beardicus/awesome-plotters

Roland Users Group Volume 2 Number 4 (1984) - Computers and Plotters Take the Place of Drafting Tables and Pencils article on page 36 (PDF page 40).

Omega-t Systems FasPlot Plotter Brochure

Commodore Computer Plotter CBM 8075 Brochure (German)

Strobe Model 100 Graphics Plotter Brochure (1980)

Community

DrawingBots Discord Forum - Discord forum with an active community.

Jan 25th - Jan 31st, 2021

Hardware

Plotters

Arduino CNC Drawing Machine - A fairly simple 3d-printed AxiDraw-style plotter with good video documentation.

Dec 28th - Jan 3rd, 2020

Software

Vector Creation

PlotterFun - Browser-based Image to SVG converter similar to SquiggleDraw.

Software

Fonts

CNC Text Tool - Browser-based Hershey Text tool with export to SVG.

Community

PlotterFiles - Community for sharing SVG files for plotters.

Other Awesomes

awesome-3d-engines-for-plotters stars63

Dec 7th - Dec 13th, 2020

Software

HPGL

Chiplotle on Parallel Port - Tweak of Chiplotle to work with a parallel port connection.

Nov 30th - Dec 6th, 2020

Plotter Art For Sale

Marcel Schwittlick

Nov 23rd - Nov 29th, 2020

Plotter Art For Sale

AndyMakes

Nov 2nd - Nov 8th, 2020

Plotter Art For Sale

Paul Rickards

Oct 5th - Oct 11th, 2020

Plotter Art For Sale

Pedro Alcocer

Sep 28th - Oct 4th, 2020

Inspiration and Instruction

The Best XY Plotters in 2020 - Good overview of the AxiDraw and its clones, plus some DIY options.

Jun 1st - Jun 7th, 2020

Software

Vector Creation

makio135/plotter - An Observable notebook collection full of plotter-oriented work.

May 11th - May 17th, 2020

Inspiration and Instruction

How to Draw Generative Art with an Axidraw Pen Plotter - Lots of nice tips, not all specific to the Axidraw, plus some pen reviews and handy 3d-printed tools.

Plotter Art For Sale

Jessica In

Michelle Chandra

Nadieh Bremer

Mar 16th - Mar 22nd, 2020

Software

Fonts

svg-fonts - Single-line fonts in an SVG format, mainly for use with the Hershey Text Inkscape plugin.

Software

Vector Utilities

vpype stars471 - Plotter-focused Python-based CLI utility for generating and manipulating SVGs, including scaling and optimizing paths.

Feb 24th - Mar 1st, 2020

Plotter Art For Sale

Arjan van der Meij

Feb 10th - Feb 16th, 2020

Inspiration and Instruction

An Intro to Pen Plotters - Good info on getting started with old HPGL plotters.

Software

Vector Creation

cozyvec stars66 - Web/Standalone terminal environment for plotter art and tweet plots.

Plotter Art For Sale

brubsby

Jan 20th - Jan 26th, 2020

Plotter Art For Sale

Geoffrey Bradway

Nov 25th - Dec 1st, 2019

Software

G-code

gcode-generative-for-processing stars21 - Processing library, aiming to create gcode from simple shapes. (Designed for usage with the Creality CR10)

Nov 4th - Nov 10th, 2019

Plotter Art For Sale

Andrew Heumann

Oct 21st - Oct 27th, 2019

Hardware

Plotters

4xiDraw - Yet another 3d-printable AxiDraw clone w/ Arduino CNC Shield controller running grbl firmware.

Oct 14th - Oct 20th, 2019

Hardware

Plotters

BrachioGraph - A cheap and simple plotter made from sticks, servos, and a Raspberry Pi running Python.

Inspiration and Instruction

Surface Projection - Deep dive into surface projection and hidden line removal using Python and penplot.

Jun 24th - Jun 30th, 2019

Community

Plotter People - In-person meetups (SF and NYC so far) with talks and plotter art galleries.

Software

HPGL

HPGLGraphics stars15 - A Processing library for writing HPGL files.

Apr 8th - Apr 14th, 2019

Hardware

Pens

JetPens – The Best White Ink Pens - A comprehensive review of many white ink pens, with pictures of their coverage characteristics.

Mar 11th - Mar 17th, 2019

Software

Plotter-Specific

MP2300-Tools stars4 - Software for converting HPGL to Graphtec's GPGL format, as well as CAD files for a Graphtec plotter pen adapter.

Feb 25th - Mar 3rd, 2019

Hardware

Plotters

Roland Pen Plotters - Vintage flatbed HPGL pen plotters. Search eBay for "roland dxy".

AxiDraw - Pen plotter from Evil Mad Scientist, very popular on #plottertwitter.

Line-us - A cute little kickstarted robotic drawing arm.

