What’s that line at the top of faxes called?

When one receives a fax transmission, the pages printed from the fax machine have a line printed at the very top which indicates the source of the fax (name and/or fax number), the date, and the page number of the page within the fax. What is this information line called? Is there a technical name for this line in the fax industry?



I wish I could tell you that the line at the top of a fax has some cool, high-tech name known only to insiders, but it’s just called the “header.”

The header reveals sender information and other transmission data. The very first part, which may contain just the sender’s name or fax number, is occasionally referred to as the Caller String ID, or CSID.

There are programs that can let the sender customize their headers, including changing the wording, date and time format and contact info. In many home-use fax machines you can change the header data by choosing “Basic Fax Setup” and then “Fax Header” from the Setup menu.

Do you have a question about faxing? Send me your fax question.