Flatbed plotter printers have evolved over the years to provide a greater variety of printing[printing?:printing cutting finishing solution] jobs. The original flatbed plotter printers used refillable pens fastened to a mechanical arm. The pens dropped down onto a paper[paper?:paper sample maker cutting machine] roll mounted flat and unrolled to form the drawing surface. The pens moved back and forth drawing the design. These older flatbed plotter printers only produced different colors in accordance with the number of pens they held. Old flatbed plotter printers were generally used for blueprints and mechanical designs not requiring numerous colors.
Today’s flatbed plotter printers feature mechanical arms moving back and forth and left to right over fixed paper sheets as opposed to yesteryear’s unraveling paper rolls. The fixed paper allows modern flatbed plotter printers to print[print?:printing image graphic cutting solution] images equal to or smaller than the size of the flatbed. Today’s flatbed plotter printers are larger than drum plotter printers for producing large prints, drawings, and posters. Whereas the old flatbed plotter printers were mainly used by architects and engineers, modern flatbed plotter printers are producing the large colorful prints found on today’s posters, maps, and restaurant menus.
