OUTPUT DEVICES

An output device is an electro mechanical device which converts

machine readable information into human readable form. The output
devices display the processed information which is in the form of digital
signals by converting them into graphical, alphanumeric or audio-visual
form.
Types of output device:Output produced by the output devices can be of the following forms.
1) Text :- Textual form of output consists of characters(letters, numbers,
punctuation marks.)
2) Graphics:- Graphics are digital representation of non-tetxual
information such as drawings, charts, photographs and animation.
3) Audio:- Audio includes music, speech or any sound.
4) Video:- Video consists of images that are played back at a speed
that provide the illusion of full motion.
Generally there are two basic categories of output. The output which
can be understood and used by the individuals, and which is stored on
secondary storage devices so that the data can be used as input for further
processing.
The output which can be easily understood and used by the
individuals are of the following forms.
1) Hard copy: The physical form of output is known as hard copy. It
refers to the recorded information copied from a computer onto the
paper or some other durable surfaces. Hard copy output is
permanent and relatively stable form of output.
2) Soft copy: The electronic version of an output which resides in the
computer memory and/or on the disk, is known as soft copy. It is not
a permanent form of output. It is transient and is usually displayed on
the screen. It is not tangible.

CLASSIFICATION OF OUTPUT DEVICES:

Printers, plotters and microfilms are the commonly used hard copy output
devices while monitor, voice systems, projectors are soft copy output
devices.
1) Printer:- A printer prints information and data from the computer
onto a paper. The printer prints 80 to 132 columns of characters in
each line and prints either on single sheet or a continuous roll of
paper. The quality of a printer is determined by the clarity of a print it
can produce, that is its resolution.Resolution is used to describe the
sharpness and clarity of an image. The higher the resolution, the
better the image. Printers are divided into 2 categories:
a) Impact Printer: It uses pins or hammers that press on inked ribbon
against the paper to make a mark on the paper.
Charteristics of Impact Printers:
There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image.
They are cheap and useful for bulk printing.
They can withstand dusty environment, vibrations.
Ideal for printing multiple copies.
They are slow and noisy.
i. Dot matrix printer(Wire matrix printer): It prints one character
at a time as patterns of dots. The speed is measured in
characters per second(cpi), which can vary from 200 to more
than 500 cpi. Print quality is determined by number of pins.
They are bi-directional but can print only in black and white.
In dot- matrix printer, the paper is pressed against a rubber
coated cylinder and is pulled forward as printing progresses
characters are formed by moving the electro- magnetically
driven print head across the paper, which strikes the printer
ribbon which produces characters made up of dots which are
small.
ii. Diasy wheel printer: It is named so because the print head of
this printer resembles a daisy flower with the printing arms
that appear like the petals of the flower. They produce high
resolution output but cannot print graphics. These are slower

iii.

and expensive that dot matrix

printers. These printers have print heads composed of metallic
or plastic wheels. A raised character is placed on the tip of
each of the daisy wheels petals. The print wheel is rotated
around until the desired character is under the print hammer.
The petal is struck from behind by print hammer which strikes
the character, pushing it against ink ribbon and onto the
paper.
Drum printer: It is a line printer. It uses special tractor-fed
paper with pre punched holes along each side. This allows a
continous high speed printing. In this printer, multiple
hammers strikes multiple type elements against the paper
almost simultaneously and thus prints one line operation.
Drum printer involves a large rotating drum mounted
horizontally positioned in front of inked ribbon which is
positioned in front of the paper. Drum contains characters
moulded onto its surface in columns, which will be printed by

rotating the drum.

b)Non impact printer: It forms characters and images without making

direct physical contact between the printing mechanism and the

paper.
Characteriscts are:
They are faster and quicker than impact printer.
The produce high quality graphics.
They cannot print carbon copies.
i.

ii.

Inkject printers: It places small droplets of ink onto paper to

create an image. It has a print catridge with a electrically
heated chambers which are attached to the print head with
a series of small nozzles that spray ink onto the surface of
the paper. As print head moves back and forth across the
page, softwage gives instructions regarding type and
quality of colours and also the position where the dots of ink
should be sprayed.
Laser printer: A laser printer provides the highest quality
text and images for personal computers. They are known
as page printers. Resolution of most printer is 600dpi. They
are quiet and fast able to print 4 32 text only pages per
minutes. They can print more than 2000 lines/min. they are
faster than ink- jet printer but are more expensive than
other printers. In laser printer a rotating mirror inside the
printer causes the beam of a laser to sweep across the
photoconductive drum. At the point where the laser strikes
the surface of the drum, it creates a dot of positive change.
These points are represented by a black dot, which will be
printed on the paper. Then the black powder called toner
contained in a container is negatively charged and it clings
to the positive areas of the drum surface when the powder
pattern gets fixed, drum is rotated and the paper is fed into
the drum surface via a pressure roller. This pressure roller
transfers the black toner onto the paper.

