Facsimile/character communication system

Claim 1

A facsimile/character communication system incorporating a plurality of terminal equipments, each of which includes a keyboard capable of character data input operation and a facsimile equipment capable of generating and receiving picture data and which operates in accordance with commands given thereto through the keyboard, and a host computer connected through telephone lines to the terminal equipments and having a memory; said computer accepting and integrally storing the character data entered through the keyboards and the picture data given by the facsimile equipments in its memory and transmitting such data to the terminal equipments, wherein each of the terminal equipments include: means for transmitting to or receiving character data from another terminal through steps for converting the character data into character codes; means for transmitting to or receiving picture data from another terminal through steps for converting the picture data into picture codes; means for recognizing and discriminating between the converted picture codes and the converted character codes contained within a single data transmission; and means for recording received character data and picture data integrally on a recording sheet.