Fax me to the moon: what's hot in fax technology - plus: ten top units reviewed - facsimile machines - Buyers Guide

Home Office Computing, Oct, 1992 by Cliff Roth

The fax machine is not new. Today's versions are just easier to use than the very first model. The facsimile machine was born in 1842, when a Scottish inventor discovered he could send visual symbols over telegraph lines using a swinging pendulum and treated paper. Today's top-of-the-line fax machines make those of even five years ago look like their antiquated Caledonian cousins. There are laser-quality models, anticurl models, and models with myriad electronic means of keeping voice mail, call waiting, the answering machine, and the modem from interfering with fax transmission.

If your office lacks fax capability, or if you're looking to upgrade to a more featurerich model, your needs will probably be met by one of the 10 models reviewed in this buyer's guide. Ranging in street price from about $350 to $2,100, the machines are representative of what's available in stores or by mail order at various price levels.

HOW A FAX MACHINE WORKS

Facsimile machines gained popularity after a new set of standards, called Group 3 Protocol, vastly improved the speed at which pages are transmitted.

Technically, all fax machines have three basic parts: a scanner, a printer, and a telephone-dialing-and-answering system. When you send a document, the scanner "reads" the page. one horizontal line at a time. The standard resolution of this scanning process is 100 horizontal lines per inch (hipi) by about 200 dots per inch (dpi). All modern fax machines offer a choice between this standard resolution and fine resolution, at 200 hlpi. Super Fine extends this to 400 hlpi. but usually works only when you're transmitting to an identical brand of fax. The industry standard term is dpi, even though the expression is not exactly synonymous with hlpi.) Hewlett-Packard models have a unique 300-dpi, 300-hlpi resolution. Advanced fax machines usually offer a halftone option that improves the transmission of photographs by converting gray tones to 16 or 32 levels of dot-pattern densities on the page.

If you try to send a 300- or 400-dpi fax to a machine that is capable of only 200 dpi, the machines automatically negotiate a lower resolution. And even if no one can receive your fax at high resolution, the feature may still be useful because it improves the quality of copies you make. The higher the resolution you select when transmitting a document, the more time it will take to send. But, of course, the better it will look. At the standard resolution, an 8.5-by-l linch page takes about 20 seconds, while at fine resolution each page takes about 30 to 40 seconds. These numbers represent combinations of specific tasks-5 seconds for scanning, 12 seconds for sending, and so on.

All fax machines can accept legal-size paper, too. In fact, as far as the fax is concerned, a page can be any length at all. But the width is usually limited to 8.5 inches on less-expensive machines and 11 inches on fancier models.

THERMAL VS. PLAIN PAPER

Thermal technology got the fax revolution started, but most recently plain-paper faxes have taken over the high end of the market. Thermal fax paper comes in rolls, and most thermal fax machines have an automatic paper cutter that is activated after each fax is received; some older or low-cost models still require you to tear off the paper.

Thermal paper has a slippery, chemical feel, smells, and tends to curl up. Brother has a heavily advertised anticurl system, but thermal paper's texture and odor can be even more annoying than its old-fashioned curl.

Other drawbacks of thermal paper include its tendency to fade and yellow within a couple of months--thereby giving' faxes a short filing life. Also, thermal fax paper is very hard to feed back into a fax, so you may want to consider a plain-paper unit if you have to resend faxes you receive, or if you will incorporate them into reports or presentations.

Getting plain. Plain-paper faxes generally cost more than thermal models. Since these units work on the same principles as laser and ink-jet computer printers, received faxes usually look better. The units use plain photocopy paper, so faxes last longer and replacement paper is easier to come by--and it's cheaper than most thermal paper.

Plain-paper fax machines, especially those that offer high resolution, also do an adequate job doubling as light-duty photocopy machines. But there's one big drawback: Unlike photocopiers, which use a flatbed scanning system, fax machines feed individual sheets of paper past a stationary scanner. You can therefore copy only individual sheets of paper fed through the scanner-you can't copy pages from a book, magazine, or stapled document without tearing the pages apart.

Feeding time. The least expensive fax machines make you feed each sheet separately. Most moderately and higher-priced fax machines have an automatic document feeder that can feed a stack of as many as 50 pages one at a time. As with a copy machine's document feeder, you must be careful that pages don't stick together.

PHONE FREAK-OUTS

More than one home-office fax fantasy has fizzled into frustration and below-par performance as a result of telephoneanswering-machine conflicts. You can either have a special phone line installed or use the fax on your regular voice line. If you choose to stick with one phone line, you need a fax that not only will let you attach an answering machine but also will work reliably. With full capability, the fax machine allows the answering machine to answer a voice call. Practically all faxes offer a fax/voice option (meaning you can use the fax line as a voice line), but this is not all you need if you have an answering machine as well. The Panasonic KX-F90 has a built-in answering machine that automatically answers voice calls if you do not pick up the phone. Such integrated fax/phone/answering machines are recommended if you wish to split a phone line between fax and voice use with a minimum of hassle. If fax/voice switching on your fax is not reliable, you and your clients will occasionally be greeted by that annoying fax screech rather than a person on the other end of the line.