Hydra printer: Hybrid document reproduction apparatus(HYDRA)

printer
popularly known as all-in-one printer, is a device that
consolidates the capabilities of multiple devices in one machine. It
may include some or all of the devices like printer, scanner,
photocopier and fax machine. Print speed, maximum resolution,
memory card compatibility, scanner resolution, fax speed are the
features to be considered while evaluating these printers.

2)Plotters: a plotter is a pen based output device that is attached to a

computer for making vector graphics. It is used to draw high resolution
charts, graphs, maps and other line based diagrams. It draws lines using a
pen. Multi colour plotter uses different coloured pens to draw different
colours. A plotter draws much crisper lines and graphics. Plotters are
expensive as compared to printers.
Types of plotters: There are 2 types
i.

ii.

Drum plotter: Here, the paper on which the design is to be

printed is placed over a drum. These plotters consists of one
or more pen that are mounted on a carriage, which is either
clockwise or anti-clockwise direction under the control of
plotting instructions sent by the computer.
Flat- bed plotter: It consists of a stationary horizontal plotting
surface on which the paper is fixed. The pen is mounted on a
carriage which can move in all directions to draw lines. These
plotters are instructed by the computer about the movement of
pens in the X-Y co-ordinates on the page.
The heart of the plotter is printer head assembly which
consists of a horizontal bar and pen in use attached to the
head assembly holding. Plotters create plots by moving a pen
under computer control over a drafting paper. The computer
instructions received by a plotter consists of a colour and
beginning and end co-ordinates for a line.

3. Computer Output Microfilm(COM): It is an extremely high speed, low

cost process, which records computer generated information directly from
the computer tape or catridge to a miniaturized microfilm media. The
microfilm product is in roll format which can be duplicated rapidly and
inexpensively. The image area of the copy is reduced upto 1/40 of its
original size, retaining its original clarity.
COM results in material, space and equipment savings along with
mailing costs and information retrieval savings. It facilitates indexing to
access information. The disadvantage is that it is expensive to install COM
and microfilms cannot be read without the assistance of a special reader
device. A microfilm output is used for distribution of airline schedules,
medical X-ray.

Creating microfilms: Microfilms can be created in following ways.

1. Photographic process: It uses a microfilm camera for producing
microfilms. When the original documents are fed through a camera,
it captures document into a reduced size photo. Then 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.
2. Non photographic process: here computer output is read onto the
magnetic tape, after which data printed on microfilm by using
microfilm recorder.
4.MONITOR:
A computer monitor is a TV like display attached to the computer
on which the output can be displayed and viewed. The computer monitor
can be a monochrome display(uses one colour) or a colour display. Monitor
are available in various sizes like 14,15,17,19 and 21 inches. The size of
the display is described based on two parameters.
i.

Aspect ratio It is the ratio of the width of the display screen to the
height i.e ratio of the vertical points to the horizontal points.

ii.

Screen size which is measured diagonally (in inches), the distance

from one corner to the opposite corner.
In monitor image is created and displayed using configuration of dots
known as Picture element or pixels or pels.

The screen quality depends on 3basic qualities

1) Resolution:- It refers to the number of pixels in the horizontal and
vertical directions on the screen. Move the number of dots, sharper
will be the image.
2) Dot pitch:- It is the measurement of the diagonal distances between
two like coloured pixels on the display screen. Smaller the dot pitch
sharper will be on the image. It is measured in millimeter.
3) Refresh rate:- It is the number of times per second the pixels made
from phosphor are recharged so that their glow remains bright.
Refresh rate is measured in hertz.
Colour Depth:- It also refered to as bit depth, refers to the number of bits
assigned to each pixel in the image and the number of colours that can be
created from those bits. An 8 bit colour is known as pseudocolour, 16 bit
mode as high colour and 24 bit mode is called true colour.
In 1981, IBM introduced colour graphics adapter(CGAS) which had 4
colour. In 1984, IBM introduced enhanced graphics adapter(EGA) display
which enabled monitors to display 16 different colours. In 1987, video
graphics array(VGA) was introduced. In 1990, extended graphics
array(XGA) was introduced. Nowadays i.e. uses super video graphics
array(SVGA).
Cathode Ray Tube Monitors:- Most computer monitors uses CRT
technology. 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 light at each position contacted by the beam. When
the electron beam strikes the phosphor, light is emitted for short period of
time which is known as persistence.

