Output Devices of Computer

An output device is any hardware device that is used to send data from a computer to another device or user. We have many output devices, but the following are the most commonly used output devices:

1. Monitor

2. Printer

3. Speaker

Images of a Few Output Devices

 Output Devices

 More Details of the Above-Mentioned Output Devices

• Monitor

Monitor is the most important output device of a computer as it is the visual output device. Without it, the computer is incomplete. The monitor is a basic device of the computer for the visual display of all types of information or data in any form. The monitor is designed to display information in symbolic and graphical types. It shows all the data and information as a Soft Copy of that data on its screen. Anyone can view Files, photos, videos, texts, graphics, and tables in real-time through the monitor.

Monitor

Following are Types of Monitor:

• Colour Monitor: As its name tells us, it is a monitor which displays everything colourful on its screen. This is because monitors or television screens produce three colours (red, green, and blue), and the other colours we see have different combinations and intensities of these three primary colours. Each pixel on a computer screen consists of three small connecting dots called phosphors surrounded by black mask. Examples are monitor, television, tablet etc.

 Coloured Monitor

• Monochrome Monitor: A monochrome monitor is a type of computer monitor that displays computer text and images in different two colours only, as opposed to a coloured monitor that can display text and images in multiple colours, they are black and white. It was very common in the early days of computing from the 1960's to the 1980's, before colour monitors were widespread on the market.

 Monochrome Monitor

• TFT Monitor: It stands for Thin Film Transistor (TFT) monitor. A TFT (Thin Film Transistor) display screen is a liquid crystal display (LCD) commonly found in laptops and portable computers that has a transistor for each pixel that is, each small element that controls the backlight of the display.

  TFT Monitor

• Printer

A Printer is a device that takes text and graphic data from a computer and transfers the information to paper. Printers can be differentiated on the basis of size, speed, complexity, and cost.

    Printer

Following are Types of Printers: 

• Inkjet Printer: The inkjet printer is a computer peripheral that prints hard copies by jetting ink onto paper. A typical inkjet printer can produce copies with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per inch). Some inkjet printers can print full colour copies at 600 dpi or higher.

        Inkjet Printer

• Dot Matrix Printer: The dot matrix printer can print multiple sheets at once by printing directly on the white front sheet and then back on colour carbon paper.

               Dot Matrix Printer

• Laser Printer: Laser printers are a popular type of computer printer that uses shock-free copier technology where the keys do not touch the paper.

  Laser Printer

• Speaker

They are the audio output devices. Computer speakers are hardware output devices that connect to a computer to reproduce sound. The signals used to reproduce sound from  your computer's speakers are produced by your computer's sound card.

 Speaker

 Examples are:

• High groove - UB3.

• Bose-Companion 2 Computer Speaker System

• Logitech- Multimedia speaker system Z313.

• Logitech-Speaker S120.

• Amazon Basics- U213.

Points to Remember

• Output device is computer hardware that receives data from a computer and then converts that data to another format. This form can be a hard copy such as audio, video, text, or printed document. 

• This is a hardware device used to pass the output which we get  from computations performed within the CPU to other connected devices or to other users on the same network.

• An output device is a device that helps us to get data processed from a computer, usually in the form of visual, audio, and xerox.

• Monitors are of three types - coloured, monochrome, TFT.

• Printer converts the data from softcopy to hardcopy (on paper).

• Printers are of three types - inkjet, dot matrix, laser.

Learn By Doing

Write true or false for the following:

1. A keyboard is an output device.

2. Monochrome monitors display output in two colours only.

3. Monitor acts as an interface between the CPU and the user.

4. The dot matrix printer can print one sheet at a time.

5. Output devices take data from the user.

6. Speaker is the standard audio output device.

Sample Questions

1. Arrange these jumbled words.

• toomnir-Monitor

• epeahhdon-Headphones

• iletvonie-Television

2. Which type of output device speaker is.

Ans:  Speaker is a type of “Audio Output Device”.

3. Write three modified types of speakers.

Ans: The three modified forms of speakers are Headphones, Airpods, and Bluetooth speakers.

Summary

Output devices are one of the two main devices of a computer system. They provide us with the results produced by the computer. There are different types of output devices for different forms of output like for display we have monitor, for audio we have speaker, and for printing we have printer.