Fax machine
A fax machine is a device for sending paper messages through the telephone system. Some machines have a telephone handset for manual dialing and coordinating the sending and receiving of documents.
It is important for people in businesses that have to send a lot of documents to each other, very quickly. It is faster than mailing or shipping the documents. "Fax" is an abbreviation of "facsimile".
The machine scans a document and transmits the image scanned to the other machine which then prints. A fax is scanned at 200dpi. Faxes originally were black and white only but now there are some faxes capable of sending color.
The fax machine has been replaced to some degree by email. There are now available fax drivers which allow a document on a personal computer to be sent to a fax machine, and software that allows the PC to be used as a receiving fax.
Fax has the advantage of sending handwritten documents or sketches where an email system would have to have them scanned as attachments.