Makeblock XY Plotter - Hackable XY plotter kit (discontinued?).

Drawing Robot - 3d-Printable AxiDraw clone w/ Arduino CNC Shield controller running grbl firmware.

WaterColorBot - XY art robot and software to plot with watercolor paints.

EggBot - Pen plotter for egg-shaped and spherical objects.

HP Pen Plotters - Vintage desktop and floor-standing pen plotters from the creator of the HPGL standard. Model 7475A is very common and can usually be found on eBay.

Polargraph - The original polargraph hardware and software project.

Makelangelo - Open source polargraph artbot.

Hardware

Motor Controllers

Raspberry Pi CNC Hat - Raspberry Pi add-on board w/ stepper controllers and a microcontroller running grbl. Interfaces with the Pi's serial pins.

grblShield stars124 - All the stepper motor control hardware needed to turn an Arduino into a G-code-based motion controller using the grbl firmware. (adafruit)

TinyG stars789 - More featureful and robust 6-axis G-code-based motion control hardware. (adafruit)

Arduino CNC Shield - Grbl-compatible stepper motor control shield for Arduino, similar to the grblShield stars124.

Hardware

Accessories

Plotter Cable Pinout - Schematic for a plotter cable that will work for most HP and Roland plotters. Search eBay or Amazon for DB9 to DB25 Serial Null Modem Cable or similar to find them for sale.

WiFi232 - Wifi to RS-232 serial via a DB25 plug. Control your serial plotter wirelessly.

Software

HPGL

Chiplotle stars23 - Python library for generating HPGL and interfacing with serial plotters.

HPGL Reference Guide - HTML-based HPGL Reference.

HP 7475A Interfacing and Programming Manual - Scanned PDF manual that contains a full HPGL reference.

djipco/hpgl stars26 - A Node.js library to communicate with HPGL-compatible plotters and printers.

hp2xx - GNU tool to convert HPGL into other vector and raster formats. Can also be used as a previewing in X11.

vec stars17 - Example C code for generating HPGL, with a turtle graphics interface.

d3-hpgl stars19 - An adapter for the HTML Canvas API so you can output HPGL using the popular D3 library.

HPGL Viewer stars11 - An HPGL Viewer using JavaScript and HTML5 canvas.

HPGL Sender stars9 - A web interface for previewing HPGL and sending it to your plotter.

Inspiration and Instruction

Pen Plotter Art & Algorithms - A two-part intro to creating generative graphics for plotting.

Fractal Generation with L-Systems - Techniques for creating line-based fractal graphics.

1980s pen plotters of the future - Another intro to vintage pen plotters.

Pen Plotter Programming: The Basics - Some basics of programming vector paths, including sorting, joining, and simplifying.

On Generative Algorithms - Nice 13-part walkthrough of interesting algorithms.

Roland DG DXY-990 - Quickstart guide for a Roland flatbed plotter.

The Cohen-Sutherland Line Clipping Algorithm - Detailed explanation and examples of an interesting algorithm.

Vera Molnár - OG plotter artist.

Hektor - The original cable-based drawbot from 2002.

Pen Plotter Art & Algorithms - Introduction to plotters, AxiDraw, walkthrough of the penplot library.

Introduction to TSP art - Resources for traveling salesman problem (single path) art.

Hidden wireframe removal - Discussion and links to code for wireframe removal of STL files.

Hardware

Pens

Sharpie Fine Point Plotter Adapter - 3d-printed adapter to fit a standard Sharpie in an HP-GL plotter.

Parametric 3d-Printable Plotter Pen Adapter - Adjustable model to print adapters for various pens.

Plotter Pen STL Models - Accurate STL models of both short and long standard plotter pens.

Pens for AxiDraw - List of pens suitable for general plotter abuse.

Pens for EggBot - Egg- and glass-focused pen recommendations but still generally applicable information.

Software

G-code

grbl stars4.6k - A high-performance G-code interpreting firmware for the Atmega 328 microcontroller and Arduino.

cncjs stars1.8k - A web-based interface controlling CNC machines running grbl, TinyG, or other G-code-based firmware.

Universal-G-Code-Sender stars1.4k - Java-based grbl-compatible cross-platform G-code sender.

ChiliPeppr Hardware Fiddle - Modular web-based workspaces to visualize G-code and control hardware.

Software

Plotter-Specific

axidraw stars349 - Official AxiDraw extensions for Inkscape.

axi stars241 - Unofficial Python library for the AxiDraw v3.

xy stars67 - Utilities for the Makeblock XY Plotter Robot Kit.

LaserGRBL stars831 - Laser-optimized Windows GUI for grbl controllers. Could be repurposed for DIY pen plotters that use a solenoid for pen up/down movements.

Line-us Inkscape Plugin stars5 - Sends drawings to the Line-us plotter directly from Inkscape.

