
Show HN: Creating Land-Use Maps with an HP 7475A Plotter - alnis
http://alex.nisnevich.com/blog/2018/09/15/plotting_land_use_maps.html
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beardicus
Great writeup! Much of my plotting experience is a similar journey of hooking
a bunch of rando utilities and file formats together with python. Plotters are
really fun and can motivate some really interesting generative artwork.

Be sure to check out the #plottertwitter hashtag for inspiration, and I've
aggregated some resources in an `awesome-plotters` repo as well:
[https://github.com/beardicus/awesome-
plotters](https://github.com/beardicus/awesome-plotters)

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Multicomp
I used to work at the local theme park and often enjoyed looking at the plen-
plotter produced maps of the ride construction diagrams and whatnot.

Why aren't there any low cost (sub USD700) pen plotters available today? Were
they just always super expensive and are now only cheap because they are
outmoded?

I know Roland makes large format printers etc. but those are oodles of money
and so will almost never be bought by non-professionals/enthusiasts. It just
seems like we lost the ability to make 'good enough' large format drawings
without resorting to sign shops.

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lozaning
If the bar for your 'good enough' is as low as my bar for good enough, a
combination of [https://rasterbator.net/](https://rasterbator.net/) and
packing tape works for me.

I make something with that maybe once a year, which is likely more frequently
(total guess) than most find themselves making any kind of big sign thing, and
I'd need a printer that would do only this to be more like $250 before it'd be
something i'd buy.

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iampims
If you like pen plotting, i strongly recommend checking these drawings and the
video that comes with it:
[https://www.michaelfogleman.com/plotter/](https://www.michaelfogleman.com/plotter/)

