Cannot page through a multipage TiffG4 if it has file extension FAX and it's not printable either!

[trickshooter]

Originally posted by @trickshooter in #1091

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).

@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

Parts of the problem re-occured or are still persistent in the latest version 9.3.2.520_x64:

1. With a TiffG4 multipage file that carries the file extension *.fax, it is still/again not possible to cycle through all of its pages. Only the first page is statically displayed and the displayed (first-)page image does not change when paging through the pages of that very file using either the GUI controls or the keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-PageUp/Ctrl-PageDown). Although, (in the title bar above and in the GUI control below) I can indeed see the current page number changing when cycling through, but with no working refresh of the image content, obviously.

2. The work-around for printing a *.fax file seems to be still there, as it tells me that it is creating a temp copy of the file before actually printing (copy *.fax to *.tif as you implemented back in 2021). Still, the printing process stops short of opening the print dialog and effectively nothing happens after hitting Ctrl-P, so bottom line is: I cannot print the *.fax multipage file, since there is no print dialog.

Please, check and advise!

Best regards,
Christoph.

[d2phap]

Hi @trickshooter, can you attach a sample file?
For printing, ImageGlass uses the built-in "Print Pictures" app from Windows. I'm not sure if that app can handle your file

[trickshooter]

Sure! Here they come: test-files.zip

The test files I posted last time (back in 2021) are still valid and do still reflect/show the problems with displaying, paging-through and printing the *.fax -- btw, a problem that you already successfully solved back in 2021.

You might want to re-read the old thread/issue to refresh your memory? --> #1091 (comment)

I also, back in the day, elaborated lengthily on why Windows STILL cannot print multipage TiffG4 when they come with a different file extension like *.fax. --> #1091 (comment)

You have already implemented a work-around for that where you first copied the *.fax to a *.tif before finally calling the standard windows print routine with the copied %temp%\*.tif

This is where you do this, but seemingly to no avail:

ImageGlass/Source/ImageGlass/FrmMain/FrmMain.IGMethods.cs

Line 1042 in 109744c

// rename ext FAX -> TIFF to multi-frame printing

Bottom line is: *.fax files are de-facto technically absolutely identical to *.tif files apart from their file extension. Still for decades, Windows "Print Picture" cannot handle these files unless YOU take care of it and pass "Print Picture" a *.tif-renamed version to print from.

Please, have another look and re-implement the full *.fax support in your new version!

Greetz,
Christoph

[trickshooter]

Amendment 1:

ImageGlass/Source/Components/ImageGlass.Base/BHelper/Photoing.cs

Line 553 in 109744c

".TIF" or ".TIFF" or "FAX" => "image/tiff",

This should definitely be changed to "(dot)FAX" instead of just "FAX", right?

[trickshooter]

Amendment 2:

In all of your code: Whenever you check for a special treatment of extension TIF or TIFF, then you must consider to handle extension FAX just the SAME way - which e.g. seems to be missing here and here:

ImageGlass/Source/Components/ImageGlass.Base/Photoing/Codecs/PhotoCodec.cs

Line 1413 in 109744c

else if (ext.Equals(".TIF", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)

ImageGlass/Source/Components/ImageGlass.Base/Photoing/Codecs/PhotoCodec.cs

Line 1471 in 109744c

if (ext == ".TIF" || ext == ".TIFF")

Thoughts:
Might it possibly be safer or generally more suitable to determine and check for the mime type "image/tiff" instead of checking for the file extension (Like: "It's more telling what's technically contained within compared to what it's called on the outside.")?

[trickshooter]

Amendment 3:

Here, extension FAX gets a special treatment (Quote: "Using FileStream is much faster than using MagickImageCollection") while TIF and TIFF are NOT getting the same treatment - maybe this is related to the non-working image refresh when paging through the FAX file?

ImageGlass/Source/Components/ImageGlass.Base/Photoing/Codecs/PhotoCodec.cs

Line 886 in 109744c

case ".FAX":