Begin3
Title:          PPIC-Utilities, graphic processing/conversion/printing/scanning
Version:        0.5
Entered-date:   04Nov95
Description:    Still ALPHA. It is the result of a failed commercial effort
		to create a unix scanning package for Epson and other scanners.
		There is very few documentation for now, help welcome!
		The EPSON scanner driver was tested with GT6000 and probably
		runs with other EPSON scanners too. It supports parallel I/O
		(with Epson's Bi-directional Parallel Interface Board only)
		and SCSI (probably needed kernel patches are included),
		Serial-IO is not (yet) supported but can be added on demand.
		There is a very basic X11 picture viewing program, too, called
		ppicx which is far from beeing complete or bug free.
		It can read nearly all graphic formats because you can
		integrate any format filter you want with a simple text file
		which is similiar to /etc/magic (see file utility).
		Except ppicx the package is commandline driven and runs without
		X11. It is memory efficient (tmpfiles instead of memory) but
		probably wastes some CPU-power because PPIC is a fixpoint
		format to limit rounding errors.
		To all WWW or FAX users, look in DOC/g3fax2html/ !
		There is now a possibility to dither GIFs uniquely to 6x6x6
		colormap and write it interlaced.
		You can write reduced color GIFs or aliased grey GIFs, too.
		And there is a G3 FAX file reader. This is used here to
		implement a (not publicly available) FAX2WWW bridge.
Keywords:       EPSON,scanner,picture processing,PPIC
Author:         Valentin.Hilbig@public.uni-augsburg.de (Valentin Hilbig)
Primary-site:   ftp.public.uni-augsburg.de /pub/mirror0/dg8mgv-l.ampr.org/
		 2672  ppic0.5.lsm
		 434 K ppic0.5.tar.gz
Alternate-site: sunsite.unc.edu /pub/Linux/apps/graphics/scanners/
		 2672  ppic0.5.lsm
		 434 K ppic0.5.tar.gz
Platforms:      Currently Linux and/or X11 pseudocolor displays only
Copying-policy:	The ppic graphics format and the utilities are dedicated to
		the public domain under the terms of the GPL, except the
		scanner driver, which may be used freely only for private
		purpose under the terms of the GPL. ANY COMMERCIAL USE of the
		scanner driver is FORBIDDEN! The distribution of the scanner
		part on sold media (CD-ROM etc.) or as compiled binary
		(distributions etc.) requires a permission! So if you gain any
		money with the scanner driver, either by writing related
		software, scanning something or by distributing it, you need a
		permission! See README inside for clarification, if you are
		in doubt e-mail me.
		The GIF code was designed before the GIF scandal.
		It borrows code from other packages, like PBM etc.
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