FAX (Facsimile) -Meaning, Advantages and disadvantages

 FAX (Facsimile) 

Fax or Facsimile telegraphy deals with the transmission of typewritten or handwritten message, drawings, graphics, pictures or any matter which cannot be sent through telegraphs, telephones or teleprinters. Fax is one of the speediest system presently available and transmitting and receiving a standard letter size document takes approximately four minutes, irrespective of the amount of matter on it. In this system there is no scope for copying errors and so high order skill is required. Even typed matter can be transmitted more effectively through fax than through the teleprinter since the former completely does away with the element of checking for errors inadvertently incorporated during transmittal of the matter.

Many organizations have installed fax transmission facilities. The fax machine is very useful for transmitting visual material diagram, illustration, photographs or copies of artwork visuals. All that we need for it is the fax machine with a connected telephone. As the document to be transmitted is fed through the machine, it is electronically scanned and signals are transmitted to the receiving end, where an identical copy of the document is reproduced on a blank sheet of paper by the receiving machine. The biggest advantage of fax is that it is accepted as evidence in court.

In the world of business, fax machines have become commonplace. Though the advent of scan-and-send technology through email systems may have reduced the usefulness of fax machines to a certain extent, they still remain a popular means of transferring paper documents from one location to another. While having a fax machine at your certainly has its benefits, there are also disadvantages associated with relying upon this document-sending tool.

Advantages of FAX

(i) You only need a fax and a telephone line to be able to fax.

(ii) It is easier to fax a letter, than dictating it over the phone.

(iii) It is fast and you only depend on your telephone provider.

(iv) It does not cost you more than the normal phone costs per minute. 

(v) The receiving party will have a physical paper, for example with your signature, which you could not give by phone.

Disadvantages of FAX  

(i) Need a separate space for the machine.

(ii) Needs a telephone line. 

(iii) Needs power/electricity.

(iv) Requires paper for receiving and sending faxes.

(v) Machine always needs to be on to receive faxes. If the machine is off, we may lose the faxes.

(vi) Large probability of losing faxes, which could potentially be important.

(vii) Storage and Archival of these Printed Paper Faxes are very cumbersome. They'll need good amount of space in the office. 

(viii) Aging of papers could lead to difficulties in managing records.