stream « byte « Java Data Type Q&A

1. Why are System.out/err implemented as Byte Streams in Java?    stackoverflow.com

I was having a look at this tutorial at Sun on command line I/O. It stated that:

You might expect the Standard Streams to be character streams, ...

2. Printing the byte streams    forums.oracle.com

I have saved a file containing images in database as BLOB. while reading it from database i will retrieve it as binary stream. I am able to write it into an image successfully... 1.is it possible to print it directly. If yes how to print it? 2.I tried printing the image that is created but the image is not getting printed ...