Pi Plot
Getting a large-format plotter operational presented a personal challenge. A Raspberry Pi with a USB-to-serial dongle was the easiest way to start plotting on my home network.
A Python interface to a large-format pen plotter
Lead Image © Daniel Villeneuve, 123RF.com
Shortly after the dot matrix printer arrived on the scene, engineers created the pen plotter [1]. These output devices function more like modern CNC machines [2] than their dot matrix and laser cousins. The advantage that these machines offered was color output and potentially very large output size.
Instead of scanning pixel by pixel, a plotter at its most basic uses a set of move-draw commands. Ink comes from pens that trace out the lines one complete segment at a time, rather than dot by dot in a big grid (Figure 1).
Other functions help draw squares, triangles, arcs, text, and more complex shapes. In the end, though, it's all a series of lines (Figure 2).
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