UNIT I OUTPUT DEVICES

CHAPTER 4(Unit I)
OUTPUT DEVICES
 Output is data that have been processed into useful information.
 It can be displayed or viewed on a monitor, printed on a printer, or listened through speakers
or a headset.
 Generally, there are two basic categories of output: the output which can be readily
understood and used by humans, 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 human beings are of the following
two forms:
Hard Copy: The physical form of output is known as hard copy.
 In general, it refers to the recorded information copied from a computer onto paper or
some other durable such as microfilm.
 Hard copy output is permanent and a relatively stable form of output.
 This type of output is also highly portable.
 Paper is one of the most widely used hard copy output media.
 The principal examples are printouts, whether text or graphics from printers.

Soft Copy: The electronic version of an output, which usually resides in computer
memory and/or on disk, is known as soft copy.
 Unlike hard copy, soft copy is not a permanent form of output.
 It is transient and is usually displayed on the screen. This kind of output is not
tangible, that is, it cannot be touched.
 Soft copy output includes audio and visual form of output, which is generated using a
computer.
 In addition, textual or graphic information displayed on a computer monitor is also a
soft copy form of output.

 Based on the hard copy and soft copy outputs, the output devices are classified into hard
copy and soft copy devices.
 Printers, plotters and microfilms are the most commonly used hard copy output devices
while monitors, voice response systems, projectors, electronic whiteboards and headphones
and headsets are some commonly used soft copy output devices.

PRINTERS
 A printer prints information and data from the computer onto paper.
 Generally, the printer prints 80 or 132 columns of characters in each line, and prints
either on single sheet or on a continuous roll of paper, depending upon the printer itself.
 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. For printers, the resolution is measured in
dpi (dots per inch).
 The more the dpi, the better will be the quality of image.
 The dots are so small and close together that they project the same as a solid one.
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 If a printer has a resolution of 600 dpi, it means that the printer is capable of printing 360,000 dots per squ

 Printers are divided into two basic categories: impact printers and non-impact
printers.
 As their name specify, impact printers work by physically striking a head or needle
against an ink ribbon to make a mark on the paper.
 This includes dot matrix printers, daisy wheel printers and drum printers.
 In contrast, inkjet and laser printers are non-impact printers.
 They use techniques other than physically striking the page to transfer ink onto the page.

Dot Matrix Printer

 Dot matrix printer also known as the wire matrix printer) uses the oldest printing
technology and it prints one character at a time.
 It prints characters and images as pattern of dots. The speed of dot matrix printers is
measured in character per second (cps).
 Most dot matrix printers offer different speeds depending on the quality of print desired.
 The speed can vary from about 200 to over 500 cps. The print quality is determined by
the number of pins (the mechanisms that prints dot) which can vary from 9 to 24.
 The more pins per inch, the higher the print resolution.
 The best dot matrix printer (24 pins) can produce near letter-quality-type image.
 Most dot matrix printers have a resolution ranging from 72 to 360 dpi.
Advantages
o Dot matrix printers are inexpensive and have low operating costs. These printers are
able to use different types of fonts, different line densities and different types of
paper.
o Many dot matrix printers are bi-directional, that is, they can print the characters from
either direction - left or right.
The major limitation of the dot matrix printer is that :
o it prints only in black and white.
o In addition, as compared to printers like laser printers, they produce low to medium
quality printing.
o The image printing ability is also very limited. These printers may not be able to print
graphic objects adequately but can handle applications such as accounting, personnel
and payroll very well.
o Dot matrix printers are commonly used in low-cost, low-quality applications like cash
registers.
o These printers are limited to situations where carbon copies are needed and the
quality is not too important.

Ink-jet Printer

 The most common type of printers found in homes today is the ink-jet printer.
 An ink-jet printer is a printer that places extremely small droplets of ink onto paper to
create an image.
 Being a non-impact printer, it does not touch the paper while creating an image.
 Instead, it uses a series of nozzles to spray drops of ink directly onto the paper.
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 Inkjets were originally manufactured to print in monochrome only.

