IntroductionFax 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 a