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Home > Guides > Faxing thermal receipts
You can, but do not feed the original thermal receipt into the machine. Photocopy it onto plain paper first, then fax the copy. Thermal receipts curl, fade with heat and light, and scan poorly, so the copy step is what makes the fax legible.
Three problems stack up. First, thermal paper curls into a tube the moment it leaves the register, and curled pages jam document feeders or feed crooked. Second, the print itself is fragile: thermal printing is a chemical reaction triggered by heat, and the same chemistry means sunlight, heat, or friction can fade the text over months, so an older receipt may already be half-gone before you start. Third, fax machines transmit in black and white at modest resolution, and the thin gray text of a thermal receipt drops below that threshold: what looked readable on the shiny paper arrives as a blank or ghostly page on the other end. Any one of these can ruin the fax; together they almost guarantee it.
| Step | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Flatten the receipt | Press it under a heavy book for a few minutes, or tape the corners down on the copier glass | Stops curling from jamming the feeder or skewing the scan |
| 2. Photocopy onto plain white paper | Use the copier's darkest setting; enlarge slightly if the print is tiny | Converts fragile thermal print into stable toner on flat paper that faxes cleanly |
| 3. Check the copy | Read every total, date, and account number on the copy | Thermal gray converts badly; if the copy is faint, recopy darker before faxing |
| 4. Fax the copy | Feed the plain-paper copy, not the original | The machine scans a flat, high-contrast page instead of a curled, low-contrast one |
Use your phone. Take a well-lit photo of the flattened receipt, convert it to a high-contrast black-and-white PDF (most scanner apps do this in one tap), and fax the file through an online fax service instead of a machine. This skips the physical scan entirely, which is the step where thermal paper causes all the trouble. For expense reports and warranty claims, many recipients now accept the photo or PDF by email anyway: ask before you fax, because the scan step may be unnecessary work.
Yes, and photograph it the day you get it. Thermal receipts fade: a receipt left on a car dashboard in summer can go blank in weeks, and even drawer-kept ones fade over a year or two. A photo or a plain-paper photocopy made while the print is fresh is the only durable record. For receipts you need for taxes or warranties, the IRS and most retailers accept a clear copy, so scan or copy the important ones right away and file the digital version. The thermal original is the least reliable copy you own.
LetterAgent sidesteps the hardware problem completely: you send a fax by describing it to your AI assistant, and there is no feeder, glass, or scanner in the path, so curling paper and faint thermal print never touch a machine. You still want a good source file, though: photograph or scan the receipt in high contrast and send the file to your assistant as a PDF. The flow is a per-fax quote with the page count verified, you approve the exact total, you pay once through Stripe, and the fax is sent. LetterAgent covers US and Canadian fax numbers only and cannot receive inbound faxes. Faxing is currently available in testing while activation is in progress, so treat it as available in testing, and do not assume a fax sends the same day.
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.
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