Peripherals

This section contains information on a range of different peripherals. Peripherals are any device that is used to put information into the computer or to take information from it. There are two types of peripheral; input devices and output devices.

Printers are used to convert your screen, a document, a picture or a pdf onto paper. A printer copies what you want to print on paper, depending on your choice this could be black and white or in colour. Different printers also allow you to print in a range of different sizes (a1, a2, a3 etc) and some allow you to print straight onto canvas. Different printers should be used depending on what your task is. Some printers are super high quality and some can print just basic low quality images.

Plotters print vector designs onto paper using a pen/pencil. Plotters are mainly used to print blueprints or design images. Plotters are slower than standard printers because instead of printing ink onto a page it has the mechanical movement of a pen to draw everything. Plotters have largely been replaced by standard inkjet printers as they are better quality, print faster and can print anything and not just vectors.

Cameras take still images of what is seen through the lens, they can also be used to record video. Cameras can be connected to computers to share the pictures or videos taken. There are also web-cameras that stream directly what it sees to your computer, this feed can be used by other programs to share with other people, for example Skype allows for multiple people to Conference call together using webcam so that everyone can see each other; this could be used for meetings across the world but making it seem like everyone is sat round a desk.

Scanners are used almost the opposite of a printer, they are used to take a copy of what is printed; a book, copy of work etc. and transfers a digital copy to a computer. This can be used to send copies of an image to someone else, it could be used to produce several identical copies of something.

Keyboards and mice are typically the most used input devices, they allow for direct input on a screen or for typing what you want to say. Keyboards have all the letters from the English language, several symbols and the numbers 0 - 9. The input on a keyboard can be used for several different tasks, it could be used for the reason it is being used here to write a document, it could be used to send messages to someone through email or social media, it could be used as input for games, it could be used to program said games or said social media, the possibilities are endless. Mice are used to move a cursor around the screen, a click can run a program, it can change tabs on an internet browser, it could click send on an email etc. it is used to initiate a command. The right click can be used to reach extra settings, for example you could right click and go into the properties of something.

Monitors are possibly the most used output device, everything that a computer wants to display for you to see is put onto a monitor. They display in pixels the different colours that a program needs, a display is typically in the three primary colours Red Green Blue (RGB), this allows for every possibility of visible colour to be produced for the monitor. Older monitors known as CRT monitors used Cathode Ray Tubes to display images on a screen, these were much quicker at refreshing and images appeared on the screen in fractions of seconds, compared to LCD and LED monitors now that could have a refresh rate of a few seconds.

Multimedia devices include items such as graphics tablets, touch screen monitors. A multimedia device is a peripheral that assists in another task. You could use a mouse for graphic design but it isn't as easy and maybe wouldn't produce the same level of detail and precision that a graphics tablet would.

Plug and Play allows for peripherals to be plugged in and work, the computer knows what is plugged in and searches and installs the drivers required for it to work without you having to search for one. This is useful when you don't know where to find the drivers, if you plug in someone else's device because it would work almost instantly or if it is an older device that will be difficult to find drivers for.