Can You Send a Color Fax?

It is actually possible to send a color fax, when certain conditions are met. When you send or receive a fax, you’ve probably noticed that it’s almost always black and white. Most of the time, it’s not an issue because contracts, invoices, and other official documents rarely need to be in color. 

But what if you need to fax a document with an image? Or a document that contains a color-coded graph? Or, maybe you just want the color preserved when the PDF is faxed?

In this article, we’ll explain how you can fax in color using machines or fax services that support the ITU-T.30e standard for color faxing. However — and this is a big however — you cannot send a color fax to someone else unless they’re also using a machine or service that uses this standard. As of this time, Fax.Live does not support this standard; faxes sent from and received to your Fax.Live account are in black and white. 

We’ll explain what this ITU-T.30e standard is, why it’s harder to find, and some examples of devices and services that support the standard. 

What Is ITU-T.30e and Why Is It Needed to Send Color Faxes?

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) developed the procedure for sending color faxes in 2005 — specifically, Annex E, which handles color faxing. This procedure has to be accounted for in the device or service that’s both sending and receiving the fax. In other words, if my device supports ITU-T.30e and yours doesn’t, you won’t receive a color fax. So why don’t all fax machines use ITU-T.30e?

Considering how long faxing has been around, the T.30e standard was developed relatively late in the lifespan of faxing documents (see history of fax machines). Many legacy machines don’t support this “new” standard. A few reasons that color faxing isn’t more popular are:

• Inflated file size: Encoding color for transmission takes more time than black and white, which will slow the time it takes for a document to be transmitted. For most documents that are mostly black and white, this extra time is unnecessary. 
• Legacy compatibility: Many services, institutions, and businesses that use fax machines don’t use equipment that was designed with ITU-T.30 in mind. Therefore, they won’t be able to send, receive or print a color fax.
• Document sending alternatives: By the time the T.30e standard was developed, other solutions for sending color documents, in particular emailing attachments, were common practice. Faxing is commonly used as a way to transmit secure documents, which rarely need to be in color. 
• Higher cost: Newer fax machines with the T.30e standard may cost more to own and operate than a legacy machine. They’re also harder to find, as the T.30e standard is a bit obscure and won’t be listed as a spec on most fax machines. 

What Fax Machine or App Handles Faxing in Color?

One example of a fax machine that supports color faxing is the Canon LASER CLASS 830i fax machine (starting at $2,995). It uses “color send technology” and is a pretty serious fax machine, intended for business or professional uses. With the price tag, you can understand why the color faxing standard isn’t as common. 

A program called FaxTalk is an example of software you can install to send and receive faxes. The programs start at $59.95, and some configurations may require a fax modem or landline. Also, it works only with Windows PCs.

Because color faxing is rarely needed and it’s costly — and because there are better ways to share color documents — Fax.Live handles black-and-white faxing only. It allows us to offer fast, easy-to-use and low-cost online fax services. The next section explains other ways to share color documents.

How Else Can I Send Color Documents?

Need to send a document with color? There are a lot of ways to do this. While these methods may seem to be as secure as faxing, they’re accessible and perfect for sharing presentations, brochures, infographics, and other info that’s less sensitive (like medical documents, which may be subject to stricter HIPAA standards). Some ways to share color documents are:

• Cloud storage: Online cloud storage solutions allow you to store and access documents from anywhere. Upload PDFs or other documents and then give the shareable link to others for them to download. Examples of cloud storage are Google Drive and OneDrive.
• Email: Emailing documents as attachments is another way to share color documents online. One drawback of emailing is that many email providers limit file sizes of attachments. Nevertheless, for smaller documents, email is still a great way to send and receive documents. 
• File transfer protocol: FTP allows you to upload and share large files directly between computers or servers. It’s especially useful for transferring batches of high-resolution documents or images. For better security, use SFTP (secure FTP), which encrypts the data during transmission. FTP requires setting up a server or using a client like FileZilla, so it’s typically used in business or technical settings rather than casual file sharing.

For a similar, if not equivalent, level of security to faxing, a cloud storage may be the better solution for document sharing. It’s possible to protect your docs so they cannot be opened without passwords.

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