Faxing:
- Fax stands for “facsimile,” which is a method of sending and receiving printed documents electronically over a telephone line.
- Traditional fax machines use a telephone line to transmit documents as analog signals. The receiving fax machine converts the signals back into printed documents.
- Faxing is commonly used for sending signed documents, legal papers, contracts, and other physical documents over long distances.
- Fax machines require a dedicated phone line or can be connected to a digital phone system using adapters.
- With the rise of digital technologies, online fax services have become popular. These services allow users to send and receive faxes using their computers, smartphones, or tablets, eliminating the need for a physical fax machine.
- Online fax services often provide features like electronic signatures, document storage, and the ability to send faxes to multiple recipients simultaneously.
Scanning:
- Scanning is the process of converting physical documents or images into digital format using a scanner.
- Scanners use optical sensors to capture the content of a document or image and convert it into a digital file, typically a PDF, JPEG, or TIFF.
- Scanned documents can be stored electronically, edited, shared via email or cloud storage, and printed as needed.
- Scanners come in various types, including flatbed scanners, sheet-fed scanners, and portable scanners.
- Flatbed scanners are the most common type, where you place the document or photo on a glass bed and close the lid for scanning.
- Sheet-fed scanners are designed for high-volume scanning and can process multiple pages at once.
- Portable scanners are compact and allow for scanning documents on the go, such as receipts or business cards.
- Many all-in-one printers include scanning functionality, allowing you to scan documents directly from the printer to your computer or email.
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology can be used with scanners to convert scanned documents into editable and searchable text.
Both faxing and scanning have been widely used for document transmission and digitization, although with the advancement of digital technologies, scanning has become more prevalent for archiving and sharing documents electronically, while faxing has seen a decline in usage due to the availability of alternative communication methods like email and online document sharing.
