Question

write an essay on plotter.

Answer 1

The plotter is a computer printer for printing vector graphics. In the past, plotters were used in applications such as computer-aided design, though they have generally been replaced with wide-format conventional printers. A plotter gives a hard copy of the output. It draws pictures on a paper using a pen. Plotters are used to print designs of ships and machines, plans for buildings and so on.

Answer 2

The plotter is a computer printer for printing
vector graphics . In the past, plotters were
used in applications such as computer-aided
design , though they have generally been
replaced with wide-format conventional
printers . A plotter gives a hard copy of the
output. It draws pictures on a paper using a
pen. Plotters are used to print designs of ships
and machines, plans for buildings and so on.
Overview
Digitally controlled plotters evolved from earlier
fully analog XY-writers used as output devices
for measurement instruments and analog
computers .
Pen plotters print by moving a pen or other
instrument across the surface of a piece of
paper. This means that plotters are vector
graphics devices, rather than raster graphics
as with other printers . Pen plotters can draw
complex line art, including text, but do so
slowly because of the mechanical movement
of the pens. They are often incapable of
efficiently creating a solid region of color, but
can hatch an area by drawing a number of
close, regular lines.
Plotters offered the fastest way to efficiently
produce very large drawings or color high-
resolution vector-based artwork when
computer memory was very expensive and
processor power was very limited, and other
types of printers had limited graphic output
capabilities.
Pen plotters have essentially become obsolete,
and have been replaced by large-format inkjet
printers and LED toner based printers. Such
devices may still understand vector languages
originally designed for plotter use, because in
many uses, they offer a more efficient
alternative to raster data.
Electrostatic plotters
Electrostatic plotters used a dry toner transfer
process similar to that in many photocopiers.
They were faster than pen plotters and were
available in large formats, suitable for
reproducing engineering drawings. The quality
of image was often not as good as
contemporary pen plotters. Electrostatic
plotters were made in both flat-bed and drum
types.
Cutting plotters
Cutting plotters use knives to cut into a piece
of material (such as paper , mylar or vinyl) that
is lying on the flat surface area of the plotter. It
is achieved because the cutting plotter is
connected to a computer , which is equipped
with specialized cutting design or drawing
computer software programs. Those computer
software programs are responsible for sending
the necessary cutting dimensions or designs in
order to command the cutting knife to produce
the correct project cutting needs. [1]
In recent years the use of cutting plotters
(generally called die-cut machines ) has
become popular with home enthusiasts of
paper crafts such as cardmaking and
scrapbooking . Such tools allow desired card
shapes to be cut out very precisely, and
repeated perfectly identically.
History
A number of printer control languages were
created to operate pen plotters, and transmit
commands like "lift pen from paper", "place
pen on paper", or "draw a line from here to
here". Three common ASCII -based plotter
control languages are Hewlett-Packard 's HP-
GL, its successor HP-GL/2 and Houston
Instruments DMPL. Here is a simple HP-GL
script drawing a line :
SP1;
PA500,500;
PD;
PR0,1000;
PU;
SP;
This program instructs the plotter, in order, to
take the first pen (SP1 = Select Pen 1), to go
to coordinates X=500, Y=500 on the paper
sheet (PA = Plot Absolute), to lower the pen
against the paper (PD = Pen Down), to move
1000 units in the Y direction (thus drawing a
vertical line - PR = Plot Relative), to lift the pen
(PU = Pen Up) and finally to put it back in its
stall.
Programmers using FORTRAN or BASIC
generally did not program these directly, but
used software packages, such as the
Calcomp library, or device independent
graphics packages, such as Hewlett-
Packard's AGL libraries or BASIC extensions or
high end packages such as DISSPLA. These
would establish scaling factors from world
coordinates to device coordinates, and
translate to the low level device commands.
For example, to plot X*X in HP 9830 BASIC,
the program would be
10 SCALE -1,1,1,1
20 FOR X =-1 to 1 STEP 0.1
30 PLOT X, X*X
40 NEXT X
50 PEN
60 END
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Label plotter
Early pen plotters, e.g., the Calcomp 565 of
1959, worked by placing the paper over a
roller that moved the paper back and forth for
X motion, while the pen moved back and forth
on a track for Y motion. The paper was
supplied in roll form and had perforations along
both edges that were engaged by sprockets
on the rollers.