Before the era of PCs, Computers outputted information through printers, or sequences of LEDs being turned on or off to show the binary values of processed data. As computers became more powerful and user-friendly, monitors started to be used. The first monitors had only two colors (usually green and black). Today, computers can display more colors than our eyes can decipher, but they still have a long way to go before they are even close to perfect.

There are two major types of monitors in use today, CRT and LCD monitors. Both types work much differently than the other, and both types have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, LCD monitors consume less power and produce crisper images, but they are also much more expensive, and produce far less brighter images than CRT monitors.

This display section will not only teach you about how monitors work, but also how display adapters (commonly known as video cards) work. Display adapters process the information and output it to the monitor to represent the picture you see on the screen. In the last few years, video cards have developed at a very quick pace. They can render life-like images, and give the PC the power it needs to display 3D images at even hundreds of FPS (Frames Per Second), all at a fraction of the price from twenty years ago.

Size does not matter: the largest Video Card in the world, but in no way the best one.
© 1996 by The Computer Museum History Center

Although most of the Video Cards produce more or less the same result when rendering images or frames for computer games, the way they work depend on the type of Video Card. Essentially, they all work almost the same way when rendering 2D images, but when it comes to 3D images, which are most commonly found in Professional Animation Programs or Computer games, there are basically two ways in which they work.

How do the different monitors work? How do the different display adapters work? This is all covered in the display section.