Fax machines are available in three popular formats

Thermal - Thermal fax machines use rolls of special fax paper.

Plain Paper - Plain paper fax machines offer higher quality results and a more professional appearance, which unlike thermal paper will not fade.

Laser - Laser fax machines are ideal for the serious home office user. High speed, excellent print quality and economical for high volume usage.

This indicates the amount of paper which can be stored in the paper tray of plain paper fax machines. Volume users should consider a machine with a sheet capacity of 50 sheets or more.

If your fax machine runs out of paper, page memory allows the machine to store various amounts of incoming pages in its memory. If you receive lengthy documents, look for a model with a page memory of 30 sheets or more.

Some fax machines have built-in digital answering machines for convenience. Digital answering machines offer improved sound quality an faster message retrieval than traditional machines using cassette tapes.

Broadcasting facility - Save time by sending single page documents to multiple locations

On hook dialling - Dial without lifting the receiver.

Automatic fax/phone switch - Enables the fax machine to decide whether the incoming call is either a fax or a telephone call and switch accordingly.