Associated Hardware and File Handling

Input Devices Mouse. Controls the cursor on the screen. Hand Held Scanner. Gives a quick way of digitising sketched graphics.

Input Devices Graphics Tablet. Works with the position of the cursor. Is very useful for creating Graphics. Digital Camera. Saves images that can then be transferred to a computer for editing, Flatbed Scanner. Scans in hardcopies and converts it to electronic format for editing or saving.

Output Devices 3D Printer. Physically manufacture 3D CAD models and are a form of computer aided-manufacture (CAM) Wide Format Printer. As the ability to print in wide continuous sheets Drum Plotter. Deals with larger Drawings than a Flatbed Plotter. The paper is supplied on roll form.

Output Devices Ink-Jet Printer. Reasonably priced printer that produces good quality prints. Running costs are expensive. Laser Printer. Expensive priced printer with reasonably low running costs. Produces high quality prints and are faster than an Ink-jet.

Storage Devices When working on a computer creating a back up of your work is a very important thing to do. Unfortunately working with computers and having access to the internet makes a computer susceptible to viruses and loss of work could occur. To ensure this does not happen we can back up our work using Removable Discs.

Storage Devices External HDD. Can store up to 2TB (2048GB) on this drive. Memory Stick/ Pen Drive. Most modern Back-up method. It is a small, strong and mobile method of transferring files. Storage capacity goes up to 80GB.

Storage Devices  CD (Compact Disc). Can be read in any CD-ROM drive however a special drive is needed to record work. A disc that can hold up to 650 MB.   DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) Works in exactly the same way which a CD does. Storage can vary up to 17 GB.

FILE HANDLING SIZES and Quality Files come in various formats and can vary greatly in file size. A word document of 250 words will have a typical file size of 16Kb. Typical file sizes are shown in the box for other files. When we begin to add text and graphics (DTP) we can quickly end up with a large file of about 30Mb. Another issue is quality of images we offered say that the image is pixelated and in bad cases we can visually see the effect.

FILE HANDLING FORMATS BMP - Bit-mapped. This is an appropriate file format for Windows users. It is used for general storage purposes - such as when images are awaiting editing. BMP images are large files that require a lot of storage space because no effort is made to reduce the file size. JPG - Joint Photographic Group The JPG is probably the most common file format now in use for storing digital images, especially on the web. It is ideal for images that use more than 256 colours, such as digital photographs. When you save an image using this format, some of the data is lost because the file is compressed. GIF - Graphics Interchange Format Like the JPG, the GIF file format is commonly used on the web. It is ideal for images that have large blocks of a single colour, and it can support up to a maximum of 256 colours. Unlike with JPGs, it is possible to alter the background colour of a GIF to make it transparent.

SENDING AND RECEIVING FILES File sizes have gotten bigger and bigger over the years, but most email services still limit attachments In general, 10MB is considered safe for the maximum size of an email. If you need to send a large file or a collection of files to someone, you'll need to turn to other methods. Cloud storage and file sharing services make sending large files easier than ever, and is often be much faster and more reliable than email attachments. Zip files are compressed files which take up less storage space and can be transferred to other computers more quickly than uncompressed files.

EXAM QUESTIONS Explain, what are the differences between an Ink Jet and a Laser Jet printer ? How would you transfer images from a phone or a camera to a friend in America? Explain what pixelated means with reference to image types? Name an acceptable file type for the image Why would an image taken from a camera be preferable to one from a scanner?