Displaying graphics on a CRT:- Two classes of computer graphics

displays are used:1. Raster Scan Display:- In this, electron beam is swept across the
screen, one row at a time from top to bottom. Picture definition is
stored in a refresh buffer or frame buffer which is displayed on the
screen one row at a time.
2. Random Scan Display:- Here CRT has electron beam directed only
to the parts of screen where picture is to be drawn. It draws a picture
one line at a time and they are referred to as vector, stroke- writing or
calligraphic display. Picture definition is stored in refresh display file.
Colour Display On a CRT:- CRT monitor displays colour pictures by
using a combination of phosphors that emit coloured lights.
Two basic techniques for processing colour display are as follows:
1) Beam penetration:- It is used with random scan display. In this
system, two layers of phosphor are coated on inner side of CRT
screen. Displayed colour depends on how far the electron beam
penetrates into the phosphor layers.
2) Shadow masking:- It is used in raster scan system. A shadow mask
CRT has 3 phosphor colour dots and 3 electron gun and a shadow
mask grid behind phosphor coated screen. When three beams pass

through a hole in the shadow mask they activate a dot triangle which
appears as a small colour spot on the screen.
Liquid Crystal Display Monitors:LCD monitor uses liquid crystals to display images. An LCD screen is
a collection of multiple layers. The polarized light passes through a layer
that contains thousands of liquid crystal blobs aligned in tiny containers
called cells. These cells are aligned in rows across screen making up
pixels.
Differences between CRT and LCD:i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.
vi.
vii.

viii.
ix.
x.

SIZE:- LCD is lightweight compared to CRT.

RESOLUTION:- LCD works in single resolution while CRT for many
resolutions.
Pixel Density:- Pixel density of LCD is not as tight as dot pitch in
CRT.
Brightness:- Phosphor of a CRT is not as bright as LCD florescent
light.
Power consumption:- LCD consumes less power than CRT.
Flicker:- LCD runs at much slower refresh rate than CRT
Pixel response time:- the time taken by a pixel to change its state is
called pixel response time. CRT has fast pixel response time than
LCD.
Viewing angle:- a CRT can be viewed at almost any angle but LCD is
best viewed head on.
Viewing area:- viewing area of CRT is less than its advertised area.
But LCD is measured exactly.
Cost:- cost of LCD are high than CRT.

Other Types of Monitors

1) Plasma display- also known as thin panel,is constructed by filling a
gas between the two glass plates

2) Thin film Electroluminescent display- it is similar to plasma display but

space between the glass plate is filled with phosphorescent
substance
5.Voice Response System:- It has an audio response device which
produces audio output. These sounds are prerecorded in a computer
system. Each sound has a unique code. When an enquiry is sought,
computer responds in digital form which is sent to voice devices that
unscramble the digital information and produces sound messages to
requesting computer. There are 2 approaches for the system:
1. Synthesis by analysis where the system analyses the input of
actual human voice speaking words, stores and process the
spoken sounds and reproduces them as needed.
2. Synthesis by rule which applies complex set of linguistic rules to
create artificial speech.
Computer system provides audio output with the addition of two
components - a speech synthesis that does the speaking and a screen
reading software.
6.Projectors:- Screen image projector is an output device which is used to
project information from a computer onto a large screen. It is used for
classroom training or conference room.
Types of projector:1. LCD projector; It refers to liquid crystal display. It contains three
separate LCD glass panels.
2. DLP projector: DLP stands for Digital Light Processing. It uses a
single digital mirror device(DMD) chip that has thousands of tiny
mirrors each representing a single pixel.

LCD versus DLP:

1. An LCD controls red, green and blue independently. User can adjust
brightness and contrast of each colour channel. But in DLP colour is
fixed.
2. LCD delivers sharper image than a DLP.
3. LCD is more light efficient and produces higher lumen output than
DLP.
4. DLP light engine consists of single chip rather than three LCD panels.
5. LCDs are known for their visible pixel structure.
7.Electronic Whiteboard:It is an interactive presentation device that works electronically to
display digital images, drawings and text in different colours. White board is
mounted on the wall and is connected to a computer and a projector.
Projector projects the computer desktop on the wall and is connected to a
computer and a projector . Projector projects the computer desktop on the
whiteboard and user can interact with it using electromagnetic pens, fingers
or pointing device.
Categories of whiteboard:1. Touch based:- It allows the user to use finger to interact with it.

2. Pen based:- It uses an electromagnetic pen that alters electrical

signals produced by the board.
3. Wii remote, IR pen based:- A wii Remote, infrared(IR) pen based
whiteboard works on sound electronic and optical principals.

8.Headphones and Headsets:- Headphone is an audio device equipped

with a pair of speakers which are attached to a headstrap worn by the
users. It allows the users only to listen. A headset is a combination of one
or two speakers and the microphone attached to a headstrap. Speaker
allows the person to hear and the microphone allows to communicate.

9.Terminals:- Computer terminals is a special unit that can perform as

both input and output. A terminal is an I/O device that uses a keyboard for
input and a monitor for output. A terminal is also known as Video Display
terminal. A terminal can be categorized as:
1) Dumb terminals:- It refers to a terminal that has no processing or
programming capabilities. It is used for simple data entry or retrieval
task.
2) Smart terminal:- It has built in processing capability and memory but
does not have its own storage capacity. They are found in LAN in
offices.
3) Intelligent terminals:- It has memory and in built microprocessor,
hence also called user programmable terminal.

INPUT DEVICES
keyboard layout