Scanconverters

Scanconverters are electronic devices that convert analog or digital signals from a graphics tablet or other input device into a digital format that can be used by a computer or other display device. Scanconverters were widely used in the graphics and computer-aided design industries from the 1980s to the 1990s, and were often used to interface between input devices and high-end graphics workstations.

Scanconverters typically consisted of a small computer or embedded system, a driver or interface card, and a display device such as a CRT monitor or graphics display. The input device would send an analog or digital signal to the scanconverter, which would then digitize the signal and transmit it to the display device. This allowed the computer to display the graphics from the input device on the screen.

Scanconverters were often required to translate between different graphical protocols and formats, such as DIN, HPGL, and CGA. They were also capable of handling high-resolution graphics inputs, and were often used with high-end graphics tablets and input devices. The use of scanconverters declined with the advent of single-board computers and specialized graphics hardware, which made them less necessary.

Despite their decline in popularity, scanconverters remain an important part of the history of computer graphics and design. They played an important role in the development of high-end graphics workstations and the early computer-aided design industry. Today, they are largely relegated to collectors and enthusiasts, but their legacy remains in modern graphics hardware and software that rely on digital graphics inputs.