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Is scanning the same as faxing?

No. Scanning turns a paper document into a digital file that stays on your device; faxing transmits a document over the phone network to another fax machine or fax service. A scan produces something you keep, while a fax produces something the other party receives. People mix the two up because modern workflows chain them together. This faxfromcomputer.ca guide explains what each one actually does, how the scan-then-fax workflow runs, and when each is the right choice.

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What scanning does

A scanner photographs each page and saves it as a PDF, JPG or PNG. The result is a file: you can store it, search it, email it or upload it anywhere, in full colour and at whatever resolution you choose. Nothing is sent anywhere until you decide to share it, and nobody needs special equipment to open it.

What faxing does

Faxing is a live transmission between two endpoints over the telephone network, negotiated by the T.30 protocol. The sending side encodes each page, the receiving side confirms it, and a typical page takes 30 to 60 seconds at common speeds of around 14.4 kbps. The output is black and white, and the point of the exercise is that the document arrives at a specific number, with confirmation that it did.

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The difference between fax and scan in practice

Set side by side, the two jobs barely overlap.

Destination: a scan creates a file for you; a fax delivers pages to someone else's number.
Proof: faxing produces a transmission record, and online services add a time-stamped delivery receipt; a scan proves nothing about delivery.
Quality: scans keep colour and high resolution; faxes are monochrome at roughly 200 dpi.
Acceptance: clinics, courts, lenders and government offices often require a fax because it is point-to-point and logged, where an email attachment may be refused.

The scan-then-fax workflow

Most faxing and scanning today happens as one sequence: digitise first, transmit second. The transmit step no longer needs a fax machine or a phone line on your end, because a browser-based service handles the phone-network side for you.

Scan the paper document at 200 to 300 dpi in grayscale and save it as a PDF.
Open FaxToFax.com in any browser, sign up with your email and a one-time code, and pick a local or toll-free Canadian number.
Upload the scan, enter the recipient's fax number, and send.
Keep the time-stamped delivery receipt saved with every delivered fax; failed attempts do not use your plan pages.

When to scan and when to fax

Scan when the goal is a digital copy: archiving receipts for the CRA, backing up a signed contract, or sharing something informally. Fax when the recipient requires transmission to a fax number, which is still routine in Canadian health care, law and government.

For personal health information, faxing through a service with encryption in transit and at rest, an encrypted inbox for received documents and an append-only audit log lines up well with PIPEDA and PHIPA expectations; pages left in a shared printer tray do not. That distinction is the reason we keep both words in the title of this faxfromcomputer.ca guide: they are partners, not synonyms.