Line-us API Examples stars96 - Example code for the Line-us plotter's G-code-based API.

@beardicus/line-us stars22 - JavaScript library for controlling the Line-us machine from Node or the browser.

PenPlotter stars103 - Polargraph controller that uses repetier firmware.

Makelangelo-firmware stars138 - Firmware for the Makelangelo polargraph robot.

RoboPaint stars111 - Software for the WaterColorBot.

AxiTurtle stars12 - Turtle graphics for AxiDraw in Processing.

GRBL-Plotter stars412 - Plotter-optimized Windows GUI for grbl controller with SVG and DXF import, and flexible pen up/down control.

saxi stars346 - Driver and library for the AxiDraw. Uses constant-acceleration motion planning and automatically resizes to paper.

Software

Vector Creation

Inkscape - Popular cross-platform open source vector graphics editor.

p5.js - "JavaScript library that makes coding accessible for artists, designers, educators, and beginners".

Paper.js - "The Swiss Army Knife of Vector Graphics Scripting".

ln stars3.1k - Vector-based 3D renderer written in Go.

autotrace stars314 - Converts bitmap images to vector graphics.

stipplegen stars355 - Creates interesting stippled drawings from bitmap images. (blog post)

SquiggleDraw - "SquiggleDraw will create a SVG file from an image, using the brightness to change the amplitude of sine waves".

svgurt - Web-based PNG to SVG creative noodler.

maptrace stars111 - Produce watertight polygonal vector maps by tracing raster images.

Drawbot_image_to_gcode_v2 stars126 - Creates G-code for use on drawbots.

blackstripes stars78 - Turns a PNG image into a SVG line drawing.

Ribbon stars223 - Ribbon diagrams of proteins in written in Go.

penplot stars249 - A development environment for plotter art in JavaScript.

penkit stars122 - A Python library for creating line-based SVG graphics.

generativeExamples stars58 - Example Processing code that generates plottable PDFs.

Let's make map - Web-based tool to export an SVG map from Mapzen tiles.

SuperformulaSVG for web - A generative line art web app.

scribbleplot stars37 - Scribbly image transformations in Processing.

Maker.js - Library for creating 2D vector drawings for CNC and laser cutter machines.

Turtletoy - Browser-based JavaScript turtle graphics API with SVG export.

Software

Vector Utilities

svgsort stars212 - Path planning for plotting SVG files, reduces time spent moving with the pen up.

svgo stars17.7k - Node.js-based tool for optimizing SVG files.

Polargraph Optimizer stars56 - Optimize drawing plan for a polargraph.

penkit-optimize - An SVG optimizer that uses a vehicle routing solver to minimize plot time.

svg-crowbar stars822 - Chrome-only bookmarklet for extracting SVG from an HTML document.

Software

Fonts

Summary of single line fonts - Good information and links to other resources and fonts.

Hershey Vector Font - .fnt format of vector fonts from the 60s. Includes a good overview of the original data format of the fonts.

hershey-fonts stars43 - C library and original font data for the Hershey fonts.

OneLineFonts.com - Commercial site with some single-line fonts available for purchase.

Community

#plottertwitter - Twitter hashtag with lots o' plots.

Plotter Art For Sale

Customized Streetart - Customizable maps with optional pen plotter output.

Feb 18th - Feb 24th, 2019

Plotter Art For Sale

Martin O'Leary

Jan 14th - Jan 20th, 2019

Plotter Art For Sale

BustBright

Jul 30th - Aug 5th, 2018

Plotter Art For Sale

Michael Fogleman

inconvergent

Community

PlotterArt Subreddit

AxiDraw Subreddit

Generative Art Subreddit

Jul 23rd - Jul 29th, 2018

Plotter Art For Sale

Monica Rizzolli

EmergentDesign

Other Awesomes

awesome-generative-art stars1.4k

awesome-creative-coding stars9.5k

Last Checked At: 2022-05-28T16:16:46.616Z

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protontypes/awesome-robotic-tooling

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Top 50 Awesome List

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Platforms

Programming Languages

Front-End Development

Back-End Development

Computer Science

Big Data

Theory

Books

Editors

Gaming

Development Environment

Entertainment

Databases

Media

Learn

Security

Content Management Systems

Hardware

Business

Work

Networking

Decentralized Systems

Higher Education

Events

Testing

Miscellaneous

Unmaintained

beardicus/awesome-plotters

Manuals and Ephemera

Ephemera

Manuals and Ephemera

Manuals

Feb 21st - Feb 27th, 2022

Software

Vector Creation

Software

Vector Utilities

Dec 13th - Dec 19th, 2021

Software

G-code

Nov 22nd - Nov 28th, 2021

Manuals and Ephemera

Manuals

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Ephemera

Sep 13th - Sep 19th, 2021

Inspiration and Instruction