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 (possibly 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
Roland Pen Plotters (YouTube) – vintage flatbed HPGL pen plotters. Search eBay for "roland dxy"

Motor Controllers

grblShield – all the stepper motor control hardware needed to turn an Arduino into a G-code-based motion controller using the grbl firmware (adafruit)
TinyG – 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
Raspberry Pi CNC Hat – Raspberry Pi add-on board w/ stepper controllers and a microcontroller running grbl. Interfaces with the Pi's serial pins

Accessories

WiFi232 – wifi to RS-232 serial via a DB25 plug. Control your serial plotter wirelessly
Plotter Cable Pinout (PDF) – 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

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
TODO: pen recommendations

Software

HPGL

HPGL is a serial/text-based protocol used by most old pen plotters, and even many new vinyl cutters.

Chiplotle (web site) – 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 – 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

G-code

G-code is a text-based standard for controlling CNC machines. Though it was designed for industrial machines, its use in many hobbyist 3d printer firmwares has made it ubiquitous in small-scale DIY projects as well.

grbl – a high-performance G-code interpreting firmware for the Atmega 328 microcontroller and Arduino
cncjs – a web-based interface controlling CNC machines running grbl, TinyG, or other G-code-based firmware
node-gcode – Node.js-based G-code interpreter and similator
svg2gcode – Node.js-based command line utility for converting SVG to G-code
svg2gcode – Python-based utility for fast SVG to G-code conversion
Universal-G-Code-Sender – Java-based grbl-compatible cross-platform G-code sender
ChiliPeppr Hardware Fiddle – modular web-based workspaces to visualize G-code and control hardware

Plotter-Specific

Software that is specific to a particular plotter or controller.

axidraw – official AxiDraw extensions for Inkscape
axi – unofficial Python library for the AxiDraw v3
xy – utilities for the Makeblock XY Plotter Robot Kit
LaserGRBL – 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 – sends drawings to the Line-us plotter directly from Inkscape
Line-us API Examples – example code for the Line-us plotter's G-code-based API

Vector Creation

Tools to create vector artwork from scratch or by conversion from other formats.

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 – vector-based 3D renderer written in Go
autotrace – converts bitmap images to vector graphics
stipplegen – creates intereting 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

Vector Utilities

Tools to manipulate and optimize vector-based file formats.

svgsort – path planning for plotting SVG files, reduces time spent moving with the pen up
svgo – Node.js-based tool for optimizing SVG files

Fonts

Single-line vector fonts or "engraving 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 – C library and original font data for the Hershey fonts
OneLineFonts.com – commercial site with some single-line fonts available for purchase

Inspiration and Instruction

Blog posts, articles, tutorials, galleries, videos, et cetera.

An Intro to Pen Plotters – good info on getting started with old HPGL plotters
1980s pen plotters of the future – another intro to vintage pen plotters
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
The Recode Project – "The ReCode Project is a community-driven effort to preserve computer art by translating it into a modern programming language"
Hektor – the original cable-based drawbot from 2002

Community

Where to find other plotter and drawbot friends.

#plottertwitter – Twitter hashtag with lots o' plots
PlotterArt Subreddit
AxiDraw Subreddit
Generative Art Subreddit
Chiplotle-discuss – fairly inactive mailing list for the Chiplotle HPGL Python library with some general plotter talk

README.md Unescape Escape

Awesome Plotters

Contributing

Contents

Hardware

Plotters