Library Technology Guides

Recently a number of articles have appeared suggesting that organizations interested in telefacsimile transmission have a low cost solution available: add a fax board to a PC. While fax boards appear to be attractively priced——$500 to $1,200—— they represent only one part of the cost of a complete fax system. The major component which is missing is the scanner. A fax board only transmits data stored in the PC to a distant fax machine. Transmitting hard—copy documents requires a scanner costing an additional $800 to $1,300. Also, a PC printer is much slower than the printing component of a fax machine. All-in-all, it doesn't pay to use a PC when standalone fax machines cost $1,500 to $1,800. If an interface from a fax machine to a PC is desired, an RS-232 interface adds only a few hundred dollars to the cost of the fax device.