 Printers

 Plotters
 Computer output micro film
 Monitor
 Voice response system
 Projector
 Headphone and headset
 Output is data that have been processed
into useful information.
 It can be displayed or viewed on a monitor,

printed with a help of printer, or hear with

the help of speakers or headsets.
 There are two categories of output

◦ Hard copy
◦ Soft copy
 The physical form of output is known as hard
copy.
 It refers to the recorded information copied
from a computer onto a paper or some other
durable surface such as microfilm
 It is permanent form of output
 Highly portable
 Paper is one of the widely used output media
 Eg: printouts, whether text or graphics from
printers
 The electronic version of output, which
usually resides in computer memory and/or
on disk is soft copy.
 Not permanent form of output
 It is usually displayed on the screen.
 It is not tangible, cannot be touched.
 Includes audio and videos that is generated

by the computer.
 Includes textual or graphical form of
information
 A printer prints information and data from
the computer onto paper.
 Printer prints 80 or 132 columns of
characters in each line and prints each
single sheets or continuous roll of paper,
depending upon the printer itself.
 The quality of printer depends on how clear
the print is produced, i.e resolution
 Resolution is used to describe the
sharpness and clarity of image.
 Higher the resolution, better the image.
 For printers the resolution is measured in dots
per inch (dpi).
 Printed images are made up of tiny dots of
colour, and how many dpi the printer can
produce defines that printer's resolution. The
higher the resolution, the smaller the dots, and
the better the printed image.
 Printers are divided into two basics categories:
impact printers and non-impact printers.
 Impact printers work by physically striking a head
or needle against an ink-ribbon to make a mark
on paper.
 Includes drum printers, daisy wheel printers,
dot-matrix printers.
 Non-impact printers are opposite to impact
printers.
 Eg: laser printers and ink-jet printers.
 They use techniques other than physically
striking the page to transfer ink to page.
 Different printers
◦ Dot matrix
◦ Daisy wheel
◦ Drum printer
◦ Ink-jet
◦ Laser
◦ HYDRA
 Also known as wire matrix printer
 Uses oldest printing technique.
 Prints one character at a time
 It prints characters and images as patterns of
dots.
 The speed of dot matrix measures in characters
per Inch (cpi)
 Varies from 200 to 500 characters per second
(cps)
 The print quality is determined by the number
of pins, varies from 9 to 24.
 More pins per inch, more the resolution is.
 The best dot matrix printer (24 pins) can
produce near letter-quality-type image.
 Are inexpensive and low operating costs.
 They print bi-directional, they print
characters in both directions.
 Drawback is
◦ prints the data only in black and white color.
◦ Image printing is limited.
 Used in cash registers, used in situations
where copies are required and quality is
not important.
 The paper is pressed against the rubber-
coated cylinder and is pulled forward as
printing progresses.
 The printer consists of an electro-
magnetically driven print head, which is
made up many pins.
 The character is formed by moving the
electro-magnetically driven head across the
paper, which strikes the printer ribbon
situated between the paper and printpin
head.
 As the head stamps onto the paper through
the inked ribbon, a character is produced
that is made up of these dots
 The drawback of dot matrix printer is that
pattern of dots make up each character is
visible on the print produced by it, making
it to look unprofessional.
 The print head of this printer resembles a

daisy flower with printing arms that appear

like the petals of the flower.
 Commonly called as letter quality printers.
 Produces high quality resolution output.
 Have speed upto 90cps
 Also called as smart printers, because their
bi-directional printing and built-in
microprocessor control features.
 This gives only alphanumeric output.
 They cannot print graphics
 Cannot change font unless the wheel is
changed physically.
 Slower because it takes time to rotate the
wheel for required letter on the wheel.
 Slower but expensive than dot matrix printers
 The dot matrix and daisy wheel printers are
character and serial printers i.e. one
character at time.
 Drum printer is line printer, can print one

line of data in single operation.

 It is used because of its speed as it uses a

special tractor-fed paper with pre-punched

holes along each side.
 Speed varies from 300 to 2000 lines per

min with 96-160 characters on 15 inch line.

 It is faster than character printers but very
noisy, have limited font-capability , produce
lower quality printouts.
 Used for heavy printing applications.
 Drum printers with high speed are
expensive
 The strike of the hammer should be precise.
 A single miss of strike can create a wavy

and slightly blurred printing.

