supported on all platforms and can process .txt, .pcl, .ep, .ps, .ps2, .pdf, and simple .rtf files.
User-defined formatters : these are specified by the user via the%VSI-FAX%\lib\formatters.lst file.
The user-defined formatters typically will be used to image specific file types produced by an application
installed on the server. For more information, refer to Setting up user-defined formatters
.
Add-on formatters : these additional formatters, built and supported by Esker, can be installed on the fax
server to handle .xls, .ppt, .pdf, .doc, .htm, and .html files. Add-on formatters can be installed
separately with setup <VSI-CD>\server\w32\fmtrs\setup.exe that can be launched from VSI-FAX Autorun.
They are document viewers that print on the "VSIFAX server" printer in order to generate a pcl file which will
be then converted by PclToTif into a TIFF document. For more information, refer to Setting up add-on
formatters
External formatters : this formatter (only available on Windows platforms) uses the application associated to
a given extension in the Operating System to image corresponding documents. This formatter relies on direct
printing or DDE mechanism to generate a print job on the "VSIFAX server" printer and the resulting PCL file is
then converted by PclToTif. It is used to treat files whose extensions cannot be handled by any other
formatters. To use it on a "known" file type, you need to create an entry in the formatters.lst as you would for a
user-defined formatter. Here is a sample entry associating pdf files with the system default viewer for PDF files
(e.g. Acrobat reader): pdf:mstotif.exe:o:
The following table shows which types of files (based on their file extensions) use which formatters, and includes
information on the type of each formatter:
File extensions Formatter
name
(type)
Comments
.tif, .fax, .pcx, .bmp
(native) .fax is a legacy VSI-FAX 2 fax file (not .tif).
.tif can be either Group 3 or Group 4.
.pcx is a MS Paintbrush file.
.bmp is a bitmap file
.txt, .pcl
PCLTOTIF
(internal)
Uses JetPCL to convert standard text, PCL 5e, PCL 6
.ep
EPTOTIF
(internal)
Epson printer
.ps,.ps2, .pdf
GSTOTIF
(internal)
Uses Ghostscript for Postscript Level 1 and 2 and basic PDF.
.rtf
RTFTOTIF
(internal)
Simple RTF, like those produced by a mail client, using basic rich text
formatting commands. When full rich text formatting is used, you must
use DOCTOTIF or a user-defined formatter.
.xls
XLSTOTIF
(add-on)
Excel spreadsheet (.xls only)
.ppt
PPTTOTIF
(add-on)
PowerPoint file
.pdf
PDFTOTIF
(add-on)
Uses a PDF viewer instead of Ghostscript.
This formatter should be used when the internal Ghostscript formatter
fails to image the file correctly.
.doc
DOCTOTIF
(add-on)
Uses Wordview97.exe to image Word documents and RTF files.
Windows only. In case of problems with these converters (new Office
features mishandled) you can try to install a current Office on the
server and image documents with mstotif converter.
.htm, .html
HTMTOTIF
(add-on)
Uses Esker's HTML Viewer for imaging.
This formatter has some limitations. It will not image object files
embedded in an HTML page but all basic text components will be
handled properly.
.docx, .xlsx and any file
extension in the filetypes list
other than those specified
MSTOTIF
(external)
Uses Microsoft File Type associations to look for a viewer to render
the file (Windows DDE mechanism).
You must install Microsoft Office 2007 on the server to be able to