Re: [hylafax-users] TIFF-FX support

[Steve Underwood <steveu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Lee,

Lee Howard wrote:
> Steve Underwood wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > TIFF-FX is now quite an old spec, yet support seems almost 
> > non-existant. There was stuff around years ago to add the new tags 
> > introduced by TIFF-FX to libtiff, yet the latest libtiff 4.0.0 beta 
> > still doesn't recognise them. Does anyone know why they never made it 
> > in?
> >
> > (Yes, I release this isn't the libtiff mailing list, but asking FAX 
> > related libtiff questions generally works better on this list) 
>
> Were these licensing issues ever resolved? :
>
> http://www.xent.com/pipermail/fork/2001-August/002907.php
In Feb 2005 RFC3949 was issued, documenting the enhanced TIFF-FX that 
deals with colour, JBIG, and everything else FAXy. I assume that means 
the patent issues were resolved. 2005 is a long time after the first 
drafts of that document, and the early interop test reports - I think 
they go back to 1999 - and that delay might have something to do with 
patent squabbles between Xerox and Adobe.
> I see libtiff mailing list discussion spinning TIFF-FX in the 
> following threads, but I wonder if there aren't patent encumbrances 
> that have kept its support out of libtiff.
>
> http://www.asmail.be/msg0055242217.php
> http://www.asmail.be/msg0055080138.php
>
> It's my guess, however, that any lack of TIFF-FX support in libtiff is 
> merely due to previous lack of interest in the libtiff-using 
> community.  I suspect that it's going to take someone interested 
> enough in this to get the necessary code work done, post it on the 
> libtiff Bugzilla, and promote its incorporation on the libtiff mailing 
> lists.
>
> (If you act quickly you may be able to get this in to the 4.0 
> release.  And I'd advise that since libtiff is a slow-moving 
> creature.  Note that the added monochrome JBIG support in 3.9 has 
> taken me years to get where it is now, and 3.9 is *still* in beta.)
I can see how patent issues might affect some of the content - i.e. 
codec related patents - but it shouldn't really affect the tags. Those 
are common to all forms of FAX-in-TIFF.

libtiff 4.0.0 seems to have been in beta for as long as most Google 
products :-) Adding the tags isn't a big patch. If I produce one, how 
amenable have you found the libtiff guys to accepting things? I know you 
have had at least one non-standard tag added to libtiff - the FAX DCS one.

Regards,
Steve


Regards,
Steve


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