Fax technology has been one of the greatest innovations since the telephone. Sometimes called "telecopying," a fax is the telecommunication transmission of scanned-in written material (text or images), normally to a telephone number associated with a printer or another output device. The innovational 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 pictures format). In this digital form, the information is transmitted as electrical signals trough the telephone system. The receiving fax machine reconverts the coded pictures and prints a paper copy of the document.

Another alternative to exploitation a fax machine to send and obtain faxes is a fax/modem. Fax modems a