I read this in the Editor’s Note (by David Mills) in the February, 2009 issue of The Howler:

My fax having bit the dust, I used the internet café in Plaza Conchal to fax a 3-page document to San José.  The bill – ¢1,500!!!  A dollar a page.  This is extortion!

(Although I must say that a dollar per page is a bit steep, calling it extortion is maybe overstating the situation – and could amount to actionable defamation – be careful, David!)

In any event, the editorial encouraged me to share a tip with you.  Did you know that you can send  faxes for free to any fax number in the USA or Canada.  (Sorry, David, this wouldn’t have helped you with your fax within Costa Rica).

Whenever I need to send a fax to the US or Canada (which is rarely, these days, as I usually just send an email and attach a PDF document, if necessary), I use faxZERO and send my faxes absolutely free of charge.  (Indeed, I have the faxZERO Google Gadget right on my iGoogle homepage).  (There’s also a Dashboard Widget available for MacOS X).

You simply enter your information and the recipient’s information and then enter text in the text box or attach a file (in either DOC or PDF format).  Click on “Send Free Fax Now”, and you’re done.  You are limited to two free faxes per day, of no more than three pages each)

Because it’s free, there will be some advertising on the cover page, which doesn’t bother me. If you want to eliminate the advertising, or if you want to more than two faxes in a day, or if you want to send up to 15 pages, you can pay (via Paypal) a measly $1.99.

Now, all of this assumes that you have a computer with an Internet connection (which you probably do or you wouldn’t be reading this), and that you  just want to fax some text that you type on the cover page, or that you have the document you’re trying to fax on your computer in either DOC or PDF format.

If you don’t have the document on your computer already, you’ll have to scan it in.  Luckily, there is free scanning (and OCR) software available, such as Softi Scan to PDF with OCR (see screenshot below).

However, if you have a scanner, it probably came with software . . . and if you don’t have a scanner . . . well, I can’t help you there.

Let’s say you have a document that you want to fax and it’s saved on your computer . . . but it’s not a DOC or a PDF (perhaps its a spreadsheet or a JPG, TIFF, etc.)  There are oodles of free applications that let you “print to PDF”.  The software installs a printer driver on your computer . . . instead of printing to a printer, you print to a PDF file.  (See deskPDF, PrimoPDF, CutePDF Writer, or PDF995 Printer Driver, just to name a few).  I RECOMMEND THAT EVERYONE DOWNLOAD THE CUSTOMIZED ETHEL THE FROG VERSION OF pdf24 BY CLICKING HERE: Yoga For Your Health (366).

Or . . . you could use the nifty little widget below.  Simply enter the file name of  the document that you want to convert in the first box and your e-mail address in the second box.  Click on “Convert and Send”, and the document, converted to PDF format will show up your e-mail in box.

(I will continue to search the Internet for a free faxing solution for Costa Rica).