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Keyboard

Each button on a concept keyboard relates to a particular item or function. Buttons can be labelled with text or a picture.

Trackball

To operate it the user rotates the ball which moves the pointer on screen. They are particularly easy to use for those with limited movement in their hands and are often used in Computer Aided Design (CAD) for their increased precision over a mouse.

Digital camera

A digital camera takes pictures and can usually record video too. The pictures it takes and the videos it records are stored in files. These files can be copied to a computer and later edited.

Scanner

A scanner can be used to digitise images. They're similar to a photocopier but they make a digital copy instead of a physical copy. They can also be used with optical character recognition (OCR) software to scan in text that is then editable.

Graphics tablet

A graphics tablet consists of a flat pad (the tablet) on which the user draws with a special pen. As the user draws on the pad the image is created on the screen. Using a graphics tablet a designer can produce very accurate on-screen drawings as if they were drawing on paper.

Monitor

The most common output device is the monitor or VDU.

Modern monitors, where the case isn’t more than a few centimetres deep, are usually Liquid Crystal Displays (LCD) or Thin Film Transistors (TFT) monitors.

Older monitors, where the case is likely to be around 30 cm deep, are Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) monitors.

Printers

Laser printers are quite expensive to buy and run but produce a high quality output and are quiet and fast.

Ink-jet printers offer black and white or colour printing with reduced levels of quality and speed. Color ink jet printers are cheaper to buy than colour laser printers.