 However, the print head has now been expanded and the nozzles increased to
accommodate cyan (C), Magenta (M), yellow (Y) and black (K). This combination of
colours is called CMYK.
 It allows for printing images with nearly the same quality as a photo development lab
using certain types of coated paper.
 Ink-jet printers are costlier than dot matrix printers and the quality is much better.
 These printers can print any shape of character, which a user can specify, as they produce
printed output as patterns of tiny dots.
 This allows the printer to print many special characters, different sizes of prints and
enables it to print graphics such as charts and graphs.
 Ink-jet printers typically print with a resolution of 600 dpi or more.
 Due to the high resolution, these printers produce high quality graphics and text printouts.
 They are also affordable, which appeals to small businesses and home offices.
 These printers print documents at a medium pace but slow
down if printing a document with multi-colors.
 These printers can print about six pages a minute and can be programmed to print
symbols such as Japanese or Chinese characters.

Laser Printer
 A laser printer provides the highest quality text and images for personal computers today.
 It is a very fast printer, which operates on the same principle as that of a photocopy
machine.
 Most laser printers can print text and graphics with a very high quality resolution.
 They are also known as page printers because they process and store the entire page
before they actually print it.
 They produce sharp, crisp images of both text and graphics, providing resolutions from
300 to 2400 dpi.
 Today, the resolution of most printers is 600 dpi.
 They are quiet and fast, are able to print 4-32 text-only pages per minute for individual
microcomputers and up to 200 pages per minute for mainframes.
 Laser printers can print in excess of 2000 lines per minute.
 Furthermore, they can print in different fonts, that is, type styles and sizes.
 Laser printers are often faster than ink-jet printers but are more expensive to buy and
maintain than the other printers.
 The cost of these printers depends on a combination of costs of paper, toner replacement,
and drum replacement.
 These printers are useful for volume printing because of their speed.

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.
 Apart from these devices,
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printers contain memory card slots which facilitate easier printing of photos and also have the in-built wir
 Following are the features that must be considered to evaluate these printers:
o Print speed
o Maximum resolution
o Memory card compatibility
o Scanner resolution
o Fax Speed
 Hydra printers are useful for small organizations due to their small size, less space
requirements and cost effectiveness.
 The cost of these printers depends on the technology (inkjet or laser) being used.
 They save power to a great extent as only one power outlet is required for performing
various operations.
 They are easy to install and maintain and have easy-to-use GUI (graphical user Interface)
that help users to understand their functions easily.

Plotters
 A Plotter is a pen-based output device that is attached to a computer for making vector
graphics, that is, images created by a series of many straight lines.
 It is used to draw high resolution charts, graphs, blueprints, maps, circuit diagrams and
other line based diagrams.
 It is similar to a printer, but it draws lines using a pen.
 As a result, it can produce continuous lines, whereas a printer can only simulate lines by
printing a closely spaced series of dots.
 Multicolour plotter uses different coloured pens to draw different colours.
 Colour plots can be made by using four pens (cyan, magenta, yellow and black) and need
to human intervention to change them.
 Being vector -based, a plotter tends to draw much crisper lines and graphics.
 The lines drawn by these devices are continuous and very accurate.
 However, the plotter is considered a very slow device because it requires excessive
mechanical movement to plot.
 Furthermore, it is unable to produce solid fills and shading. Plotters are relatively
expensive as compared to printers but can produce more printouts than standard printers.
 They are mainly used for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided
Manufacturing applications such as printing out plans for houses or car parts.
 These are also used with programs like AUTOCAD (computer assisted drafting) to give
graphic outputs.
 There are two different types of plotters:
drum plotter (where the paper moves) and flatbed
plotter (where the paper is stationary).

Drum Plotter:
 In drum plotters, the paper on which the design is to be printed is placed over a drum.
 These plotters consist of one or more pen(s) that are mounted on a cartridge which is
horizontally placed across the drum.
 The drum can rotate in either clockwise or anticlockwise direction under the control of
plotting instructions sent by the computer.
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 In case a horizontal line is to be drawn, the horizontal movement of the pen is combined with the vertical mo
 The curves can also be drawn by creating a sequence of very short straight lines. In these
plotters each pen can have an ink of a different colour to produce mulitcolour designs.
 Drum plotters are used to produce continuous output such as plotting earthquake activity or
for long graphic output such as tall building structures.

