How can you fax without a fax machine: The process is simple and works in fewer steps than you might think, thanks to modern solutions like online fax solutions, mobile printing apps, or email-to-fax services that allow you to fax without a fax machine.
How can you fax without a fax machine
Step 1: Choose a digital fax service provider
The first step is to select an online fax service provider like eFax, Fax. MyFax, HelloFax or CocoFax which allows you to send and receive faxes over the internet without the use of a fax machine or a landline phone connection (most of those who will require such service will be free to try for a trial period, a pay-per-use subscription, or a desktop and mobile version for ease of use for business or personal purposes).
Step 2: Create an account and obtain a virtual fax number
Upon choosing a provider, you’re asked to create an account, and typically select the local or toll-free virtual fax number that will serve as your virtual fax number equivalent, so that people send faxes to it and you access them as they’re sent, digitally, via email, the service’s dashboard or a mobile app.
Step 3: Prepare the Document to Fax
Depending on the fax service you are using, you can either have the document you want to fax saved on your device (in formats like PDF, DOC, JPG, or PNG) or scanned out of a physical paper form using a scanning device, like a scanner, or a smartphone scanning app (like CamScanner or Adobe Scan), which can make a clear and readable version of the document that will be uploaded to the fax service you choose to use.
Step 4: Log In and Compose Your Fax
Then you log into the fax service website or app, go to “Send Fax” or “Compose” and enter the recipient’s fax number, select or upload your document and, if you want, add a cover page or message that will precede the document page just like composing an email with an attachment.
Step 5: Send the Fax Digitally
All you need to do then is enjoy all the elements, ranging from recipient to the variable elements and just hit the “Send” button and the service would initiate the charge by translating our uploaded digital file into an ancient fax signal, working with the recipient’s fax machine or digital fax inbox via a secure cloud-based infrastructure, emulating the tone-based communication our traditional fax devices used.
Step 6: Await Delivery Confirmation
Once your fax is transmitted, you typically get a delivery confirmation in your email or in the online dashboard notifying you whether or not it was successfully delivered – it could have been busy, the fax number could have been wrong or the machine on the receiving end could have been disconnected.
Step 7: Electronic Format Fax-in (optional)
If you have a paid account or an active fax number, others can send you faxes as though you’re using an old-school fax machine, and you’ll receive those incoming faxes as PDF file attachments via your email, or they’ll appear in your fax service inbox, with dates and times and sender information, like a traditional fax machine.
Other Options:
You can also fax via email, if your service provider offers an email to fax feature – in which case, you draft a new email, type in the recipient’s fax number followed by the provider’s email domain (e.g, 1234567890@myfax.com), attach the document and send it off, just like a regular email.
Some multifunction printers can make a scan of a document and send it to a connected fax service to be sent as such, combining a physical input with an online dissemination.
Conclusion
In other words, you can fax without a fax machine, by sending a scanned or digital document over the internet from a computer or smartphone, through a virtual fax number on a digital fax provider that will deliver your document in the same format asked for by traditional fax systems without requiring you to shell out the cost of hardware and phone lines or paper in the process, all from the comfort of your computer or smartphone in just a few quick clicks through the right type of digital fax service.