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DESPERATELY Need Pen Plotter Help


ATKOgirl

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Hi Everyone,

I am hoping that some Autocad pros here could offer some advice and opinions regarding pen plotters and their acquisition, set up and use.

To give you a little background information:

 

I am not an AutoCad user, although I did use it very briefly in the early 90s in design school for apparel design and patternmaking. I am a wedding professional who currently has a very, very old flatbed X-Y plotter system to do "pen & ink" calligraphy on envelopes and invitations. The system is by a company, Inscribe and has been around for about 20 years. You can see a sample of the very old plotter in action at the following:

 

Go to reavesengraving web site, click on calligraphy, and click on One of our calligraphy pens in action

 

and also here:

 

On you tube, do a search on Calligraphy Cafe

 

(As a newbie, I can't post the links)

 

The system is retro-fitted to use calligraphy nibs and what I believe to be calligraphy ink in plotter cartridges. I do not know who the manufacturer of the plotter was since it is only branded as Inscribe. Nor do I know who made the pen nibs. I can take photos if anyone wants to see them close up.

 

The envelopes/paper are held in place using magnets. Also, if you want to print more than one envelope at a time, there is a pad of paper in place on the bed and the plotter draws boxes on the pad where you place your envelopes - driven by the software. You then attach your envelopes in the drawn boxes using the magnets.

 

However, there are several issues with this system:

  • It is very, very old and is run by a DOS-based program
  • It is an extremely limited system - you cannot use your own fonts or graphics, only those that came with the DOS-based software
  • There are no windows drivers for it, so I cannot explore other software for it, since I cannot get it running on any version of Windows. I've tried the Winline universal plotter driver, but unfortunately, it does not work
  • It is extremely slow

So, I am looking to move to a more advanced plotter that will give me design freedom from a vector graphic and font standpoint. However, the only flatbed pen plotters I can find are on Ebay and are usually pretty old. But, I really want to do this, so I bit the bullet and bought a Graphtec MP3100 on Ebay.

 

Unfortunately, it did not come with a manual or any pens. I did find a driver on the Graphtec web site, but I don't even know where to start to get this plotter going. I look at the pen "fingers" on the arm, and can't even figure out how it picks up the pens! As such, I am hoping that someone can offer advice on how to get this machine functioning and working in Windows.

 

From there, I am hoping that I might be able to retrofit in some manner with calligraphy pens or nibs. Again, any expertise or suggestions on how to do this that anyone is willing to offer is greatly appreciated.

 

Also, I am not "married" to a flatbed plotter. I am also open to other suggestions, such as vinyl cutters. As long as they have the following:

 

  • Ability to retrofit in some manner with calligraphy pens or nibs - Are there any brands/models that are more receptive to non-plotter pens?
  • Ability to use as X-Y plotter rather than as friction fed to prevent the ink from smearing
  • Must not make any other marks (usually from friction feed) on the envelopes/paper

Thank you for reading my message. Again, I greatly appreciate any advice, insight, expertise, opinions, feedback or suggestions that anyone can offer.

 

I anxiously look forward to your responses!

 

Sincerely,

ATKOgirl

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  • Strix

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  • ATKOgirl

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  • allroad

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Hi Strix,

 

Thank you for your quick reply. Inscribe is a stationery software and hardware manufacturer. Their web site is Inscribe with the dot and the com at the end - I can't post links yet.

 

They have another system that allows custom printed stationery. For that system, they have in some way retrofitted an Epson printer to only work with their software. You then have to buy the paper from them and license the designs to print. As you buy paper, you are given a code. You then must enter the code into the software. You are only allowed to print as many pages as sheets of paper purchased. The system keeps track of how many times you print each design and you have to pay a licensing fee for the design usage.

 

They are kind of like big brother in maintaining so much control...

 

Again, thanks for your quick response!

 

ATKOgirl

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Hmmm, I don't think I'd have been too pleased with that arrangement either!

 

what's this epson printer then?

 

what are other companies in your industry running on?

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Unfortunately, believe it or not, for computer-generated, "pen & ink" calligraphy, Inscribe is the only game in town. They apparently had some sort of patent on the the retrofitting. With the seeming demise of pen plotters, no one else ever pursued calligraphy on a pen plotter. I think if I can get it to work - the design capabilities could be AMAZING. The big selling point is the fact that it is still "pen & ink" calligraphy. If I could get it to work in Windows, I would have design freedom, which would set me apart from the other vendors doing the same Inscribe calligraphy with the same old fonts and graphics as everyone else.

 

There are some new players for the customized stationery. One in particular, that has been very successful, is MountainCow. Their web site is their name with the dot and com (lol).

 

They have both professional and consumer products and work with any printer. I like their software much better than Inscribe's and they do not hold poor little printers, plotters, paper and ink hostage the way Inscribe does. So far, MountainCow seems to be a great company to deal with.

 

Other than that, surprisingly, there are not very many software players in the stationery industry. I think a lot of designers do their custom work in Illustrator.

 

:)

 

ATKOgirl

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Gosh - you learn all sorts here :)

 

how about this manufacturer? they pride themselves on their machines being able to accept standard blades, and being very flexible

 

perhaps speak to them and see if a hose feed to a nib would be possible if there isn't room for a full pen at the machine head?

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Haha, it's 9 posts for links...

 

I found out the hard way that newbies can't post links: I lost my entire message and had to reconstruct it from memory...

 

When I lost my message, it told me I had to have nine posts to be able to include links.

 

:wink:

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Haha, it's 9 posts for links...

 

I found out the hard way that newbies can't post links: I lost my entire message and had to reconstruct it from memory...

 

When I lost my message, it told me I had to have nine posts to be able to include links.

 

:wink:

oooo - that must have been annoying! did you hit the back button?
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Which manufacturer are you referring to? The link didn't come through.

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. I'm a dog person too.

ooops - post now fixed :oops: - that just proves how tired I am - it's 3.40am here and way past my bedtime!

 

(see you in the chat section and we can talk dogs tomorrow :wink: )

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I know his real passion is something approaching victorian sci-fi, but your problem may just push his buttons - especially if it involves getting a fountain pen nib to run from a computer! :thumbsup:

 

can you believe this guy built himself a telegram sending piece of equipment to receive RSS feeds? :?

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