Flatbed plotter
 Flatbed plotters consist of a stationary, horizontal plotting surface on which paper is
fixed.
 The pen is mounted on a cartridge, which can move horizontally, vertically, leftwards or
rightwards to draw lines.
 In flatbed plotters, the paper does not move, the pen-holding mechanism provides all the
motion.
 These plotters are instructed by the computer on the movement of pens in the x – y
coordinates on the page.
 These plotters are capable of working on any standard, that is from A4 size paper to some
very big beds.
 Depending on the size of the flatbed surface, these are used in designing of ships,
aircrafts, building and so on.
 The major disadvantage of this plotter is that it is a slow output device and can take hours
to complete a complex drawing.

Monitor
 The monitor is the most frequently used computer output device for producing soft copy
output.
 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 either be a monochrome display or a colour display.
 A monochrome screen uses only one colour (usually white, green or black) to display text
on contrasting background.
 Colour screens commonly display 256 colours at one time from a selection of over
256,000 choices.
 Monitors are available in various sizes like 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 inches.
 The size of the display is described based on two parameters: aspect ratio and screen
size
 Aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of the display screen to the height, that is, the ratio of
vertical points to the horizontal points necessary to produce equal length lines in both
directions on the screen, Generally, computer displays have an aspect ratio of 4:3. Like
televisions, screen sizes are normally measured diagonally (in inches), the distance from
one corner to the opposite corner.
 Sometimes, while watching television, you may notice that the picture looks a bit blurred.
 The reason behind this is that the displayed image is not solid but is created by the
configurations of dots. These dots are known as picture elements, pels or simply pixels.
 The golden rule of a sharp image is that the more the pixels, the sharper the picture.
The screen clarity depends on three basic qualities:
1.Resolution
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2.Dot pitch
3.Represh Rate
Resolution: It refers to the number of pixels in the horizontal and vertical directions on the
screen. In medium-resolution graphics, pixels are resolution graphics, pixels are small.
 The average CRT display is currently 800x600 or 1024 x 768. The more dots, or
pixels, available to create the image, the sharper it will be.
 Therefore, a resolution of 1024 x 768 will produce sharper images.

Dot Pitch: It is the measurement of the diagonal distance between two like coloured (red,
green or blue) pixels on a display screen.
 It is measured in millimeters and common dot pitches are .51 mm, .31 mm, .28 mm,
.27 mm, 26mm and .25mm. The smaller the dot pitch, the sharper will be the image
when displayed on the monitor.
 Generally, a dot pitch of less than ..31mm provides clear image. Multimedia and
desktop publishing users typically use .25 mm dot pitch monitors.

Refresh Rate: It is the number of times per second the pixels are recharged so that their glow
remains bright.
 Normally, screen pixels are made from phosphor. An electron beam strikes the
phosphor and causes it to emit light, resulting in the display of the image.
 However, it needs to be refreshed periodically because the phosphors hold their glow
for just a fraction of a second.
 The refresh rate for a monitor is measured in Hertz (Hz) and varies from 60 to 75 Hz.
 A refresh rate of 60 Hz means image is redrawn 60 times a second.
 The higher the refresh rate, the more looks on the screen, that is, it does not flicker.

Colour Depth: Colour depth, also referred 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.
 In simple words, it refers to the number of colours that a monitor can display.
 Different colour depths depend on the amount of display memory dedicated to each
pixel. One byte is used represent 256 colours for each pixel, 16 bits (or 2 bytes)per
pixel allows upto 65535 colours, and 24-bit (or 3 bytes)colour can display 16.8
million different colours per pixel. 8-bit colour is better known as pseudo colour, 16-
bit mode as high colour, and 24-bit mode is called true colour.
 A video display unit consists of a video card or adapter that is fitted into an
expansion slot and a compatible visual display, which is compatible with the video
adapter.
 The combination of the display modes supported by the graphics adapter and the
colour capability of the monitor determine how many colours can be displayed.

Cathode Ray Tube Monitors:

 Nowadays, most computer monitors are based on Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) technology.
 The basic operation of these tubes is similar to that in television sets.
 A beam of electrons (cathode-rays) emitted by an electron gun passes through focusing
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and deflection systems that direct the beam toward specified positions on the phosphor-coated screen.
 The phosphor then emits a small spot of light at each position contacted by the beam.
 When electron beam strikes the phosphors, the light is emitted for a short period of time,
this condition is known as persistence.

