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The fax machine, in its modern form, has been on the market since the mid 1970s. Different brands are available with almost all office appliance manufacturers producing their own version. The word “fax”, short for “facsimile”, comes from the Latin “fac simile” which means “making a copy”. The term “telefax”, short for “telefacsimile”, is used as a synonym.

The arrival of digital fax machines revolutionized the way people transmitted documents and messages across the world. With time, the cost dropped and, today, fax machines are seen in most office set-ups.

The fax machine is said to have been patented by Scottish inventor Alexander Bain. It was improved upon by Frederick Bakewell who, in 1851, put up his version at the Great Exhibition in London. A decade later, the first machine was sold by Giovanni Caselli. On 29 November, 1924, a picture was transmitted for the first time from New York to London by a fax machine. The picture was of President Calvin Coolidge. Two years later, the commercial use of the product began.

A fax machine consists of an image scanner, a modem, a printer and usually a phone. The content to be faxed is converted into a digital image by the scanner, the modem uses the phone line to transmit this image and a printer at the other end prints a copy of the document.

Fax machines before 1980 sent data in analogue format. The modern device transmits it in digital format. Fax machines are classified according to their resolution, the data transmission rate, the printer and ITU-T standards.

They can be divided into four groups – Group 1 and Group 2 are slower in comparison to Group 3 and Group 4 machines. The first two groups transmit data in analogue format and follow T2 and T3 standards of ITU-T. A Group 1 machine takes about six minutes to send a single sheet while a Group 2 device takes two minutes. These two groups are now outdated.

Group 3 and Group 4 machines use digital format and transmission is faster. A Group 3 machine take ten seconds to send a page while a Group 4 fax machine sends data at the rate of 64 Kbits per second.

The modern fax machine can be categorised into three types – inkjet (for crisp text at low cost), laser (for high quality images on plain paper and faster print speeds) and thermal transfer (generally for home-office use).

There are several brands of fax machines available on the market with varying features. You can choose between Brother IntelliFax machines, Panasonic, Sharp, Canon, Samsung and many other brands.