When talking about computers, what the heck is a plotter??

Answer 1

A plotter was a special type of printer that used pens to actually draw the print out on the paper. A mechanical "hand" would mover over to a carousel that contains pens of different colors and select the color desired. Horizontal strokes of the pen were accomplished by the "hand" moving back and forth along a track. Vertical strokes were accomplished by moving the paper up and down beneath the pen. Combinations of these movements create diagonal and curved lines. To create the white spaces between elements of the print the "hand" would lift the pen off of the paper. These printers had the advantage of providing crisp text and graphics in a day when dot matrix printers did not have very high resolutions. However, they could not really produce very good color saturation. That is, you could not have large areas filled by solid colors. These type of printers were made in sizes that could handle individual sheets of letter and legal sized paper up to huge posters.

Note that many of the printers that are currently being sold as plotters are actually large-format ink jet printers.

Answer 2

Plotter is a printer used to draw large blueprints, schematic diagrams, and similar illustrations. Many plotters use several pens to draw lines on a roll of paper. A computer controls the movement of both the paper and the pens. The paper moves back and forth under mountings that hold the pens. The pens slide along the mountings at a right angle to the movement of the paper. Other plotters used to make large drawings are an electrostatic plotter, which works somewhat like a copying machine; and an inkjet plotter, which is basically a large inkjet printer.

Plotters serve as output devices for architects and industrial designers who use a technique called computer-aided design and drafting (CADD). CADD software offers several electronic design tools. For example, a designer can rotate a picture of the object being designed as if the actual object were rotating in space. This tool can give the designer a variety of helpful views of the object.

Answer 3

A device that draws pictures on paper based on commands from a computer. Plotters differ from printers in that they draw lines using a pen. As a result, they can produce continuous lines, whereas printers can only simulate lines by printing a closely spaced series of dots. Multicolor plotters use different-colored pens to draw different colors. In general, plotters are considerably more expensive than printers. They are used in engineering applications where precision is mandatory.

Answer 4

A plotter is a type of printer that uses pens and moves the paper or other medium back and forth as it puts the pen or pens down to draw, or plot, a particular design, such as for real estate or floor layouts or integrated circuit design or most anything that can be drawn or plotted.

Hence, the name plotter.

Answer 5

it's a "printer" that draws. the plotter uses ink pens which actually draw stuff on large sheets of paper.

companies who use AutoCAD (like architecture and engineering firms) may still use plotters to draw out blueprints.

Answer 6

Plotters are pen equipped printers to make drawings, maps etc

Answer 7

A plotter is a big printer that can print plots... I'm not sure what the "official" dimentions it has to be, but I would guess from the one's that I've seen that a requrement to be one is to print poster sized documents/pictures on paper.

Answer 8

An older style printer, sometimes still used for large scale printouts such as architctural plans etc. They commonly used a set of pens and a large roll of paper to print massive documents.

Answer 9

Something that plots things... Usually in regards to computers in architectural or design firms, a system whose wole purpose is in programs like AutoCad wired up to a design printing machine (massive).

Answer 10

It's a kind of printer that draws graphs or diagrams - like blueprints or electronic circuitry or something - using pens.