 Technically, persistence is defined as the time it takes for the emitted light from the
screen to decay to 1/10 of its original intensity.
 Graphics monitors are usually constructed with persistence in the range of 10-60
microseconds.
 Since the light emitted by the phosphor fades very rapidly, some method is needed for
maintaining the screen picture.
 One way to keep the phosphor glowing is to redraw the picture repeatedly by quickly
directing the electron beams back over the same points.
 This type of display is called a refresh CRT.

 The primary components of an electron gun in a CRT are heated metal cathode and a
control grid.
 Heat is supplied to the cathode by directing a current through a coil of wire, called the
filament, inside the cylindrical cathode structure.
 This causes electrons to be "boiled off" the hot cathode surface.
 In the vacuum inside the CRT envelope, the free, negatively charged electrons are then
accelerated toward the phosphor coating by a highly positive voltage.
 The accelerating voltage can be generated with a positively charged metal coating on the
inside
of the CRT envelope near the phosphor screen, or an accelerating anode can be used.
 Note that sometimes the electron gun is built to contain the accelerating anode and
focusing system within the same unit.

 Before reaching the phosphor-coated screen, the electrons have to be passed through the
monitor’s focusing system.
 The focusing system is initially set up to focus the electron flow into a very thin beam
and then in a specific direction.
 Focusing can be accomplished either by electric fields.

 When the electrons in the beams collide with the phosphor coating, their kinetic energy
absorbed by the phosphor.
 Some of this energy is converted into heat while rest of energy causes the electrons in the
phosphors to move up to the higher energy levels. After this, when these electrons begin
to return to the ground state, they emit light at certain frequencies.
 These frequencies are proportionate to the energy difference between the higher state and
the ground state.
 As a result, the image, which we see on the screen, is the combination of all the electron
light emissions.

Displaying Graphics on a CRT: Nowadays, two classes of computer graphic display are used:
raster scan and random scan display.
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Raster Scan Display: In this system, the electron beam is swept across the screen one row at a time from top to
 As the electron beam moves across each row, the beam intensity is turned ON and OFF to
create a pattern of illuminated spots.
 The picture definition is stored in a memory area called the refresh buffer or frame buffer,
which holds the set of intensity values for all the screen points.
 These values are then retrieved from the refresh buffer and "painted" on the screen one
row (scan line) at a time.
 At the end of each scan line, the electron beam returns to the left side of the screen to
begin displaying the next scan line.
 The return to the left of the screen, after refreshing each scan line, is called the horizontal
retrace of the electron beam.
 At the end of each frame, the electron beam returns to the top left comer of the screen to
begin the next frame.
 This is known as vertical retrace.
 On some raster-scan systems, each frame is displayed in two passes using an interlaced
refresh procedure.
 In the first pass the beam sweeps across every other scan line from top to bottom.
 Then after the vertical retrace, the beam sweeps out the remaining scan lines.
 Interlacing of the scan lines in this way allows us to see the entire screen displayed in half
the time it would have taken to sweep across all the lines at once from top to bottom.
 This is an effective technique for avoiding flicker, provided that adjacent scan lines
contain similar display information.

Random Scan Display: In this system, a CRT has the electron beam directed only to the parts of
the screen where a picture is to be drawn.
 Random scan monitors draw a picture one line at a time, and for this reason are referred
to as vector, stroke writing, or calligraphic displays.
 The component lines of a picture can be drawn and refreshed by a random scan system in
any specified order.
 Refresh rate on a random
scan system depends on the number of lines to be displayed.
 Picture definition is stored as a set of line-drawing commands in an area of memory
referred to as the refresh display file.
 To display a specified picture, the system cycles through the set of commands in the
display file, drawing each component line in turn.
 After all line drawing commands have been processed, the system cycles back to the first
line command in the list.
 Random scan systems are designed for line drawing applications.
 They cannot display realistic shaded scenes.

