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What is The Basic Difference Between a Printer and a Plotter?

Generally, not a lot of people get confused between a platter and a printer. But in case a person does, this article will show you the difference and the similarities, if any. 

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Plotter and Printer: Is there a difference? 

For a brief answer, a plotter is a form of a printer. It’s best to describe the plotter as more traditional than the printer. Because instead of printing it straight to the paper, it creates a series of dots that makes up the image or drawing. 

This is also a reason why a plotter prints much slower than a printer. On the other hand, plotters produce high-quality outputs. 

If you look at its physical features, it appears to be open to that of a printer. 

Large format printers that use inkjet/DesignJet can also produce large materials. Some materials it could print are in the form of flags, huge banners, career expo illustrations, introductions, paintings, backdrop. It can also print compositional drawings like diagrams, specialized engineer plans, and CAD plan drawings like the plotter.

What are plotters in a computer?

To print a graphical output on a paper, the plotter will get the computer’s command and execute line drawing on the form using multicolored pens that are also automated. 

Plotters can help with printing graphs, charts, drawings, and even maps. They are also called cutting plotters.

A plotter is also associated with a PC, furnished with a cutting plan or drawing PC programming programs. Those PC programming programs are answerable for sending the fundamental cutting aspects to instruct the slicing blade to deliver the correct cutting requirements.

In recent years, cutting plotters has become well known with home lovers of paper artworks, such as cardmaking and scrapbooking. Such instruments permit wanted card and decal shapes to be removed definitively and repeatedly.

What is a printer?

As a plotter, the printer is an output device that prints an input instructed by a computer. This is widely used in schools and offices and even at home. 

It usually prints 8.5″ by 11″ sheets of paper. There are many kinds of printers, but up-to-date laser printers are the most popular. 2D printers are used to print text and graphics on paper, while 3D printers create three-dimensional physical objects.

This is probably their most apparent difference. The plotter can only print 2D texts. Meanwhile, some printers can give you things in 3D.

While the plotter prints using a format like that of vector graphics, the printer does it in the form of pixels. 

What’s more expensive? 

Whether it’s obvious or not, plotters are more expensive. While printers are standard in offices, plotters are made for architectural design and engineering, making them expensive. 

Another amazing thing with the plotter is that it can draw continuously, whereas the printer cannot. However, when it comes to speed, printers print fast, and plotters are slow. This can be because they are 

Final Say

Wondering what you could get for your office? Go for the one that suits your needs. 

There’s not much advantage of using a plotter if its proper function won’t use it. Moreover, it’s better to go with a printer if the goal is only to print ordinary papers.

But if you’re still unsure of what to get, don’t hesitate to make a call! You can check us here on this link for our contact details. We’d be happy to help you with th