There was a time when you could fax straight from a Mac's print dialog. That time ended years ago. Apple dropped support for sending faxes through fax modems starting with macOS Sierra, and no Mac sold today has a modem or a phone jack to plug one into.

So how to fax from a Mac now means something different: make a PDF, which macOS is excellent at, and let an online fax service handle the telephone side. This guide covers every piece — PDFs from any app, scanning paper with your iPhone, signing in Preview — and what is left of the built-in options.

  • What happened to Mac faxing, and the one case where it still works
  • Save as PDF from any app in three clicks
  • Your iPhone as a flatbed scanner for paper pages

Table of Contents

What happened to faxing on the Mac

Older versions of Mac OS X let you choose a fax modem as if it were a printer, type a number, and send. That depended on two things: a fax modem (Apple sold a USB one for years) and an analogue phone line.

Both have gone. Apple's support guidance says macOS Sierra and later do not support sending faxes with legacy fax modems, and there is no built-in fax utility in current macOS. Even if you found an old modem, most homes have no copper landline for it, and office VoIP lines routinely break fax tones — a failure mode covered in why faxes don't go through.

The exception: some multifunction printers have their own fax hardware. If yours does and it is plugged into a working phone line, the manufacturer's software or the printer's own keypad can still send a fax. That is the printer faxing, not the Mac — and it still needs the phone line.

For everyone else, an online fax service replaces the modem and the line. You upload a PDF over the internet; the service dials the recipient's machine and transmits the pages.

Step 1: Make a PDF

The Mac has had system-wide PDF creation for as long as anyone can remember, and it is still the quickest way to get any document ready to fax.

From any app that prints:

  1. Choose File → Print (or press Command-P).
  2. In the lower-left of the print dialog, click the PDF pop-up menu.
  3. Choose Save as PDF, name the file, and save it.

This works from Safari, Mail, Word, Pages, Numbers, and nearly everything else. It is also the cleanest way to fax a web page or an email.

From specific apps:

  • Preview: File → Export as PDF. Use this when you have an image (a photo of a document, a JPEG from an email) and need it as a PDF.
  • Pages: File → Export To → PDF.
  • Microsoft Word for Mac: File → Save As (or Save a Copy), then choose PDF from the File Format menu. Our Word guide covers it in detail.

Combining several documents: Faxio accepts up to 10 PDFs and sends them together as one fax, so you do not have to merge them. If you would rather have one tidy file, open the first PDF in Preview, show the sidebar thumbnails, and drag the other PDFs into the sidebar.

Scanning paper with your iPhone

Most Mac owners no longer own a scanner, and they do not need one. Continuity Camera lets your iPhone or iPad scan straight to the Mac.

  1. On your Mac, Control-click the desktop (or a folder in a Finder window).
  2. Choose Import from iPhone or iPad → Scan Documents.
  3. On your iPhone, point the camera at the page. It detects the edges and straightens the image. Scan every page, then tap Save.
  4. The scan appears on your Mac as a PDF.

Both devices need Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on and must be signed in to the same Apple Account. You can also start the same scan from Preview's File menu (Import from iPhone or iPad).

If you would rather do it entirely on the phone, the iPhone's Notes scanner works just as well — see faxing from an iPhone.

Step 2: Send it from Safari

  1. Open a fax service in Safari, Chrome, or Firefox — on Faxio that is faxio.app/send.
  2. Drag the PDF from the desktop onto the upload area. Faxio accepts PDFs only.
  3. Choose the country and type the fax number. For the US and Canada, a normal 10-digit number.
  4. Add a subject if the recipient needs a cover page.
  5. Send, and watch the status move from Sending to Delivered.

There is nothing to install and no account to create, which also means nothing extra running on your Mac afterwards.

Getting the document fax-ready

Fax is black and white at low resolution. The Mac will happily produce a beautiful colour PDF; the receiving machine will turn it into something much rougher.

  • Avoid pale colours. Light grey text, yellow highlights, and coloured table shading can disappear or turn into grey blocks.
  • Keep text at 10pt or larger. Fine print does not survive.
  • Sign properly. If the document needs a signature, Preview's Markup toolbar has a Sign tool that captures your signature from the trackpad, camera, or iPhone. Some recipients insist on ink, though — our sign-and-fax guide covers both routes and when each is accepted.
  • Check the page count. A PDF exported from a long email thread can be far longer than you expect. Faxio's single fax covers up to 10 pages.

What it costs

Pay-per-fax pricing runs roughly $2 to $5 per fax.

Faxio is $2.99 for a single fax of up to 10 pages, with no subscription, no account, and no card kept on file. If the transmission fails, the credit returns automatically. Packs bring the price to $2.00 or $1.67 per fax, credits never expire, and there is an optional $14.99/month unlimited plan for people who fax weekly. We compared five no-subscription services side by side, including ones that are better value for long documents.

Faxing from a Mac is a PDF and a browser tab. The built-in fax support went away with the modems, but Save as PDF and your iPhone's camera cover everything a fax machine used to.

On a PC instead? See faxing from Windows.

Send a fax from your Mac →

Frequently asked questions

Does a Mac have a built-in fax feature?

Not any more. Apple stopped supporting faxing through legacy fax modems in macOS Sierra, and modern Macs have no modem or phone jack anyway. Some multifunction printers with their own fax hardware and phone line can still fax from a Mac using the printer's software, but most people use an online fax service.

Can I fax from a MacBook without a phone line?

Yes. An online fax service connects to the telephone network for you. Your Mac only needs an internet connection: you upload a PDF in the browser and the service transmits it.

How do I turn a document into a PDF on a Mac?

Almost every Mac app can do it from the print dialog: choose File, then Print, click the PDF menu in the lower-left, and choose Save as PDF. Preview also has File, then Export as PDF, and Pages has File, then Export To, then PDF.

How do I scan a paper document to my Mac for faxing?

Use your iPhone or iPad as the scanner. Control-click the desktop, choose Import from iPhone or iPad, then Scan Documents. Scan the pages on your phone, tap Save, and the PDF appears on your Mac.

How much does it cost to fax from a Mac?

Pay-per-fax services generally charge $2 to $5 per fax. Faxio is $2.99 for a single fax of up to 10 pages, with no subscription and the credit returned automatically if the transmission fails.

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