E-book Category: Business E-book Title: How to Turn Your Fax Machine into a Money Machine Author: Don Lapre Book Description: Introduction
Fax technology has been one of the greatest innovations since the telephone. Sometimes called "telecopying," a fax is the telephonic transmission of scanned-in printed material (text or images), usually to a telephone number associated with a printer or other output device. The original document is scanned with a fax machine, which treats the contents (text or images) as a single fixed graphic image, converting it into a bit map (digital image format). In this digital form, the information is transmitted as electrical signals trough the telephone system. The receiving fax machine reconverts the coded image and prints a paper copy of the document.
Another alternative to using a fax machine to send and receive faxes is a fax/modem. Fax modems allow users to send and receive faxes just like they were sending and receiving with a regular fax machine.
Almost all modems manufactured today are capable of sending and receiving fax data. Fax/modem software generates fax signals directly from disk files or the screen. Even if a document is text only, it is treated by the computer as a scanned image and is transmitted to the receiver as a bit map. Faxing a message on-line works well if the recipient wants only to read the message. However, if the document requires editing, it must be converted into ASCII text (most common file format for text) by an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) program, or it must be retyped manually into the computer. A more efficient method of sending documents that require modification is through the electronic mail (e-mail) system. E-mail files are already ASCII text so they can be edited immediately in any text editor or word processing program.
The Internet now provides a new and cheaper way to send faxes in some cases. A number of free and commercial companies provide arrangements for using the Internet rather than the public telephone system for most or part of the path to the fax point.
