Output Devices : Microfilm

Microfilm is a special type of photographic film which can store images at greatly reduced sizes (about 1/50th of the original size). Traditionally companies that needed to store a lot of documents would photograph the documents and store the images on microfilm. The original documents would then be destroyed and the microfilm photographs of the documents would be kept instead. The microfilm photographs were much smaller than the original documents so they could be stored more efficently and cheaply.

Images stored on microfilm can be viewed using a special reader that magnifies the images and projects them onto a screen. Suitable readers are fairly cheap to buy.

Computers can output information directly to microfilm for long-term storage. This is known as Computer Output on Microfilm (COM).

Microfilm is rarely used today. Documents which need to be stored are usually scanned and saved electronically on high capacity storage media. Documents stored electronically can be indexed and searched more efficiently than documents stored photographically on microfilm.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004