Multipage features disabled when TIFF comes with well-established .FAX extension

[trickshooter]

System information:

• Windows OS version: Win10 20H2 64bit
• ImageGlass version: 8.2.6.6

To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open a multipage Tiff CCITT Fax Group 4 file in ImageGlass - file has extension *.fax (!)
2. Result: None of the features for multipage handling are available, neither keyboard shortcuts nor any of the menu functions
3. Rename the very same file to extension *.tiff or *.tif
4. Result: All multipage features are available as desired

Actual behavior:

No multipage support for a TiffG4 file when it comes with a file extension of *.fax

Expected behavior:

Full multipage support for any TiffG4file - no matter under what file extension flag it might be sailing.

Screenshots:

-none-

Additional context:

-none-

[d2phap]

ImageGlass uses file extension to for viewing feature, I will add FAX to the next release

[trickshooter]

Great to hear that - I really can't wait to see it running!

But wait, there is possibly more to it ..... because it is equally vital for me to be able to PRINT this very *.fax file as well!

As I could see from your printing dialogue, you are using the Windows built-in specialized "photo printing" functions rather than a windows standard printing dialog or some self-written type of dialog.

Thus, you might likely come across a follow-up problem here:

Please, also check whether printing is available for (single and multipage TIFF G4) files with extension *.fax - since there is a decade(!) old and still unsolved problem with "Windows Photo Viewer" and "Windows Photo Gallery" only being able to view, but (as of today = Win10 64bit 21H1) still UNABLE TO PRINT any TIFF files that do NOT specifically carry the extension *.tif or *.tiff (I googled for: error printing fax tif "windows can't find this picture" ).

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-pictures/cannot-print-pictures-error-windows-cant-find-this/5597403b-9605-4be2-8d5e-db76fcfcf6d0

Feel free to comment!

Best regards
Christoph

[d2phap]

Add multipages support for TIFF, FAX.
You can try the latest build: https://imageglass.org/moon

[trickshooter]

This refers to ImageGlass_Moon_8.2.8.9_x64

OK, multipage support for extension *.tif, *.fax and *.tiff now works flawlessly as desired regarding the pure viewing functionality (only). Thank you so much for implementing these additional file extensions! BUT (unfortunately)....

(for all the below cases we're always talking about a binarily identical TiffG4 file that simply gets renamed to different file extensions)

As I already lined out in my previous post above, there might be a printing issue with *.fax files as well - and it is as I already feared:

In case of printing the respective multipage tif file, there is still a severe issue:
*.tif as wells as *.tiff are handled correctly (the printing dialog correctly offers all pages to be printed or selected or cycled through (in the printing preview), BUT...

...NOT so with *.fax files! Printing always only offers one single page (the current = last viewed) to be printed without an option to scroll through pages (as if the file is a single page file).

The possibility of printing all pages of the *.fax file is mandatory for the issue to be resolved!

@d2phap: Possible solution / suggestion:
Behind the scenes, first copy *.fax file to %temp%\*.tif before passing it to the Windows standard photo print routine, because multipage printing of *.tif and *.tiff is handled correctly by Windows - whereas handling of *.fax files is NOT.

Greetz,
Christoph

[d2phap]

@trickshooter do you have a sample file of FAX extension?

[trickshooter]

Sure - voilà! --> test-files.zip

The test files have been created by using Word365, then printed to a TiffG4-creating batch print queue, that stems from www.pdf24.org (which is basically a locally running ghostscript wrapper application). So basically the test file is just a simple multipage TiffG4 file, created by ghostscript and finally just renamed from *.tif to *.fax

So, the two contained test files are binarily identical. Still, Windows is only able to print all pages of the *.tif (also if named *.tiff), while failing on the identical *.fax and only offering 1 single page at all to be printed.

BTW, you'll be facing the same, similar or related problems, when trying to view /print these kind of files (i.e. *.fax) using the on-board or built-in Windows software from Microsoft like "Windows Live Photo Gallery", "Microsoft Photos App", "Windows Photo Viewer", etc.

Keep up the good work, my friend!

Best regards,
Christoph

[d2phap]

Thanks @trickshooter
This should be fixed in IG v8.3
https://imageglass.org/news/announcing-imageglass-kobe-8-3-73

[trickshooter]

Thanks for the good work @d2phap! I have tested what you implemented and it works fine so far.

BUT ... before I was able to test the new feautures, I had to manually add *.fax extension to the list of the 77 supported file formats. Without that, it was not possible to print the file or even to "see" it when browsing (with PgUp/PgDown) through a directory (containing 4 sample files: fax, tif, tiff, jpg). ImageGlass was only presenting "3/3" files (instead of 4) and it did NOT even show the .fax file when cycling though the directory. Only double-clicking the .fax (or mouse dragging it into ImageGlass window) ultimately showed it and it disappeared as soon as I started to cycle through the containing dir.

Please add .fax to the default list of supported file formats to make it work for everybody without having to add the file extension .fax in settings manually after installation.

In file "igconfig.xml"

(...)
<Item key="AllFormats" value=" (...);*.fax;(...)" />
(...)

Thank you!

Best regards,
Christoph