Facsimile

Description

1) A high quality copy or reproduction of an original.

2) A telecommunication method used to transmit documents by wire or radio wave. Fax machines scan printed textual and graphic material and then transmit the information as a digital signal through the telephone network to other fax machines, where the signals are decoded to reproduce the original document. Worldwide compatibility of fax machines was established by the adoption of a standard (Group 3) in 1980.

Synonyms and Related Terms

2. fax; telefax

Resources and Citations

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998
• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: "facsimile" [Accessed September 3, 2002]
• AMOL reCollections Glossary - http://amol.org.au/recollections/7/c/htm