(i) Printers:
A printer is a device that is used to produce hard copies of data held in the computer.
Hardcopy is a document printed on paper, e.g a printed school report, a printed letter, etc.
Output from the printer appears as displayed on the computer screen, thus What You See Is
What You Get (WYSIWYG).
Types of Printers
Printers can be classified into impact and non-impact printers.
(a) Impact Printers: these are printers whose write heads hit ink ribbon against paper
during printing, e.g. dot matrix printer, chain printer, daisy wheel printer, drum printer, etc. Thus,
there is contact between the paper and the write heads during the printing stage. Examples
include drum printers, dot matrix printers, daisy wheel printers and chain printers. Impact
printers have the following advantages:
• they arevery cheap to buy.
• They are cheap to repair and to maintain.
• They can use continuous paper.
• They are economic in terms of ink usage.
However, Impact printers have the following
disadvantages: They produce a lot of noise. They are very slow in
printing since most are line printers. They produce
poor quality printout.
dot matrix
Dot Matrix printer
- Produces NLQ (Near Letter Quality) output, in form of small dots.
- They are robust
- Less likely to be affected by dust
- Can print multi-part stationery
- Purchasing and running costs are very low
Weaknesses
- Low resolution
- Noisy
- Slow printing speed: this is because they can be character based or line based printers.
Daisy wheel printer
- Uses a print wheel to produce characters
- Can print about 100 characters per second
(b) Non-Impact Printers: These are printers that do not produce contact between paper,
write heads and ink cartridge during printing. Non-impact printers include: inkjet printer, laser
printer, thermal printer, etc.
Laser printers
Most of the printers use light and are therefore
called laser printers.
The advantages of laser printers are as follows:
• They print at very high speeds since they are page printers.
• They produce high quality text and graphics.
• They produce less noise than dotmatrix printers (they are quiet in
LaserJet printers their operation).
• Have paper trays both for input and output and therefore need
no supervision once setup.
• The toner is not water-soluble The disadvantages of laser printers are as
follows:
• they are very expensive to buy,
• they are large and therefore take up a lot of desk space,
• they are quite complex and therefore repair bills can be very high,
• Cannot be used with continuous stationery since they are page printers.
• Toner is toxic/poisonous and therefore should be disposed of carefully after
use.
Inkjet printers
Uses print head to propel droplets of ink on a sheet of paper.
Advantages:
• relatively high resolution
• Good colour production
• Low cost/heap to buy
• Usually small size
Disadvantages
• Slow printing speed
• Ink is expensive
• Has a water soluble ink which may be spilt
• Running costs are expensive
*NB: - Printers can also be classified as page printers (these print one page at a given time and
are therefore faster), line printers (print one line at a time, very slow) and character printers
(print one character at a time).
Factors to consider when purchasing a printer:
- Price
- Printing speed
- Reliability and easiness of maintenance
- Print quality
- Range of capabilities
- Noise level
- Compatibility with computers
(ii) Screen / Monitor: it is a television shaped device used to display contents on the computer
as soft copy. Soft copy refers to data viewed on the screen. The screen can also be called the
Visual Display Unit (VDU). The screen can differ in terms of resolution, that is low
resolution screens display less number of dots per inch on the computer and therefore the
display will be of poor quality. High resolution monitors are needed mostly in graphics
packages where colour and many dots per inch are needed.
Monitors are of three main types:
- LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)
Relatively thin and do not use a beam of electrons. They easily fit on walls and desks,
light weight, compact and can fit on laptops, little light is reflected, absence of flicker on
the screen. However, images can be viewed from fewer angles, can display limited range
of colours.
- CRT (Cathode Ray Tube)
These are the older and bulker versions. To display content, an electric gun fires a beam
of electrons from the rear of the CRT. They are cheap, images can be viewed from a
wider angles, and has a wider range of colour and brightness. However, they are bulky
and difficult to fit on a desk, they are heavy and difficult to mount on walls, and too
much reflection can affect eyes.
- Plasma Display Panels:
Flat panel display used for television displays
Advantage of Monitors
- Its output is immediate and visual
- High speed of display
- No noise
- No wastage of paper
- Can display text, graphics, etc
Disadvantages
- When the display changes, the previous output is lost.
- Needs a separate device to produce hardcopy
(iii) Graph Plotter: This is a device used to produce high quality drawings in various paper
sizes and is used in Computer Aided Design (CAD). A plotter can be used to produce high
quality, accurate, A3 size or bigger drawings. They are usually used for Computer Aided
Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacture (CAM) applications, such as printing out
plans for houses or car parts. They print sharper and more precise drawings.
Graph plotter
