Output Devices

Output Devices

1. CRT Monitor

   • A monitor displays text and image data passed to it by the computer. A cathode-ray tube monitor is the type that has been around for years and is large and boxy.
     • Disadvantages: CRT monitors are heavy and they take up a lot of desk space. They have largely been replaced by flat-screen monitors.
     • Advantages: Some are still used in the design industry since the colour accuracy and brightness of CRT monitors is excellent. Also, CRT monitors are generally cheaper than flat-screen monitors.

2. Flat-Screen Monitor

   • A monitor displays text and image data passed to it by the computer.
     • Advantages: Flat-screen monitors are light in weight and they take up very little desk space.
     • Disadvantages: The are more expensive than the CRT monitors.

3. Digital/Multimedia Projector

   • Digital projectors are used in situations when a very larege viewing area is required, for example during presentations, for advertising, or in your home for watching movies.
     • Advantages: It connects to a computer, a DVD player or a satellite receiver just like a ordinary monitor.
     • Disadvantages: It is expensive and has to be connected to a computer, a DVD player or a satellite receiver.

4. Loudspeaker

   • If you want to hear music or sounds from your computer, you will have to attach loudspeakers. They convert electrical signals into sound waves.
     • Advantages: Loudspeakers are essential for applications such as music editing, video conferencing, watching movies, etc.
     • Disadvantages: They take up a lot of desk space and are expensive.

5. Dot Matrix Printer

   • A dot matrix printer is a printer that produces characters and illustrations by striking pins against an ink ribbon to print closely spaced dots in the appropriate shape.
     • Disadvantages: Dot -matrix print is poor quality, the printers are noisy and there are much better printing systems available today. They are also slow.
     • Advantages: The print mechanism is very cheap, and the inked ribbons last for a long time

6. InkJet Printer

   • It is a type of printer that works by spraying ionized ink onto the surface of the paper. Magnetized plates in the ink´s path direct the ink onto the paper in the desired shapes
     • Advantages: It is cheap, high-quality, full-colour and very quiet in use.
     • Disadvantages: The ink is very expensive to buy so the printers are expensive to use. They are also slow.

7. Laser Printer

   • It is a type of printer that involves a laser to make the toner stick to the required parts of the paper
     • Disadvantage: It is expensive to buy.
     • Advantages: It is cheap to use and it is very fast printing

8. Plotter

   • Plotters create hard-copy in a very different way to printers. Instead of building up text and images from tiny dots, plotters draw on the paper using a pen.
     • Advantages: It can create a drawing just like a human could, but much more accurately and more quickly.
     • Disadvantages: Plotters are only suitable for producing line drawings

9. Motor

   • A motor provides movement.
     • Disadvantage: It is expensive
     • Advantages: It can be controlled by a computer.

10. Pumps

    • A pump is a motor attached to a device that can push water or air along pipes
      • Advantages- It can be used in many places: as part of watering systems in greenhouse, in factories, etc.

11. Buzzer

    • Buzzers can provide sound
      • Advantages: A buzzer in a microwave oven can be switched on by controlling computer when the food is cooked.

12. Heaters/Coolers

    • Heaters can provide heat, and coolers can cool things down.
      • Advantages: Easy to use
      • Disadvantages: Expensive

13. Lights

    • Lightbulbs or LEDs can be used to provide light, or to indicate something