 Commonly used at homes and small business.
 Places extremely small droplets of ink onto the
paper to create an image.
 Non-impact printer
 Uses serials of nozzles to spray the ink onto the
paper.
 Originally manufactured for monochrome
printing i.e. black and white only.
 Now it comes for cyan, magenta, yellow, black
 Combination is called CMYK
 Ink-jet printers are costlier than dot-matrix
printers, quality is much better.
 Printers can print any shape of character,
which user specify.
 Can print different sized prints, graphics
such as graphs, charts.
 Resolution is 600 dpi or more
 They print high quality text and graphics
printouts
 Affordable, medium pace of printing (6
pages per min)
 Provides highest quality text and images for
personal computers today.
 Very fast printer that operates on the same
principle as photocopy machine.
 Also known as page printers because they
process ,store and print in terms of pages.
 Produce sharp, crisp images of both text and
graphics
 Resolution of 300 to 2400 dpi
 They are quite, fast (4- 32 text only pages per
min) for microcomputers 200 pages for
mainframes
 Can print different font, sizes and styles.
 Expensive than other printer and difficult to

maintain.
 Costs depends on the combination of
paper , toner replacement and drum
replacement.
 Useful when there is high volume printing

because of their speed.

 The core component is photoconductive
drum.
 A rotating beam causes the beam of laser to
sweep across the photoconductive drum
 Initially the beam of laser charges the
photoconductive drum positively.
 When charged drum is exposed to an
optical image through a beam of light to
discharge, invisible image is formed.
 At the point when laser strikes the surface
of drum, it creates a dot of positive charge.
 These points are represented as black dots
which will be printed on paper.
 After this, printer coats the drum with a

black powder called toner.

 This toner is negatively charged hence it

clings to those areas of drum which is

positively charged.
 When the powder is fixed onto the drum, it

is rotated onto a paper through a pressure

roller
 This pressure roller transfers the toner to
paper.
 Finally the paper passes through a fuser

and a pair of heated rollers.

 As the paper passes through these rollers,

the loose powder gets melted and gets

fused with fibers of the paper
 Then the paper is brought out of the printer
 Hybrid document reproduction apparatus
printer, known as all-in-one printer.
 Consolidates multiple machines into one.
 Includes devices like printer, scanner,
photocopier and fax machine.
 Some come with memory card slots , have

inbuilt wireless capabilities

 Used by small organization because of its

small size, less space requirement and cost

effectiveness
 They save power to great extent, as only
one outlet of power is required to run
various machine
 Easy to install and easy to use because of

GUI that helps user to understand its

functions easily
 Is a pen-based output device that is attached
to computer for making vector graphics, i.e.
images created by series of many straight
lines
 Used to draw high definition charts, graphs,
blueprints, maps , circuit diagrams and other
line based diagrams.
 Similar to printer but draws lines using a pen.
 Multicolor plotter uses pens with different
inked pens.
 Color plots can be made by using four pens
and no need of human intervention to change
them.
 Plotter draws a crisper lines and graphics
 The lines drawn by these are continuous and
very accurate.
 It is considered as slow output device
because it requires excessive mechanical
movement to plot.
 It is unable to produce solid fills and shading.
 They are expensive than printers and produce
more number of printouts than standard printers.
 Used mainly for Computer Aided Design CAD,
Computer Aided manufacturing CAM applications
such as printing out plans for houses or car parts.
 Used in AUTOCAD programs to draw graphics
output.
 There are two types of plotters: drum plotter
(where paper moves) and flatbed plotter (where
paper is stationary)
 The paper on which the design is to be
printed is placed over the drum.
 These plotters contain one or more pens
that are mounted over the carriage which is
horizontally placed over the drum.
 The drum can rotate in both direction i.e.
clockwise or anticlockwise direction under
the control of plotting instructions sent by
the computer.
 The curves are created by drawing very
short straight lines.
 Consists stationary, horizontal plotting
surface on which paper is fixed.
 The pen is mounted on the carriage, which
can move leftwards, rightwards, horizontally
or vertically to draw lines.
 Paper does not move
 Can work on any size of paper from A4 to
very big sized sheets .
 They are used to design aircrafts, buildings,
ships.
 Disadvantage is it is slow device and takes
hours together to complete complex
drawing.
 It is an extremely high-speed , low cost
process, which records computer-generated
information directly from the computer tape
or cartridge to miniaturized microflim media.
 The microflim product is in roll format, which
form at a highly significant speed from that
of the paper printer.
 Traditional microflim is 16 mm wide, with a
film image i.e. 1/24 of the size of the original
document , often called as 24x
 There are two ways to create a microfilm
◦ Photographic process
◦ Non-photographic process
 Photographic process
◦ Oldest method of creating microfilms.
◦ Is a form of miniature photography, which uses a
microfilm camera for producing microfilms.
◦ When the original documents are fed through a
microfilm camera, it captures the document into
reduced size photo.
◦ Once a photographs are taken, the rolls of films
are removed from the camera for further
processing and development.
◦ The processed images can be rolled on film rolls
or cut into sections and loaded to flat microfiche
holders.
 Non-photographic process
◦ User can entirely avoid the film developing process.
◦ This process uses a monitor and the computer
output is read onto the magnetic tape.
◦ After this , data is printed on microfilm machine
directly to a computer recorder.
◦ It is possible to couple a microfilm machine directly
to a computer
◦ Recorder can directly receive information from the
computer.
◦ Recorder projects the computer information onto
the screen, a high speed camera photographs the
displayed information.
 Also known as visual display unit, is the
most frequently used output device for
producing soft copy output.
 Is a TV-like display attached to computer on

