What are the best settings for scanning documents for faxing?

 

Scanning documents can be a challenge especially when you are not familiar with all the options available to you. Most scanning software have pre-loaded options to make it easier but this does not mean it is the best when it comes to faxing documents. So, what file format and resolutions should you be using for scanning?

Although there is no simple answer because of all the various scanning software available, here are a few things to take into consideration to ensure the best quality for faxing.

 

1. File Type / Format

While we can handle many different file types, some file types are better than others. For multi-page documents see if your scanning software can scan to a multi-page TIFF file (TIFF Class F) or a PDF file as these are your best options. The TIFF Class F file specification was created specifically for fax documents. Please be aware that there are several different types of TIFF file specification, and unless your scanner software explicitly states that the TIFF file is TIFF-F (Class F), Group III fax or Group IV fax, it may not support the multi-page format suitable for fax documents. Other file types such as GIF, PNG and JPG will work, but are incapable of containing multiple pages, so you would have to scan each page of your document to a separate file and submit each file to our system individually. If your document is more than a few pages, this process could become very tedious.

 

2. Resolution

If you are scanning documents, your scanner software should allow you to set the resolution (measured in DPI or “Dots Per Inch”) of the scanned image. Fine mode fax is 204 x 196 dpi and Standard mode is 204 x 98 dpi, so 200 DPI is adequate for both Fine and Standard resolution faxes.

 

3. Scan Quality

There is no point in scanning your documents in color as the receiving fax machine can only produce a black & white image. We recommend you scan your documents in “black & white” to produce a crisp, high contrast image. The key to getting clean looking faxes from a scanner is to make sure the brightness and contrast settings of your scanning software produce “crisp” images so there is as little grayscale in your image as possible. The text and any line art should be as dark as possible and the whitespace should be completely white and free of any “haze” or grayscale. However, sometimes you will intentionally want detailed grayscale images if you are faxing a detailed photo or image.

 

4. File Size

If you use the above settings and file sizes, any single page scan should NOT exceed 500Kb in size. This is a guideline only but if you find your scan to a TIFF file comes in at 20Mb in size you have the wrong TIFF type and the file will be too large to send. We hope these guidelines help you but if you continue to have difficulties, please do not hesitate to call our support line and we will help you.