1. Printing Information on a paper is known as “Hard Copy”. There are two main types of printers: - Impact - Non-Impact.

2. Impact Printers Relatively cheap Slow and Noisy Quality is not very good Some types of impact printers: - Dot Matrix Printer - Daisywhee l.

3. Dot Matrix Printer Dot Matrix Printer contains a print head that strikes a ribbon between the page. Used in offices to print bills and invoices A dot matrix printer

4. Daisy Wheel The Daisy Wheel printers has printing characters at the end of the spokes on the wheel. Used in some electric typewriters and printers, A daisy wheel showing detail of the characters

5. Non Impact Printers Non-Impact Printers are much quieter than impact printers, as their printing heads do not strike the paper. A little more expensive but faster and quality is better. Some non-impact printers are: - Thermal Printer - Ink Jet Printer - Laser Printer

6. Thermal Printer Comprises of a thermal head that generates heat to produce a printed image on paper. Used in calculators and fax machines. A fax machine uses a thermal printer.

7. Ink Jet Printers Sprays ink onto the paper producing a high quality text and graphics. Used at home or small offices Ink Jet Printer Colour cartridge showing inkjet nozzles

8. Laser Printer Use a laser beam and dry powered ink to produce a fine quality print. Used in schools and large businesses

9. Soft Copy Output devices Soft copy output cannot be “touched” or felt Visual - Monitors/Visual Display Unit Visual - Monitors/Visual Display Unit Audio - Speakers Audio - Speakers

10. A Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitor A LCD monitor (Liquid Crystal Display) Visual Display Units (VDU) or monitors are used to visually interface with the computer. pixels pixels (Picture Elements) Visual Display Units display images and text which are made up of small blocks of coloured light called pixels (Picture Elements). The resolution of the screen improves as the number of pixels is increased.pixels

11. Speakers Speakers output information in the form of sound waves. Computers may also use a sound card to allow for better quality sound.