which the output can be displayed and

viewed.
 A monochrome screen uses only one color

to display text on contrasting background.

 Monitors are available in various size like

14,15,17,19 and 21 inches.

 The size of the display is described based on
two parameters
◦ Aspect ratio
◦ Screen size
 Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of the
display screen to the height.
 Computer display have an aspect ratio of 4:3
 Screen size is normally measured
diagonally , the distance from one corner to
the opposite corner.
 The image produced by monitors are not
solid but created by the configurations of
dots.
 These dots are known as picture elements
or pixels.
 More no. of pixels the sharper the picture.
The screen clarity depends on three basic
qualities:
◦ Resolution
◦ Dot pitch
◦ Refresh rate
 Refers to the no. of pixels in horizontal and
vertical directions on the screen
 In medium resolution graphics, pixels are

large
 In high resolution graphics, pixels are small.
 The average display is 800 X 600 or 1024 x

768 pixels.
 The more dots or pixels available to create

the image , sharper it will be

 It is the measurement of the diagonal
distance between two like-colored pixels on
the display screen.
 Measured in millimeters , common values

are .51mm, .31

mm, .28mm, .27mm, .26mm, .25 mm
 The smaller the dot pitch, sharper the

image when displayed on the screen.

 Refresh rate is the no. of times per second the
pixels are recharged so that their glow remains
bright.
 Screen pixels are made up phosphor.
 An electron beam strikes the phosphor and
causes it to emit light, resulting the display of
image.
 The refresh rate is measured in Hz , varies from
60-75Hz.
 The higher the refresh rate, more solid the
images looks on the screen.
 The pixels don’t flicker.
CRT are glass vacuum tubes into which electron
gun emits a flow of electrons guided by an
electrical field towards a screen covered in small
phosphorescent elements.
 A beam of electrons emitted by an electron gun,
passes through focusing and deflection systems
that direct the beam towards specified positions
on the phosphor-coated screen.
 The phosphor then emits a small spot of the light
at each position contacted by the beam.
 When the electron beam strikes the phosphor , it
continues to glow briefly, this condition is known
as persistence.
 The primary components of an electron gun
are the heated metal cathode and control
grid.
 Heat is supplied to the grid by directing a
current through a coil of wire called the
filament.
 This causes the electron to be “boiled off”
the hot cathode surface.
 The negatively charged electrons are then
accelerated towards phosphor coating by a
highly positive voltage.
 Before reaching the phosphor coated
screen, the electrons have to be passed
through the monitor’s focusing elements.
 Focusing can be accomplished either by

electric or magnetic fields.

 The deflection plates create a magnetic

fields, which control the direction of the

electron beam, guiding them to strike the
proper position on the screen.
 When the electron in the beams collide with the
phosphor coating , their kinetic energy is
absorbed by the phosphor.
 Some of this energy is converted into heat while
rest of the energy causes the phosphor to move
up to the higher energy levels.
 When these electrons begin to return to the
ground state, they emit the light at certain
frequencies that is colors.
 As a result the Image which is seen on the screen
is the combination of the electron light emission.
 The electron gun is made up of a cathode, a
negatively charged metallic electrode, and
one or more anodes
 The cathode emits the electrons attracted

