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As we use

<a href="tel:number">number</a> or <a href="mailto:mailid">mailid</a>

for telephone number & email, does anything like <a href="fax:number">number</a> for fax exist?

Félix Paradis
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Imagine
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1 Answers1

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Yes, the tel, fax and modem URL Schemes are discussed in https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2806

2.3 "fax" URL scheme

The URL syntax is formally described as follows (the definition reuses nonterminals from the above definition). For the basis of this syntax, see [RFC2303] and [RFC2304].

  fax-url          = fax-scheme ":" fax-subscriber
  fax-scheme       = "fax"
  fax-subscriber   = fax-global-phone / fax-local-phone
  fax-global-phone = "+" base-phone-number [isdn-subaddress]
                     [t33-subaddress] [post-dial]
                     *(area-specifier / service-provider /
                     future-extension)
  fax-local-phone  = 1*(phonedigit / dtmf-digit /
                     pause-character) [isdn-subaddress]
                     [t33-subaddress] [post-dial]
                     area-specifier
                     *(area-specifier / service-provider /
                     future-extension)
  t33-subaddress   = ";tsub=" 1*phonedigit

The fax: URL is very similar to the tel: URL. The main difference is that in addition to ISDN subaddresses, telefaxes also have an another type of subaddress, see section 2.5.8.

Example:

<a href="fax:+358.555.1234567">+358.555.1234567</a>

However, as per the comments below, RFC 2806 was obsoleted by RFC 3966 and you should just use the tel URI scheme:

The "tel" URI does not specify the call type, such as voice, fax, or data call, and does not provide the connection parameters for a data call. The type and parameters are assumed to be negotiated either in-band by the telephone device or through a signaling protocol such as SIP. This document obsoletes RFC 2806.

RFC 3966 was updated by RFC 5341 to formalize URI parameters and require them to be registered with IANA. I am including these here for the sake of completeness. They do not contain any additional information on fax devices.

Gordon
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    The RFC that describes the fax: protocol is now almost 12 years old, but are there *any* mainstream browser implementations? If not, it sounds like a write-only URL rather than a useful feature. (The Android browser can deal with a tel: URL meaningfully, opening a dialling UI with the given number prefilled, but it reacts to a fax: URL by telling that the web page is not available...) – Jukka K. Korpela Feb 25 '12 at 14:21
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    @Jukka it makes no sense to have browsers support tel or fax by default when there is no software registered to that protocol. just like mailto will not work when there is no mail software installed. – Gordon Feb 25 '12 at 14:24
  • It may not be supported by most browsers by default, but mobile apps can certainly respond to such unusual, but standards-based, protocols. – MandisaW Jul 16 '15 at 16:41
  • It's also useful to search engines for determining a number type while indexing. – Nilpo Apr 22 '16 at 20:14
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    It's fun when you guess that something MUST exist and then it actually does! – squarecandy Jan 18 '17 at 19:48
  • @JukkaK.Korpela to me it makes more sense for a fax number to NOT open a voice calling app / dialing UI. Even if it does nothing for now, better than having users accidentally voice dial the fax machine. – squarecandy Jan 18 '17 at 19:51
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    "fax" URI was obsoleted by RFC 3966 in 2004. Use "tel" instead. http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3966.txt – chatoo2412 Feb 02 '17 at 06:29