Input and Output

Ergonomic Keyboard

A keyboard that separates the keys into two halves shaped like a wide "V." Some keyboards have a fixed layout, while others are movable. To the touch typist, the layout feels odd at first, but it puts less stress on the hands and wrist and winds up being comfortable for most people.

Inkjet Printer

A printer that propels droplets of ink directly onto the medium. Today, almost all inkjet printers produce color. Low-end inkjets use three ink colors (cyan, magenta and yellow), but produce a composite black that is often muddy. Four-color inkjets (CMYK) use black ink for pure black printing. Inkjet printers run the gamut from less than a hundred to a couple hundred dollars for home use to tens of thousands of dollars for commercial poster printers.

Laser Printer

A laser printer is a printer that uses a focused beam or light to transfer text and images onto paper. Though contrary to popular belief, the laser does not actually burn the images onto the paper. Instead, as paper passes through the printer, the laser beam fires at the surface of a cylindrical drum called a photoreceptor. This drum has an electrical charge (typically positive), that is reversed in areas where the laser beam hits it. By reversing the charge in certain areas of the drum, the laser beam can print patterns (such as text and pictures) onto the photoreceptor.

Magnetic-Ink Character Recognition

MICR, is a character recognition technology used primarily by the banking industry to facilitate the processing of cheques The technology allows computers to read information (such as account numbers) off printed documents. Unlike barcodes or similar technologies, however, MICR codes can be easily read by humans.

Optical-Character Recognition

The machine recognition of printed characters. OCR systems can recognize many different OCR fonts, as well as typewriter and computer-printed characters. Advanced OCR systems can recognize hand printing.

Optical-Mark Recognition


The technology of electronically extracting intended data from marked fields, such as checkboxes and fill-infields, on printed forms. OMR technology scans a printed form and reads predefined positions and records where marks are made on the form. This technology is useful for applications in which large numbers of hand-filled forms need to be processed quickly and with great accuracy, such as surveys, reply cards, questionnaires and ballots.