Linear medium

A linear medium is any medium which is intended to be written to or accessed in a linear fashion, literally meaning "in a line".

This means that the information is written to or read from the medium in a given order, so for example a book containing a novel is intended to be read from front to back, beginning to end, and is therefore a linear medium. It may be written in the same way, but would not necessarily need to be, to be considered a linear medium. A book containing an encyclopedia however is a non-linear medium, as it is not necessary for the articles to be accessed (or written) in any particular order.

Examples in technology are a pre-recorded videocassette which is usually accessed one item after another, compared with a pre-recorded DVD which can be accessed in any order.

Types of linear medium

* Scroll
* Magnetic tape data storage
* Paper tape
* Photographic film

ee also

*Serial access
*Sequential access
*Random access