The laser has been combined with computers to produce a more efficient input and output of information into and from the computer. Instead of having to type pages and pages of text, one can now use a scanning device made possible by lasers to input the text into the computer. In the scanner a bean scans the text into the computer by reflecting the patterns formed by the text of black and white to the computer. The computer is able to decode this sent information and display it on its screen. This not only works with text but graphics as well, in color or in black and white. The scanning device is not only used to display information on a computer but to display information on a television screen too. The reverse of this method is used to print information from computers to paper. The computer dictates to the laser what kind of patters of color and black and white it is to produce. The laser burned this information onto light-sensative metal drums that transfer it onto paper.

     The Universal Product Code also known as the bar code, made possible by lasers, has made the trip to the store much faster. Instead of having to look up the price of an item and then maunually punching this into the computer, all the check out clerk now has to do is scan the bar code against a laser. The laser relays the bar code into a computer which then searches through its database of bar codes for the matching one which will tell it the price to use. This process takes place in a matter of millionths of a second. It not only saves time but decreases the possibility of a mistake occuring compared to the clerk doing it all maunally. The bar code method also keeps track of inventory, informing if supplies become low. The laser that is used to scan the bar code is an inexpensive one that uses a helium-neon gas that emitts a safe red beam.

     Fax machines use lasers to trnsfer text or graphics quickly from one place to another. A helium-neon laser scans the original document, converts the image into electrical energy, transmitts it trhough wires to its destination where the image is burned into light-sensative metal drums that transfer it onto paper.