How to Send a Fax From a Scanner
A scanner and a fax machine used to be separate boxes; today the scanner is often the only piece you still have. A standalone scanner or the scan bed on an all-in-one printer produces exactly what an online fax needs — a clean digital copy of a paper page. Scan to PDF, then upload that file to a fax service and the paper document reaches its destination without a fax machine anywhere in the room.
Can a scanner send a fax by itself?
A plain scanner cannot — it captures pages but has no way to dial a phone line. Some all-in-one printers include a fax unit, but only the models with a built-in modem and a phone jack can actually transmit, and many home units either lack that or aren't connected to a line. The dependable approach is to use the scanner purely for what it's good at, scanning to PDF, and hand that file to an online fax service for the actual sending.
How to fax a scanned document
- 1Scan your pages to PDF using your scanner's software (choose PDF, not JPG, and combine multiple pages into one file).
- 2Open Send FAX Mail in your browser, start the 7-day trial, and verify your email to enable sending.
- 3Upload the scanned PDF from your computer.
- 4Enter the recipient's fax number with the correct area code.
- 5Add a cover page with a note if the office requires one, then click Send.
- 6Keep the confirmation email that records the delivery time.
Before you send
Scan at 200 to 300 DPI in black-and-white or grayscale — that resolution matches what fax uses and keeps small print readable without producing an oversized file. Save all the pages of one document into a single PDF so they arrive together instead of as separate faxes. If your scanner defaults to color at high resolution, switching to grayscale trims the file size significantly and makes the upload faster with no loss in fax quality.
Send a fax from a scanner — FAQ
That button only transmits if the unit has a fax modem and is plugged into an active analog phone line, and many all-in-ones are connected only by USB or Wi-Fi with no phone cord. Without the line, the fax function has nothing to dial. Scanning to PDF and sending online avoids the missing phone connection entirely.
PDF is the better choice because it holds multiple pages in one file and keeps them at a consistent page size. An image works for a single page but can be the wrong shape for a fax, so for anything more than one sheet, scanning directly to PDF saves you cleanup.
Around 200 to 300 DPI is ideal. Fax output is relatively low resolution, so scanning higher than 300 DPI mostly inflates the file without improving how the page prints on the receiving machine. Grayscale or black-and-white at that range gives a crisp, efficient result.
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