Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

lostpixels.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 85 posts

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#51

Post by cosiiine »

coldcode wrote: post #42

I only make art designed to be printed on 10-12 color large format inkjet printers. Making plotter art is not inherently better or worse that printing, it's just a different type of art. I love what people do with plotters, but I just prefer doing printed versions, since what I make is often not possible with a plotter, as I deal in pixels (up to 200+ megapixels), and plotters deal in vectors. It's like Photoshop vs…

Agreed 100%. It all comes down to the artists intentions, and plotters have many limitations. My hope for this article was to expose people to other options.

Great portfolio of art btw, thanks for sharing!

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#52

Post by [deleted] »

NelsonMinar wrote: post #7

I love plotter art and have dabbled a bit myself. The really fun part is how pen-on-paper is not completely reliable or a perfect line. You get a little texture if the pen skips. You can use watercolor pens that bleed. You can get crazy with something like Copic markers on Yupo paper so the whole thing stays wet and smears for minutes. It's part of the art. This bit from the article made me laugh ruefully though: "it…

[deleted]

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#53

Post by smokel »

Having worked extensively on large charcoal drawings using heavy etching paper, I’ve often imagined what it would be like if a proper robotic arm could take on the task. My own process involves compressed charcoal pencils, plenty of erasers, and various grades of sandpaper, really working the surface of the paper. And watching out not to scratch or dimple the paper.

Plotters are usually limited in how they can tilt the pen, and their force-feedback capabilities are quite primitive, if present. And if you’ve ever tried sharpening a compressed charcoal pencil to a fine point, you’ll know how difficult that would be to automate.

If I ever happen to find four spare years tucked away somewhere, I might just attempt to build such a system myself :/

Edit: to get an idea of what is possible with this technique, see the work of Annie Murphy Robinson [1], who also hosts workshops.

[1] https://anniemurphyrobinson.com/

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#54

Post by Jyaif »

LinuxAmbulance wrote: post #8

I always thought of plotters as legacy tech, but considering the variety of marking tools you can attach to the head, I'm wondering if I should get one. Does anyone know of an inexpensive plotter you can buy or build?

The LY Drawbot on Aliexpress is around $110 USD and it's quite good.

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#55

Post by spauldo »

LinuxAmbulance wrote: post #8

I always thought of plotters as legacy tech, but considering the variety of marking tools you can attach to the head, I'm wondering if I should get one. Does anyone know of an inexpensive plotter you can buy or build?

We've got a couple at the engineering/automation company I work for. They're huge, probably 8 feet long at least. No idea what they were used for - they belonged to the engineering group. Unfortunately I can't ask because they all quit.

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#56

Post by spauldo »

TheGoodBarn wrote: post #48

I splurged on a iDraw H SE - A3/A2 earlier this year and have been coding / making birthday cards for friends and family all summer. I feel like I get asked a lot the same questions and I think this article describes it best. Like yes I could have just upgraded to a nicer printer, but there is something fun about the process of getting an artwork plotted that makes it fun for me. I need to upload some of my plots to…

If sanding took even 10% of my time I'd give up the hobby. Fortunately my girlfriend loves that kind of mindless work and does all the finishing that's more than "slap some BLO on it and call it good."

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#58

Post by vl »

kayodelycaon wrote: post #16
ziml77 wrote: post #4

Printers using CMYK isn't strictly true, right? Aren't you able to choose the ink colors when getting prints professionally made?

I have a Canon Pixma Pro 100 and it uses 8 different inks. The “Pro” really means professional. When used with the correct paper, it produces the same high quality prints as any professional service. Looking at the artwork on my wall, there’s two big things that set prints apart from an original artwork. 1. Computer software doesn’t capture the imperfection of a physical medium. 2. Printers can’t reproduce the textur…

I wonder how much does it cost per full color letter-size print? How often do you need to clean nozzles (and how much ink is spent)?

I have Epson EcoTank, which is great since I can refill it from the ink bottles (even non-Epson), but since it gets only occasional use for color printing, almost every time I have to clean nozzles before printing in color.

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#59

Post by devilbunny »

spauldo wrote: post #55
LinuxAmbulance wrote: post #8

I always thought of plotters as legacy tech, but considering the variety of marking tools you can attach to the head, I'm wondering if I should get one. Does anyone know of an inexpensive plotter you can buy or build?

We've got a couple at the engineering/automation company I work for. They're huge, probably 8 feet long at least. No idea what they were used for - they belonged to the engineering group. Unfortunately I can't ask because they all quit.

Large-scale stuff like blueprints is the obvious explanation, but the largest plotter I've ever personally seen was owned by an oil exploration company and used to graph their seismic test results. Only about 5 feet wide (just over 1.5 m), though.

Re: So what's the difference between plotted and printed artwork?

#60

Post by TheGoodBarn »

spauldo wrote: post #56
TheGoodBarn wrote: post #48

I splurged on a iDraw H SE - A3/A2 earlier this year and have been coding / making birthday cards for friends and family all summer. I feel like I get asked a lot the same questions and I think this article describes it best. Like yes I could have just upgraded to a nicer printer, but there is something fun about the process of getting an artwork plotted that makes it fun for me. I need to upload some of my plots to…

If sanding took even 10% of my time I'd give up the hobby. Fortunately my girlfriend loves that kind of mindless work and does all the finishing that's more than "slap some BLO on it and call it good."

I crochet and weaving in loose ends / tying up works is the 90%, but I love making shit for myself every once in awhile and I can cut all the corners I want and just tie a knot and call it a day lol I feel you
Post reply on HN