LetterAgent
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Home > Guides > Faxing a handwritten page
Yes, a fax machine will send a handwritten page, but handwriting comes through less clearly than print, so the rules are stricter: dark ink, wide spacing, and block letters where you can manage them. Light pencil, cramped cursive, and colored ink are the usual reasons a handwritten fax arrives unreadable. For anything official, a typed page is the safer choice.
A fax scans at a fixed resolution and turns everything into black and white, so light strokes vanish and tight loops merge. Pencil is the worst: graphite reflects less contrast than ink, and a standard fax pass often drops it entirely. Colored ink, especially red and light blue, can drop out too, because the scanner reads for dark marks. Cursive suffers because joined letters blur together at fax resolution, while separated block letters survive.
Account numbers, signatures on forms that will be re-keyed, and anything where one misread digit changes the meaning. A misread account number sends money or records to the wrong file. For those, type the page or fill the form on a computer and print it. Handwriting is fine for notes, short letters, and annotations where a misread word costs little.
White paper is the safe choice. Colored paper, especially yellow, pink, or blue, can wash out or darken unevenly in a fax pass, and lined notebook paper adds lines that compete with your writing. If the original is on colored paper, photocopy it onto white paper first and fax the copy. The same goes for pages with highlighted text: highlighter often turns solid black in a fax, hiding the words underneath.
LetterAgent's fax service is in testing, with activation still in progress. You describe the fax to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and pay once through Stripe. It handles US and Canadian fax numbers only, and it cannot receive faxes. A handwritten page follows the same legibility rules no matter which service sends it: dark ink and wide spacing, or the receiving side may not be able to read it.
| Rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ink | Black, medium or bold tip |
| Spacing | Wide lines, no cramped paragraphs |
| Letters | Block letters for names and numbers |
| Edges | Keep writing clear of the page edges |
| Pencil and red ink | Avoid: both often drop out in a fax pass |
Ready to fax it? Fax with LetterAgent: describe it to your AI assistant, approve the exact quoted price, and it is sent.
LetterAgent is a working name. Prices include print, postage, and our service fee. US prices in USD, Canadian prices in CAD (Canadian prices exclude applicable sales tax, added at checkout). Currently in private testing.
Need help? Ask your assistant: it can check a job's status any time. If it ever can't handle something: hello@getletteragent.com