Short guide on how to fax from your tablet or smartphone

When you hear of someone faxing something from a tablet or smartphone, you might conjure up a scenario of a befuddled employee trying to ease a scrolled piece of paper down the audio jack of the device. Fortunately, there is a much less outlandish solution to the task at hand.

Trends in faxing have already begun to transition away from conventional faxing by utilizing Internet faxing services on computers and now increasingly more, mobile and tablet faxing.You no longer have to track down a fax machine or hear that piercing yet nostalgic sound emitting from one in order to fax documents, so long as you have the right tools. Below is a brief guide to help you understand how to fax from your device to anywhere in the world.

Step 1: Make sure you have what you need

First, you’ll need to have a smartphone or tablet that has Internet access and a functional camera if you plan on taking a photo of what you intend to fax. Second, you’ll need to have a faxing application installed on your device in order to view and send faxes or access to an online faxing service. FindAFax.com is a site that provides a detailed cost and function comparison for a number of online faxing services available and might help you decide what options would best meet your needs.

In some cases, you also will need a cloud application like Dropbox that can store and retrieve documents, PDF files, photos, or other such items you wish to fax. Finally, you’ll need to know the recipient’s fax number in order to transmit the document. Once you have all of those things, you’ll be able to fax from your device.

Step 2: Attach the file.

To get started, you must locate the file you wish to send, which can be a photo, a multi-page Word document, a PDF, or other types of readable files on the web. In some cases, you might need only to open the faxing application or go to the website on your device and just add a file to the attachment list. Other times, you might need to retrieve the file in a cloud service and from there open the file in a faxing app. If you only have a limited amount of data, it would wise to wait until you are connected to wi-fi.

Step 3: Fill in the blanks.

Once you’ve uploaded the desired file, you’ll need to fill in the essential information in blank fields regarding the fax. At this point, you’ll enter in information including the fax number, attention to, company, subject, and any notes you’d like to make. You can also select whether or not to have a cover page that is provided by the faxing service. Although not all fields must have something typed in them, you must provide a working fax number in order for your document to be delivered.

Step 4: Verify the information is correct and send to fax.

After making sure you have the correct information typed in and the proper document selected, you are free to fax at your leisure and by the stroke of a finger. Hit send, and you’ll get word that the recipient has received the fax instantaneously. You might be asking yourself, “Will the quality and resolution of the document being sent by a faxing app on my device be as good as my faxing machine?” The answer is yes. Faxing applications have been designed to compress and optimize images into clear, readable files.

Benefits of faxing from your smartphone or tablet

The concept of faxing from your phone or tablet is much more perplexing than actually completing the task as you’ve learned in this short guide. In addition to simplifying and broadening the accessibility of faxing, an advantage of using an online faxing service is that it is comparatively lower in cost than using a conventional machine with a landline, especially if the number is long-distance. Some services offer monthly plans as low as $5 and gradually increase in price depending on the service.

By using an online faxing, you’ll not only cut down on or eliminate operating costs of fax machines, but also help reduce the environmental degradation sustained by the use of various resources when faxing. Many online faxing services offer a free trial of selected plans that potential clients can test out on their devices and determine if online faxing is beneficial to them, or if they’d rather keep resorting to a soon-to-be archaic landline fax machine.