Output Devices : Plotters

A plotter can be used to produce very large drawings on paper sizes up to A0 (16 times as big as A4). A plotter draws onto the paper using very fine pens. There are two types of plotter. They differ in the way that the pen can be moved about on the piece of paper to draw lines :

• Flatbed Plotter : The paper is fixed and the pen moves left and right and up and down across the paper to draw lines.

• Drum Plotter : The pen moves up and down on the paper and the paper is moved left and right by rotating a drum on which the paper is placed.

Plotters can automatically change their pens and so can produce colour output. The lines drawn by a plotter are continuous and very accurate. Plotters are very slow but produce high quality output. They are usually used for Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) applications such as printing out plans for houses or car parts. The quality of the output produced by ink jet printers is now very good and large format (big) ink jet printers are steadily replacing plotters for most tasks.

GCSE ICT Companion 04 - (C) P Meakin 2004