Friendly Faxing

Keep it Simple! Photographs and fancy graphics may look good on your original but they look ugly when they are received on a fax machine. And many machines have trouble even receiving complex faxes.

Avoid fine print! Your flyer may go through many generations of faxing and copying. Details get lost very quickly.

Watch your margins! Different fax machines have different abilities to print close to the sides or bottom of pages. Leave at least a half-inch at the sides and an inch at the bottom to be safe.

Use standard paper size! Every fax machine can receive letter size documents. If your fax is on legal size paper, be aware that many machines will either truncate it at 11 inches or split it onto two pages.

Avoid Grey! Fax machines don't like grey. They use black and white. Grey is simulated by not printing all the black dots. Not only does this look ugly but it slows down sending the fax dramatically.

Avoid Black! It looks dramatic but it uses a lot of ink or toner when it is printed or copied.

Avoid White! Do you really need to space out the information that much or could it be compressed to fit onto a single page?

Don't Waste Paper! Do you really need to print a separate flyer for each event you sponsor or would a single-page calendar do? Remember, a calendar can give people greater notice and they are more likely to be willing to accept a single page coming every now and again. Also, a single page is more likely to be copied and posted.

Let them know in time! Give people at least a week's notice where possible. It may take several days just for your flyer to get out to everyone. If the recipient gets it and posts it a day or two before your event, few people will see it. Most people receive faxes at their workplace so you also have to make sure it can get to them before they leave for the weekend!

Let them know who you are! And include a contact number on your flyer in case people have questions.

Keep it clear! Send the original to FaxLeft in as high a resolution as your fax machine can handle - or send it via E-mail if you created it on a computer. And avoid sending flyers on coloured paper if you can. Some fax machines are a lot better than others at filtering out the background.

Keep your equipment maintained! Some fax machines leave streaks and lines on the faxes they send.

Keep it stocked! It doesn't receive faxes when the paper or ink/toner supply is out.

Keep it running! Faxes are sent at all times of day and night. Retrying sends takes time. Resubmitting failed faxes takes time also. Keep your fax machine turned on.

FaxLeft is the Greater Toronto Area's largest and most progressive public service fax network. Operating for community, recreation, arts, environmental, labour and social justice groups, FaxLeft provides a quick and effective means of distributing information about events and issues. Visit FaxLeft's World Wide Web site at http://www.echo-on.net/~faxleft.

This article originally appeared in The Sources HotLink, published by Sources and available online at www.hotlink.ca.

Subject Headings

• Fax Machines

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