Liquid Crystal Display Monitors:

 With the widespread use of smaller computers like PDAs and laptops, a new type of
display. Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) has made a big impact on the computer market.
 LCD screens have been used for long on notebook computers but are also becoming
popular as desktop monitors.
 The term liquid crystal sounds like a contradiction.
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 We generally conceive a crystal as a solid material like quartz and a liquid as water-like fluid.
 However, Some distances can exist in an odd state that is semi-liquid and semi-solid.
 When they are in this state, their molecules tend to maintain their orientation like the
molecules in a solid, but also move around to different positions like the molecules in a
liquid.
 Thus, liquid crystals are neither a solid nor a liquid. Manufactures use this amazing
ability of liquid crystals to display images.
 An LCD screen is a collection of multiple layers.
 A fluorescent light source, known as the backlight makes up the rearmost layer.
 Light passes through the first of two polarizing filters.
 The polarized light then passes through a layer that contains thousands of liquid crystal
blobs aligned in tiny containers called cells.
 These cells are aligned in rows across the screen; one or more cells make up one 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 polarizing filter and allows it to pass
through.
 The colour LCD is more complex.
 In a coloured LCD panel, each pixel is made up of three liquid crystal cells.
 In front of each of these cells, there is a red, green or blue filter.
 Light passing through the filtered cells creates the colours on the LCD.
 Nowadays, nearly every colour LCD uses a thin-film transistor (TFT), also known as an
active matrix, to activate each cell.
 TFT-based LCD creates sharp, bright LCD technologies.
 The oldest of the matrix technologies, passive-matrix, offers sharp text but leaves "ghost
images" on the screen when the display, making it less than optimal for moving video.
 An LCD addresses each pixel individually.
 As a result, they can create sharper text than CRT’S.
 LCD has only one "natural" resolution, limited by the number of pixels physically built
into the display.
 If you want to move up to, say, 1024 by 768 LCD on an 800 by 600 LCD, you have to
emulate it with software, which will work only at certain resolutions.

Differences between LCD and CRT:

Although both the CRT and LCD monitors are the most frequently used types of displays in
computers, they are worlds apart in terms of what is important when making a purchase
decision. Here is a brief discussion of what is different about LCD monitors.
1. Size: LCD is lightweight and compact, which saves desktop space as compared to a CRT.
2. Resolution: LCD is designed to work in a single resolution while CRT is designed for many
resolutions.
3. Pixel Density: Pixel density of LCD is generally not as tight as the dot pitch in CRT but for
most applications, the density is acceptable. Brightness: The illuminated phosphor of a CRT
is not early as bright as what the LCD produce with its florescent backlight.
4. Power consumption: LCD consumes significantly less power than CRT and has a low
emission risk. Typically, a LCD consumes approximately half of the power of a typical
CRT.
5. Flicker: With CRT monitors, the goal is to get a faster refresh rate of at least 85 Hz, but LCD
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monitors are designed to run at a much slower refresh rate (usually about 60 Hz) and flicker is never an i
6. Pixel Response Time: The time taken by a pixel to change its state is called pixel response
time. CRT has extremely fast pixel response time but LCD can be quite slow. As a result,
the user might see "ghost images" when there is movement on the screen. The fastest
LCD monitors today have a response time of 25 milliseconds which is still only about
half the speed of a CRT monitor.

7. Viewing Angle: CRT can be viewed at almost any angle but LCD is best viewed "head on".
Even when viewing an LCD head on, narrow viewing angles can appear to have
inconsistent colour and brightness.
8. Viewing Area: The viewing area of a CRT is usually less than its advertised area. Most 19-
inch CRT monitors, for example, typically have about 18 inches of viewable area.
However, the LCD monitors are measured exactly, that is, if a LCD
advertised as 17.4 inch, it is the same.
9. Cost: Prices for LCD screens are quite high but they are coming down. They are still much
more costlier than CRT.

Other Types of Monitors: Although CRT and LCD displays are the most commonly used, other
kinds of displays also exist. Some of them are as follows:
Plasma Display:
 A plasma display (also known as thin-panel) is constructed by filling a gas (neon or
xenon) between the two glass plates. One glass plate consists of vertical conductors and
the other consists of horizontal conductors. When' the voltage is applied to the pair of
horizontal and vertical conductors, the gas at the intersection of two conductors glows.
 The advantage of plasma display is that it has the capability of producing more than 16
million colours and is lighter and less bulky than CRT. However, it is heavier than LCD
display and requires more power.
Thin-film Electroluminescent Display:
 This display is similar to the plasma display except the fact that the space between the
glass plates is filled with phosphorescent substance (usually zinc sulfide doped with
manganese) instead of gas.
 When high voltage is applied to the crossing conductors, the phosphoric substance at the
intersection of two conductors becomes conductor and generates the electrical energy.
This energy is absorbed by the manganese atoms and then released as a spot of light. The
main problem with thin-film electroluminescent displays is that they require more power.

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