Q: Problems sending a fax pdf from iMac OSX Yosemite.

I'm still on Mountain Lion (didn't trust Mavericks and haven't gotten around to upgrading to Yosemite yet), but based on my machine . . .

You don't need a printer that can receive faxes, just a fax modem. These days, that usually comes in the form of a small box (easily fits in your hand) attached to a short cord with a USB plug on the end. Mine is an inexpensive one by US Robotics.

My printer, a Brother, is also NOT a fax machine. But I can still send faxes - well, sometimes. Our phone line is "dirty" (a bad pair, my husband says - though we do have a couple of splits up the line). The problem is Apple offers little in the way of fax software.

You should see a "Fax to PDF" option. You can make sure your machine sees your modem by going to System Preferences (using Launch Pad) and opening Printer & Scan under the Hardware section. Then you can click the Open Fax Queue box at the top and a small window will open up telling you the status of the fax you are trying to send.

This is ALL you get. There must be a log file somewhere, but I haven't found any easily accessible record showing what faxes went out/came in - the information fax programs usually include. So to know if the fax actually went, you have to be watching it live.

All that said, the faxes I am trying to send at the moment aren't going through, so I have to drag out my ancient windows laptop and hook it up. It RELIABLY sends faxes, and keeps all the pertinent information about them for me to look at later.

The image below shows what my Print options are when I Print from Apache OpenOffice.

Again, this is running Mountain Lion. I will be very disappointed if this goes away once I upgrade to Yosemite!

And below is the next menu.

Finally, here is the actual fax window.

Sometimes it helps knowing what you should be expecting to get.

aHA! This explains it. (From Yosemite: The Missing Manual)

SlipstreamQueen wrote:

 

aHA! This explains it. (From Yosemite: The Missing Manual)

 

Apple's fax modem is a software fax modem.  Apple didn't drop support for its fax modem with Yosemite.  The Apple fax modem has not been supported since OS X 10.6.8.  This is part of Apple's FAQ for their fax modem.

If you had originally bought a hardware fax modem, you would still be able to fax.  Basic fax capability is built into the OS X printing architecture of CUPS.  I am still able to fax with an old Global Village fax modem left over from when a dial up connection was about the only way one could connect to the internet.

This was unbelievable how to easy this was and looked for three hours for the direction!!

Thanks so much