Sections from Chapter2

Included:
Overview of  2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 2.6
Graphics Systems
Not included:
 2.4, 2.7
13th April 2006

Output devices
http://www.howstuffworks.com

Display devices (CRT/DVST/LCD).

Printers.
 Dot Matrix.
 Inkjet/Laser.

Plotters.

1
Direct-View storage tube

2 electron guns are used.
 Primary gun stores the picture definition.
 Flood gun maintains the picture display.

Advantages.
 No refreshing needed, so complex pictures
can be drawn without flicker.

Disadvantages.
 Selected parts of a picture cannot be erased
and redrawn.

Used in: Analog Oscilloscopes.
Flat Panel displays

Class of video devices that have reduced
volume, weight and power requirement as
compared to CRT’s.

Thinner than CRT’s so we can hang them
on walls and wear on our wrists.

Used in:
 TV monitors, laptop computers, calculators,
pocket video games etc.

Plasma Panels
Categories of Flat panel displays
Consists of:
 Two glass plates.

Emissive displays.  Electrodes sandwiched
 Convert electrical energy into light. between these plates.

Plasma panels.  Noble gases e.g. neon or

Thin-film electroluminescent displays. xenon is contained within

Light-emitting diodes. these plates

Non-Emissive displays.  Area between the glass
 Use optical effects to convert sunlight or light plates is divided into tiny
into graphics patterns. cells, each of which can

Liquid Crystal Displays. be considered as a pixel.

2
Pros & Cons of Plasma Panels

Pros
 Produce a very wide screen using extremely thin
materials.
 Image produced is very bright and looks good from
almost every angle.

Cons
 Expensive.

Thin-film electroluminescent displays are similar
to plasma panels in construction except for the
fact that the inner gas is replaced by phosphor.

Requires more power to light up
Liquid crystal display

Used in calculators, portable laptops etc.

They produce a picture by passing
polarized light from the surrounding or
from an internal light source through a
liquid-crystal material that can be aligned
to either block of transmit the light.
Light emitting diodes

Simply said, LED’s are just tiny light bulbs that fit
easily into an electrical circuit.

Unlike ordinary bulbs, they don’t have a filament
that will burn out, and they don’t get very hot.

Applications:
 they form the numbers on digital clocks,
 transmit information from remote controls
 light up watches.
 tell you when your appliances are turned on.
 Illuminate traffic lights.
Dot-Matrix printer

A dot matrix printer refers to a type of
computer printer with a print head that
runs back and forth on the page and prints
by impact, striking an ink-soaked cloth
ribbon against the paper, much like a
typewriter.
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 Laser printer
Inkjet printer

A laser printer is a common type of

Produces output by squirting ink in computer printer that produces high quality
horizontal rows across a roll of paper printing, and is able to produce both text
wrapped on a drum. and graphics.

Principle is based on that
of a photocopy machine.

RASTER-SCAN SYETEM
Plotter

A plotter is a vector graphics printing
Interactive raster graphics systems
device that connects to a computer. typically employ several processing

Plotters print their output by moving a pen units apart from the CPU, which are:
across the surface of a piece of paper.  Video Controller
 Restricted to line art, rather than raster  Display processor
graphics as with other printers. They can draw
complex line art, including text, but do so very
slowly because of the mechanical movement
of the pens.
 Plotters are incapable of creating a solid
region of colour.

4
Video Controller

video controller controls:
 Display device.

How pixels coordinates are determined?
 Refresh operations.

Double buffering.
 Areas of screen enlarged, reduced and moved to
different locations.
 Look-up table.
 Mix of frame-buffer image and another image

Back

Display processor

display processor performs:
 raster graphics operations (instead of CPU).

Scan conversion.

Character Definition.

Line styles.
 Dashed, dotted, solid.

Interface with input device (e.g.mouse).

Memory requirements for the frame buffer?

5
Raster-Scan Characters

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