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

lostpixels.io

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

#61

Post by atomicstack »

I got lucky and picked up a second hand HP-7475A for $50 about five years ago. It's the GPIB version, not native RS-232, so I also had to find a way to connect it to a modern PC. Ended up going with a GPIBUSB adapter from AliExpress (about 10x cheaper than one from Prologix) to plug it into an RPi, which I can use to send HPGL files to get plotted.

Also got a friend to hack away a chunk of the plastic casing with a circular saw so I could use pen adapters for modern Sharpie and Stabilo markers, which are much easier and cheaper to acquire than old format plotter pens.

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

#62

Post by exasperaited »

m463 wrote: post #47

Reading this, I think of paper technology that has probably been lost. I remember using flatbed plotters with a "static-cling" button. (maybe HP?) you clicked the button out, put paper on the flatbed, then clicked the button in and a static charge sucked the paper down and held it in place. You would generate your plots using a language that could select various color pens, move to x1,y1, pen down, move to x2,y2, pen…

> you clicked the button out, put paper on the flatbed, then clicked the button in and a static charge sucked the paper down and held it in place.

Interestingly, this technology is not lost, and it is in a current vinyl cutter/plotter, the Silhouette Curio 2:

https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/curio-2

But this is quite a new model and I don't remember seeing this technology anywhere else for a long while, so perhaps they had to wait for some patent to expire?

These machines also have swappable tools (effectively a two tool changer).

I think ultimately the plotter largely became the vinyl cutter.

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

#63

Post by egypturnash »

cubefox wrote: post #50
alt227 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At work we have CMYKW printers, which add an extra channel of white ink to the mix.

To print on non-white paper? But I think then the ordinary cyan, magenta and yellow inks can't be used. Normally those are translucent in order to create red, green and blue via subtractive color mixing. E.g. overlaying yellow and magenta dots creates a red dot. But if the paper can't be assumed to be white, CMY need to be opaque, otherwise yellow on black paper would just look black. Then you can no longer create re…

opaque white + translucent CMY would work, assuming you can get a white formulation that doesn’t gum up the print head.

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

#64

Post by cosiiine »

atomicstack wrote: post #61

I got lucky and picked up a second hand HP-7475A for $50 about five years ago. It's the GPIB version, not native RS-232, so I also had to find a way to connect it to a modern PC. Ended up going with a GPIB USB adapter from AliExpress (about 10x cheaper than one from Prologix) to plug it into an RPi, which I can use to send HPGL files to get plotted. Also got a friend to hack away a chunk of the plastic casing with a…

I’ve always wanted to get one of these working, but they’re rare, and heavy! That makes shipping expensive.

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

#65

Post by kayodelycaon »

vl wrote: post #58
kayodelycaon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’ve had it for at least 6 years. It barely uses ink and has no problem sitting off for months. I’ve never cleaned the nozzles. I printed 40+ 13x19 (2.5 A4s) full-color prints and at least that many sketches in grayscale and only 3 cartridges got low. I’ve only replaced a full set once at a cost of $120. High-grade 13x19 paper costs $0.30 per sheet. Even factoring in that the printer cost $700, it’s already paid for itself several times.

The only real issue is it’s very slow. It takes minutes to wake up and full-color photo-quality A4 prints take at least a minute. More if you’re doing 13x19.

Now, if you’re doing fast full-color on cheap office paper, you bought the wrong printer. :)

My experience with Epson printers is they use absolute obscene amounts of ink and gum up if they get lonely.

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

#67

Post by washadjeffmad »

jaffa2 wrote: post #24

Great article. I’ve only ever came across plotters used for tech drawings cad cam archtecture but i hadnt considered them applied to artistic output. Well done makes me want one now.

Really common for textiles/apparel, also. The companies that produce plotters, cutters, and digitizers like Velocity and GTCO Calcomp notably service the same industries.

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

#68

Post by adamhartenz »

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…

Yup, if your art was sculpture or dance, then a printer or plotter are equally useless.

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

#69

Post by mikestaas »

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…

Good stuff! Those would make nice textiles too.

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

#70

Post by sleepybrett »

I do work with a a few plotters, both pre petis buyout EMS plotter, a vintage HP, and a custom built plotter.

Everything he says here is true, but to me at the end of the day after running some of my work off on very high end inkjets and dyesubs. It's just not the same. There is an inherent, and i'm not sure how to fully communicate this, physicality to a plotted artwork. Slight imperfections in ink flow, the way fountain ink behaves when lines cross, the way the ink bleeds into the medium you are plotting on, the inks (or other mediums) you can choose vs what you can put through an inkjet. It's like comparing an oil painting to even a high quality print of that oil painting. You lose texture going to inkjet.

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