Pen Plotter Resources
This is a list of resources to accompany my booth and talk at the Maker Faire in 2023. The links are a roundup of what you need to get started pen plotting and creative coding.
Come follow me on Instagram @i.draw.monkeys to stay up to date!
General Resources
Drawingbots.net A website run by Maks Surguy that lists a variety of utilities for creating pen plotter SVGs as well as more general information on plotting.
Drawingbots.net Discord Server The most active forum/discussion group on pen plotting. A great place to get inspiration or support.
Pen Plotter Artwork A website with tons of articles linked to the instagram account @penplotart. They also organize a Plot Party. The next one starts on June 12, 2023.
Generative Hut Lots of tutorials and articles to learn all about generative art.
The History of Computer Art Looking at the older works from the 1960s onwards can be extremely interesting and also generate ideas. The compArt database Digital Art (daDA) is a great place to visit to peruse all the computer artists from the 20th century.
Tracing the Line by Vetro Editions In a October 2023, a book will be coming out from Vetro Editions with an overview of many different pen plotting artists.
Comprehensive list of hardware and software options by @beardiscus over at Github.
Instagram On Instagram, there are a couple more general round-up accounts to check out: @penplotart and @generative.hut. I won’t list individual artists because there are too many cool ones! Peruse the hashtags #plotterart, #axidraw, #penplotter, and you enjoy the wide variety of works.
The Robots: Which Pen Plotter is for Me?
Generating Art to Plot
For an overview: Matt Widmann published a really really extensive list of the wide variety of pen plotters (both self build and for purchase).
The Axidraw. The best of the best, comes assembled, seemless software integration with Inkscape, and full support from a human. Available up to A3 size; special order from USA up to A1. Made by Evil Mad Scientist in California. Can buy in Europe at The Robot Shop.
The iDraw. A company with a wide range of drawing robots that has software and hardware based on the Axidraw open source software. They had large, fast, and accurate machines. You can check out my in depth review of the iDraw H A1 here.
Axidraw Clone. A DIY option. If you want a cheaper AxiDraw and want to improve your robot building skills, this is a well documented build. 3D printer or access to a 3D printer is necessary.
OpenBuilds ACRO System. I think of this as the DIY-light solution.This is also the choice if you want a super large format (over 1m) plotter. OpenBuilds has YouTube videos that walks you through the entire build and wiring step by step. They also have a forum where you can have very quick and thorough support to help you.
The entire build kit can be purchased from OpenBuilds in the USA. Alternatively, as all their builds are completely open source, you can take the part list from their website and source it in Europe. I have had good experience with RatRig that ships from Portugal. Constract, just outside of Vienna also has many of the parts including v-slot cut to size.
OpenBuilds does not sell or design pen holders. You must design or find your own. The best pen holder compatible with Acro I’ve found is from GeoDave on Thingiverse.
OpenBuilds has their own box/board that you can purchase and maintains their own software to control the Acro System. However, you can also hook it up to an Arduino with CNC Shield and run with GRBL firmware and Universal Gcode Sender.
Wall Hanging Robot. The current best option to buy one is Makelangelo that ships from Canada. If you want to build your own, I wrote a long post about how I built mine. This is a cheap build—with prior skill can be a quick afternoon project, or as a novice, like me, it. might take a month or two, but you will learn a lot!
SVG Editing/Optimizing
Inkscape is an open source scalable vector graphic editor (SVG). If you have an Axidraw, you can plot directly from within the program. If you don’t have an AxiDraw and your plotter accepts Gcode, you will probably still want to use Inkscape to size and edit your drawings. The program can be frustrating when you are first learning it, but I promise it grows on you!
Vpype. This is an indispensable tool if you are plotting without an Axidraw. Vpype is a command line utility that creates, modifies, and optimizes SVGs for plotting. It will reorder graphics for faster plotting, can insert dipping patterns for watercolor, or can rewrite the SVG so the pen does multiple passes on a line.
Vpype-gcode. This is a plug-in for Vpype which allows you to generate Gcode. It really is the best choice for pen plotters. I had zero luck with other Gcode generators.
Coding Light: "Coded" Art Without Learning to Code
Turtletoy is cool website made by Reinder Nijhoff where you can make generative art using a minimalistic javascript Turtle graphics API. You can also view and adjust parameters on other people’s “turtles.” No technical or coding knowledge required.
Drawing Bot Tool Repository. This is a little database of lots of different options to create code based art for plotters without knowing how to code.
Draw Your Own
You can use Illustrator on the iPad (or desktop) and the blend tool to create lots of cool effects that work great on the plotter. The blend tool will repeat a certain number of lines between two of your lines. In Inkscape, the “Interpolate” function can produce similar results (Extensions > Generate From Path > Interpolate).
Anna Stumpf wrote an article on a different approach on how to use Illustrator to make your own generative looking art without coding over at Generative Hut.
I drew my chimpanzee with the Apple Pencil on my iPad in Illustrator and used the Blend tool to make it suitable for the plotter.
Image Processors
Another option is to take photos or even images generated by AI and use a variety of image processors to make them suitable for the plotter. There is a wide range of options and styles possible in this category. This is not a list of all the possibilities but enough to get you started.
DrawingBotv3. This is desktop software and gives you the widest range of options in one place. There are both free and paid versions.
Round up of web-based tools at Drawingbots.net. Drawingbots website has a roundup of lots of other web based image convertors.
Learning to Creative Code
Learning to do creative coding is actually not as hard as it might first seem. The time to get to generating your first artwork might only be a few hours of learning. Plus, there are tons of free resources to learn.
Processing. Processing is a programming language that was developed for use in the arts. Their website has tons of information on how to get started. You can download their software for free. Their forum is a good place to get support with your learning.
The Coding Train This Youtube channel by Daniel Shiffman has everything you will ever need to know. Shiffman really is the Bob Ross of Creative Coding. He teaches Processing and p5.js in hundreds of very watchable videos.
Books. Shiffman also wrote two great books. Learning Processing is the intro book, and Nature of Code (available completely free online) has more advanced concepts.
Tutorial on How to Use Processing Specifically for Pen Plotters. Once you have learned to code basic sketches in Processing, this tutorial over at Generative Hut by Julien Gachadoat is extremely helpful in learning how to export your sketches as SVGs.
VSketch An alternative option inspired by Processing for generating SVGs that is linked to Vpype. Designed by plotters for plotters.
