Output Devices

OUTPUT DEVICES
An output device is a hardware device that allows information to be output from the computer.
VDU - Visual display unit (monitor)

 Resolution – the number of pixels horizontally and vertically. Pixels, short for
picture elements, are tiny points on the screen to which light can be directed in order to form
images. A typical monitor has a resolution of 1024x768(i.e. 786432 pixels). The resolution
determines how clear the image is. Higher resolutions produce better images.
 Types
o CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) – used in traditional computer
monitors and televisions. While CRT displays are still used by
graphics professionals because of their vibrant and accurate color,
LCD displays now nearly match the quality of CRT monitors.
CRT monitor are now the least expensive type of monitor and they
are becoming rare to find
o Flat panel are thin and usually less than 10 centimetres in

thickness
 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) - LCDs are super-thin
displays that are used in laptop computer
screens and flat panel monitors. Smaller LCDs are
used in handheld TVs, PDAs, and portable video
game devices.
LCD monitors are better because they are

portable, take up less space, consume less
electricity, produce less heat and produce better
quality images
 Size - the screen size is the length of the diagonal from the top left corner of the screen to the
bottom right corner of the screen.
Printers
These are output devices that produce human-readable hard copy output, which take the form of
printed information on paper.
Types of printers
o Dot-matrix printers - (cheap, noisy and comparatively slow) forms
characters from patterns of dots created by rows of pins
hammering into a carbon ribbon. Produces pretty poor output only
suitable for draft work.
o It is slow, produces poor quality but is good at creating
multi-part form output.
o Laser printers uses laser copier technology to produce high-
quality printed material from computer data. Laser light
beams onto a photoelectric drum and the toner sticks to it,
the toner is then transferred and fused to paper.
o Good for fast, high quality, high volume and quiet
printing.
o Ink jet printer prints characters and graphics by firing jets of ink at the
paper from thin nozzles. These printers use a replaceable ink cartridge
that contains both the print head and the ink.
o Good for low volume, relatively high quality and high speed,
fairly cheap, home use etc.
o Thermal printers are printers that print by using heat. Some thermal printers use
special heat-sensitive paper. Heat is then applied to the paper to form text and
graphics.
o Low maintenance cost since you do not have to buy new ink, toner of print
ribbon.
o 3D printer is a printer allowing the creation of a physical object from a three-dimensional digital
model, typically by laying down many thin layers of a material in succession.
Characteristics: (speed, quality, storage capacity)

o Print Speed is measured in pages per minute (ppm). Printing in colour is going to be slower than
printing in black and white. Look at the number of pages per minute that the printer can print.
o Print Quality is the quality of the text and images on hard copy are dependent largely on the
resolution of the printer which is determined by the number of dots of ink it would take to make
a one-inch line. 300 dpi (dots per inch) is most common 600 and even 1,200 dpi are becoming
more commonplace.
o Storage Capacity - Printers are now coming with a buffer area, which is a section of the RAM.
The buffer helps to free up the PC to perform other functions during printing. This is why when
you delete a print job it doesn’t stop printing immediately; there is still some data in the printer
buffer.
o Printer Interface – USB, parallel port, wireless
Plotters
Car designers, architects and engineers, for example, who wish to print accurate charts,
diagrams and 3D drawing, output not to a laser printer but to a plotter. A plotter uses
coloured pens or toner to draw an image on paper. Plotters are frequently used in
Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD).
They produce huge, high quality printouts.
Audio output devices (for example speakers, head-phones, earphones)
Most computers sold to homes and schools have a sound card fitted. This allows both
the recording of sound (input) and the playback of sound (output via speakers. The
sound output may be from a WAV, MP3, MIDI file or music from a CD. Some software
will allow word-processed test to be read back to the
user. This can be very important to young children or
the visually impaired. Voice output has now become
so widely used that the computer voice of the scientist
Stephen Hawking is know all over the world.
Microfilm
Microfilm and microfiche are techniques used for reducing documents to microscopic images on
photographic film in order to save space and provide for permanent storage. Microfiche is a sheet of
film with such reduced images; “microfilm” refers to the same kind of images on rolls of film.
An early application of microfilm was the photographing of cancelled bank checks in the 1920s. A bank
could more easily send a roll of microfilm to another bank than physically send large bundles of checks.
Libraries often use microfilm to store old issues of newspapers and magazines.

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OUTPUT DEVICES

VDU - Visual display unit (monitor)

o Flat panel are thin and usually less than 10 centimetres in

LCD monitors are better because they are

Characteristics: (speed, quality, storage capacity)

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