Thanks, mspiegle, for posting your inquiry and reporting on the results of your follow-up. Since I had encountered precisely the same problem with my HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-One multifunction printer/scanner/copier/fax machine, this was exactly the kind of specific information I was looking for. I needed someone to tell me that the FAX to PDF command of the Mac OS X system actually worked with the HP Photosmart C7280 and how to set things up to achieve success, which was eluding me, but no one to-date had explained why.
Folllowing your lead, I finally managed to get the FAX to PDF function of Mac OS X to work with my HP Photosmart C7280 All-in-on-One printer/fax/scan/copier. The solultion came only after I installed the latest HP driver DIRECTLY. Apparently, the Apple software update utility lies when it tells you that all your software is “up-to-date” — at least in regards to printer drivers. I had relied on that utility to inform me of the status of my software, but, on a whim, I finally decided to download and install the latest HP drivers, namely version 2.16.1 (dated Oct. 15, 2013).
That did the trick! After I installed version 2.16.1 of the HP driver, it showed up in the Default tab of the Printer and Scanners pane of System Preferences, listed in the “Kind” column as an “HP Fax” for the Photosmart C7200 series. Previously, that driver either had not shown up at all, or I got a variation of the regular printer driver listed as a ”Bonjour Multifunction” type of driver. That Bonjour Multifunction printer driver did not succeed in my attempts to send a fax via the FAX to PDF of the Mac OS. All it managed to do was talk gibberish to the printer and deliver pages of garbarge code: it never dialed the modem nor sent a fax.
In contrast, the newly installed “HP Fax” driver does the job right: in my first test, after I chose the FAX to PDF command in TextEdit and I filled in the phone number for the very useful HP Faxback System Test phone number at 888-473-2963, the HP Fax driver dutifully dialed the modem and sent the fax. Within minutes, the 888-HPFaxMe system called my HP Photosmart C7280 back to confirm receipt of the fax that I had sent via the FAX to PDF command within TextEdit.
Problem solved—but only by downloading and installing the HP driver directly, not by relying on the Apple software update tool.
Along that line, a request for help that I had posted at the HP Forum on this topic, at http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/Photosmart-C7280-u nable-to-fax-via-Mac-s-File-gt-Fax-PDF/td-p/4203698, elicited this comment from an HP Support Agent. Gemini02 reported that “The drivers for Maverick are installed by the Apple Updates, which can perform basic print jobs. They might not be able to provide faxing.” He was right. Although Gemini02 provided a very detailed and convoluted series of steps to take in order to get faxing to work with the Photosmart C7280, rather than go all those gyrations, I simply downloaded and installed the latest HP drivers. That worked!
More information is available at the HP Forum, where I had posted a request for help on this problem. See:
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Printer-All-in-One-Install-Setup/Photosmart-C7280-u nable-to-fax-via-Mac-s-File-gt-Fax-PDF/td-p/4203698
By the way, anyone who makes a blanket statement declaring that you cannot use a VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) like Vonage to send and receive faxes is providing incomplete, or inaccurate, information. My Photosmart C7280 multifunction printer successfully sends and receives faxes—both directly by dialing up numbers on the machine as well as via the built-in Mac OS X “FAX PDF” command—while also allowing my phone to handle voice calls. Vonage instructed me to connect Line 1 of its Vonage box to Line 1 of my Photosmart C7280, with the EXT line from the Photosmart C7280 connected to my AT&T telephone. That configuration works fine to let me make and receive voice calls. It also allows me to receive fax calls, although I cannot distinguish from the ring whether the incoming call is voice or fax.
If the incoming call is voice, I answer the phone, and I take the call.
If the incoming call is fax, then I simply hit the Start Fax button on the C7280 to let the Photosmart handle the incoming fax.
As emphasized with the HP instruction manual, to succeed in faxing, you must use their 2-copper wire phone line to succeed in faxing with the Photosmart-C7280. In my testing, using regular 4-copper wires for your RJ-11 telelphone/fax line connections will fail.
