Comptia A Ch.9 Flashcards
accelerometer
A technology used in mobile devices to detect screen orientation and adapt what is shown on the screen for that viewing mode. A gyroscope measures and maintains that orientation.
artifact
An unusual pattern or distortion that appears on a screen, such as green dotted or vertical lines, colored lines on one side of the screen, or tiny glitters, which could indicate problems like overheated GPU, insufficient air flow, or video driver.
aspect ratio
An LCD characteristic that describes a ratio of monitor width compared to height. An LCD with an aspect ratio of 16:9 is a wide screen monitor in that it is wider than it is high.
backlight
A fluorescent lamp or LEDs that are always on for an LCD.
CCFL (cold cathode fluorescent lamp)
The older flat-panel backlight technology used before LED backlights were used.
charging
A laser printing process that can also be known as conditioning. This process gets the drum read for use by applying a uniform voltage on the drum surface using a primary/main corona or a conditioning roller.
cleaning
A laser printing process that describes removing residual toner from the drum by using a wiper blade or brush.
component/RGB video
Three RCA jacks commonly found on TVs, DVD players, and projectors. The three connections are for luminescence or brightness and two jacks for color difference signals.
composite video
A yellow RCA port normally found on projectors, TVs, gaming consoles, stereos, and optical disc players.
conditioning roller
Used in a laser printer to generate a large uniform negative voltage to be applied to the drum.
contrast ratio
An LCD characteristic that describes the difference in light intensity between the brightest white and the darkest black. A higher contrast ratio is a better characteristic.
cps (characters per second)
The number of characters a printer prints in 1 second
CRT (cathode ray tube)
The main part of a monitor, the picture tube.
default printer
When a computer can use multiple printers, the one printer that all applications use by default. A computer user can change the printer to a different one though the Print dialog window. To mark a printer as default, right-click the printer icon and click the Set as default option.
density control blade
A part inside a laser printer’s toner cartridge that controls the amount of toner released to the drum.
developing
A term used to describe a laser printer process in which toner is attracted to the laser printer drum.
developing cylinder
A component inside a laser printer’s toner cartridge that applies a static charge to the toner so it will be attracted to the drum. Sometimes called a developing roller.
DLP (Digital Light Processing)
A technology used in projectors and rear projection TVs that is an array of miniature mirrors used to create pixels on a projection surface.
dpi (dots per inch)
A printer measurement used with ink jet and laser printers that refers to how many dots are produced in an inch.
erase lamp
A component inside a laser printer that neutralizes any charges left on the drum so that the next printed page receives no residuals from the previous page.
exposing
A laser printer process that has also been called the writing phase. Light is directed toward the drum to put 1s and 0s on the drum surface. Everywhere the light hits the drum changes the drum surface voltage.
feed assembly
The part of a computer responsible for taking the paper through the printer.
fuser cleaning pad
The pad located above the laser printer’s fuser roller that lightly coats it with silicon to prevent the paper sticking to the roller.
fusing
A laser printing process where toner is melted into paper.
fusing roller
A laser printer part responsible for heating the toner and melting it into the paper.
GPU (graphics processing unit)
A video adapter processor that assists in video communication between the video adapter and the system processor. Also known as video processor, video coprocessor, or video accelerator.
gyroscope
A technology used in mobile devices that measures and maintains screen orientation. Used in conjunction with an accelerometer so that a mobile device can be turned and the screen orientation also turns.
impact printer
Sometimes called a dot matrix printer. A type of printer that physically impacts a ribbon which places an image on the paper.
inkjet printer
A type of printer that squirts ink through tiny nozzles to produce print. Ink jet printers produce high-quality, high-resolution, color output.
laser printer
A type of printer that produces output using a process similar to a copier. Laser printers are the most expensive type of printer.
LCD (liquid crystal display)
A video technology used with laptops and flat screen monitors. The two basic types of LCD are passive matrix and active matrix.
LED (light-emitting diode)
A video output technology which is a low power, low heat, long lasting electronic device utilizing liquid crystals.
lumen
A measure of light output or brightness—how much visible light is coming out of equipment such as lamps, lighting equipment, or projectors.
native resolution
The number of pixels going across and down a flat panel monitor. This resolution is the specification for which the monitor was made and is the optimum resolution.
OLED (organic LED)
Does not require a backlight like LCDs, but has a film of organic compounds placed in rows and columns that can emit light. Is light weight and has a fast response time, low power usage, and a wide viewing angle.
pixel
Short for picture element, the smallest displayable unit on a monitor.
plasma
A display that has little chambers containing plasma gas. When electricity is applied inside the chambers, excited electrons hit red, green, and blue phosphorous dots that glow.
print driver
A piece of software that coordinates between the operating system and the printer.
print server
A device (computer or separate device) that connects to a printer used by multiple people through a network.
print spooler
Also known as a print manager, a software program that intercepts the request to print and sends print information to the hard drive where it is sent to the printer whenever the microprocessor is not busy with other tasks. A print spooler allows multiple print jobs to be queued inside the computer so other work can be performed.
print head
The part of the dot matrix printer that holds the printwires and impacts the ribbon.
printwire
A component of a dot matrix printer’s print head that is a single wire that connects to a spring and impacts a ribbon to make a single dot on the paper.
privacy filter
A physical filter added to a monitor to distort the display output for anyone except for the person looking directly at the screen. Also known as a privacy screen.
processing
A laser printing process where the data is converted from the printer language into a bitmap image. This process is also known as raster image processing.
refresh rate
The maximum time a monitor’s screen is scanned in 1 second.
resolution
The number of pixels shown on a monitor or the output of a printer.
shared system memory
The amount of motherboard RAM used for video because the amount of video memory on the video adapter or built into the motherboard is not enough for the application(s) being used.
thermal printer
A printer commonly used in retail that uses heat and special thermal paper to create the printed image.
Thunderbolt
A type of video port on PCIe adapters or on Apple computers.
transfer corona
A wire inside the laser printer that applies a positive charge to the back of the paper so the toner is attracted to the paper as it moves through the printer.
transferring
A laser printer process where the toner (image) moves from the drum to the paper.
TV tuner card
An adapter that allows a computer to receive and display television-based video on a computer monitor.
video capture card
An adapter that allows video to be taken from a camera, DVD, recorder, or live video, edited if necessary, and saved.
viewable size
The diagonal length of an LCD screen.
