Computer - Output Devices

Computer Organization Computer Networks Computer Graphics

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 Arnab Chakraborty  Arnab Chakraborty  Arnab Chakraborty

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Following are some of the important output devices used in a computer.

Monitors
Graphic Plotter
Printer

Monitors
Monitors, commonly called as Visual Display Unit (VDU), are the main output device of a computer. It forms
images from tiny dots, called pixels that are arranged in a rectangular form. The sharpness of the image
depends upon the number of pixels.

There are two kinds of viewing screen used for monitors.

Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT)

Flat-Panel Display

Cathode-Ray Tube (CRT) Monitor

The CRT display is made up of small picture elements called pixels. The smaller the pixels, the better the image
clarity or resolution. It takes more than one illuminated pixel to form a whole character, such as the letter ‘e’ in
the word help.
A finite number of characters can be displayed on a screen at once. The screen can be divided into a series of
character boxes - fixed location on the screen where a standard character can be placed. Most screens are
capable of displaying 80 characters of data horizontally and 25 lines vertically.

There are some disadvantages of CRT −

Large in Size
High power consumption

Flat-Panel Display Monitor

The flat-panel display refers to a class of video devices that have reduced volume, weight and power
requirement in comparison to the CRT. You can hang them on walls or wear them on your wrists. Current uses
of flat-panel displays include calculators, video games, monitors, laptop computer, and graphics display.

The flat-panel display is divided into two categories −

Emissive Displays − Emissive displays are devices that convert electrical energy into light. For example,
plasma panel and LED (Light-Emitting Diodes).
Non-Emissive Displays − Non-emissive displays use optical effects to convert sunlight or light from some
other source into graphics patterns. For example, LCD (Liquid-Crystal Device).

Printers
Printer is an output device, which is used to print information on paper.

There are two types of printers −

Impact Printers
Non-Impact Printers

Impact Printers
Impact printers print the characters by striking them on the ribbon, which is then pressed on the paper.

Characteristics of Impact Printers are the following −

Very low consumable costs

Very noisy
Useful for bulk printing due to low cost
There is physical contact with the paper to produce an image

These printers are of two types −

Character printers
Line printers

Character Printers

Character printers are the printers which print one character at a time.

These are further divided into two types:

Dot Matrix Printer(DMP)

Daisy Wheel

Dot Matrix Printer

In the market, one of the most popular printers is Dot Matrix Printer. These printers are popular because of their
ease of printing and economical price. Each character printed is in the form of pattern of dots and head consists
of a Matrix of Pins of size (5*7, 7*9, 9*7 or 9*9) which come out to form a character which is why it is called Dot
Matrix Printer.
Advantages

Inexpensive
Widely Used
Other language characters can be printed

Disadvantages

Slow Speed
Poor Quality

Daisy Wheel

Head is lying on a wheel and pins corresponding to characters are like petals of Daisy (flower) which is why it is
called Daisy Wheel Printer. These printers are generally used for word-processing in offices that require a few
letters to be sent here and there with very nice quality.

Advantages

More reliable than DMP

Better quality
Fonts of character can be easily changed

Disadvantages

Slower than DMP

Noisy
More expensive than DMP

Line Printers

Line printers are the printers which print one line at a time.
These are of two types −

Drum Printer
Chain Printer

Drum Printer

This printer is like a drum in shape hence it is called drum printer. The surface of the drum is divided into a
number of tracks. Total tracks are equal to the size of the paper, i.e. for a paper width of 132 characters, drum
will have 132 tracks. A character set is embossed on the track. Different character sets available in the market
are 48 character set, 64 and 96 characters set. One rotation of drum prints one line. Drum printers are fast in
speed and can print 300 to 2000 lines per minute.

Advantages

Very high speed

Disadvantages

Very expensive
Characters fonts cannot be changed

Chain Printer

In this printer, a chain of character sets is used, hence it is called Chain Printer. A standard character set may
have 48, 64, or 96 characters.

Advantages

Character fonts can easily be changed.

Different languages can be used with the same printer.

Disadvantages

Noisy

Non-impact Printers
Non-impact printers print the characters without using the ribbon. These printers print a complete page at a
time, thus they are also called as Page Printers.

These printers are of two types −

Laser Printers
Inkjet Printers

Characteristics of Non-impact Printers

Faster than impact printers

They are not noisy
High quality
Supports many fonts and different character size

Laser Printers

These are non-impact page printers. They use laser lights to produce the dots needed to form the characters to
be printed on a page.

Advantages

Very high speed

Very high quality output
Good graphics quality
Supports many fonts and different character size

Disadvantages

Expensive
Cannot be used to produce multiple copies of a document in a single printing

Inkjet Printers
Inkjet printers are non-impact character printers based on a relatively new technology. They print characters by
spraying small drops of ink onto paper. Inkjet printers produce high quality output with presentable features.

They make less noise because no hammering is done and these have many styles of printing modes available.
Color printing is also possible. Some models of Inkjet printers can produce multiple copies of printing also.

Advantages

High quality printing

More reliable

Disadvantages

Expensive as the cost per page is high

Slow as compared to laser printer

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