How to send a fax

What a fax needs, whichever route you take

• The recipient's fax number — a phone number answered by a machine, not a person. It is usually printed on the form or letter you are replying to.
• The document, as paper or as a file. Online routes accept PDF, JPG and PNG; a fax machine accepts paper.
• A cover sheet, if the fax goes to a shared machine — which is most offices, clinics and government intake desks.
• The page count. Every route asks for it or prints it, and the recipient uses it to spot a missing page.

You do not need a fax number of your own to send one. You only need your own number if people are going to fax you back.

Route 1 — from a browser (no hardware)

1. Open an online fax service and upload the document.
2. Type the recipient's fax number.
3. Add a cover sheet if they expect one — the free generator makes one in a minute.
4. Check the summary and send. The service dials the recipient's machine for you and shows the result.

This is the only route that works from any device without buying hardware, and the only one that gives you a number for replies without your own phone line and equipment left switched on. FaxBolt is $4.99 for the first month, then $14.99/month with unlimited sending and receiving under fair use.

Route 2 — from a phone

A phone has no fax hardware, so this is the browser route with the phone's camera in front of it. Scan the paperwork — the Notes app on an iPhone, Google Drive on Android — then upload the scan and send from the browser. No app is required.

Route 3 — from a fax machine

1. Load the pages with the cover sheet first, following the icon on the feeder tray — some machines take documents face up, others face down, and getting it wrong sends blank pages.
2. Dial the number the way the line expects it: ten digits on most lines, 1 first for long distance where the carrier wants it, plus the outside-line prefix if you are on a PBX.
3. Press Start or Send and wait for the handshake tones to finish.
4. Keep the confirmation slip the machine prints — it is your proof of transmission.

If the machine reports a failure, the usual causes are a busy line, a voice line answering instead of a fax, or a bad connection. Redial before assuming the number is wrong.

Route 4 — from an office printer

Multifunction printers with a fax card behave like a fax machine for paper and like a printer driver for files: choose File → Print, select the fax device, and enter the destination number. It only works if the printer is connected to an analogue phone line — the fax card alone does nothing.

What it costs

• Online fax service: $5–15 a month, unlimited or with a generous page allowance. Free tiers exist for a few short pages a day.
• Print shop or office-supply store: about $1.50–2.50 for the first page and roughly a dollar per page after, plus the trip.
• Fax machine: the machine, toner and paper, plus $15–40 a month for the analogue line it needs.
• Office printer you already have: effectively free, if the line is already paid for.

How to know the fax arrived

Fax is one of the few document channels with a delivery result built in: the receiving machine confirms the page count at the end of the call. A machine prints that as a confirmation slip; an online service shows it as a status on the fax.

"Sent" means the far end acknowledged the pages. A failure usually names the cause — busy, no answer, or no fax tone. Do not resend blindly; check the number first, then try again.