by anode.
 The anode acts as a accelerator and

concentrator for the electrons, forming a

flow of electrons aimed at the screen
 LCD screen have long been used on
notebook computers but are also popular as
desktop monitor
 LCD screen is collection of multiple layers.
 A fluorescent light source, known as
backlight makes up the rearmost layer.
 Light passes through the first of the two
polarising filters.
 The polarized light then passes through the
layers that contain thousand of liquid crystal
blobs aligned in tiny containers called cells.
 These cells are aligned in row across the
screen, one or more cells make up a pixel.
 Electric leads around the edge of the LCD

create an electric field that twists the

crystal molecule which lines the light up
with the second polarising filter and allow it
to pass through.
 SIZE: LCD is light weight and compact, which
saves desktop space when compared to CRT.
 RESOLUTION: LCD is designed to work in a
single resolution while CRT is designed for
many resolutions.
 PIXEL DENSITY: LCD ‘s pixel density is not
tight as dot pitch of CRT
 BRIGHTNESS: the illuminated phosphor of
CRT is not nearly as bright as what can
produced with its florescent backlight.
 POWER CONSUMPTION: LCD consumes less
power when compared to CRT and has low
emission risk.
 FLICKERS: with CRT monitors the goal is to

get a faster refresh rate of at least 85Hz,

but LCD monitors are designed to run much
slower refresh rate.
 VIEWING ANGLE: CRT can be viewed almost
at any angle, but LCD is best viewed ‘head
on’. Even when viewing a LCD head on,
narrow viewing angles can appear to have
inconsistent color and brightness
 VIEWING AREA: the viewing area of CRT is

usually less than its advertised area, LCD

monitors are measured exactly.
 COST: prices for LCD screens is quite high

but they are coming down.

 The voice response system has an audio-
response device that produces audio outputs.
 These are pre-recorded in computer system.
 Each sound has a unique code.
 Whenever an enquiry is sought from the
system, the computer responds in digital form
which is sent to voice devices that unscramble
the digital information and produces sound
messages to the requesting computer
 There are two basic approaches to get a
computer to talk to the user.
 The first is synthesis by analysis, in which

the devices analyzes the input of an actual

human voice speaking words, stores,
process the spoken sounds and reproduces
them when needed.
 The second approach is synthesis by rule, in

which the device applies a complex set of

linguistic rules to create artificial speech.
 The standard computer system can provide
audio output with the addition of two
components:
◦ Speech synthesizer that does the speaking
◦ Screen reading software that tells the synthesizer
what to say.
 The synthesizer can be a computer card
inserted into the computer or the software that
works with the computer’s sound card.
 Screen reader is a software program that allows
the user to control the synthesizer so that he
can text, which is displayed on the computer
monitor, with the combinations of keystrokes.
 Some screen review software use the
standard computer keyboard keys, some
numeric keypad and some special external
keypads.
 A visual impaired user can use a screen
reader to read anything on the screen.
 The screen reading software can even notify
a user about various computer messages
that ‘pop up’ on the monitor from time to
time.
 Used in places like airlines, bus terminals ,
banks.
 Also called screen.
 They have allowed the world to share
greater information pertaining to culture,
technology, medicine and community.
 Used to project information from a
computer on to a large screen, so that it
can be simultaneously viewed by a large
group of people.
 Commonly used for classrooms training or
conference or multimedia presentation with
large audience
 LCD Projectors
◦ LCD- Liquid Crystal Display
◦ Used by most of the technology
◦ Most of the LCD’s contains three separate LCD
glass panels, one for each red, green and blue
components of the image signal being fed into the
projector.
◦ As light passes through the LCD panels, individual
pixels can be opened to allow light to pass or
closed to block the light.
◦ This activity modulates the light and produces the
image that is projected onto the screen.
 DLP projectors
◦ DLP- Digital Light Processing
◦ It uses single DMD (digital micro-mirror device)
chip that has thousands of tiny mirrors, each
representing a single pixel.
◦ These mirrors tilt back and forth, directing the
light either into the lens path to turn pixel ON, or
away from the lens path to turn it OFF and create
the image.
◦ It handles images extremely well.
 Headphone is an audio device equipped
with a pair of speakers attached to a head
strap worn by the users.
 Comes with CD, DVD players, mp3 players,

ipod etc.
 Comprise high quality speakers, light weight

and very comfortable to wear.

 They can easily connect to a computer via a

mini stereo plug.

 Allows only to hear
 Headset is used when we want to user to
speak.
 It is combination of one or two speaker and

the microphone with both the speaker and

the microphone attached to head strap.
 The speakers allows the person to hear the

conversation and the microphone allows the

user to communicate with person on the
other end.