Resources

The original list of resources and tools for plotter and drawing robot enthusiasts

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Commercial Plotters Plotters available for sale

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Title Description URL View
AxiDraw Simple, modern, and precise pen plotters. https://axidraw.com/ Go
Makelangelo 5 Makelangelo 5 is a beautiful picture drawing robot. The Makelangelo can draw up to A1 sized pictures on a window, whiteboard, or easel with Sharpie or dry-erase markers. Use coupon "DRAWINGBOTS10" for 10% off! https://www.marginal... Go
Line-us Line-us is an portable internet connected robot drawing arm. https://www.line-us.... Go
Makeblock XY Plotter XY Plotter Robot Kit is a drawing robot that can move a pen or other instrument to draw digital artwork on flat surface https://www.makebloc... Go
CylinDraw CylinDraw lets you easily create incredible art on any kind of cup https://cylindraw.co... Go
iDraw Pen Plotter. Use Coupon "drawingbots" for 15% off during purchase! https://idrawpenplot... Go

DIY plotters and projects 3D printed, laser cut, or other home-made machines for drawing

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Title Description URL View
Open source turtle robot Open source turtle robot made with 3D printed materials and some circuits https://www.thingive... Go
ExtruDraw Extrusion-based Plotter A plotter/drawing machine that uses 20x40mm and 20x20mm aluminium extrusion for both structure and linear guides. https://www.thingive... Go
DIY Drawing Robot 3D printed Drawing robot. It is powered by an Arduino Uno controller, uses a CNC Shield, and GRBL firmware. The approximate cost to build this drawing robot is $100. https://www.thingive... Go
Unofficial archive of plotters In this forum post you will find a roundup of plotters and drawing robots from around the world. http://www.polargrap... Go
MidTBot Very small DIY plotter that you can 3D print and put together. https://github.com/b... Go
CylinDraw CylinDraw lets you easily create incredible art on any kind of cup https://cylindraw.co... Go
Make 3d Printer into plotter A 3D Printable Pen Plotter Toolhead for the Creality Ender 3 3D Printer https://github.com/A... Go
BrachioGraph The cheapest, simplest pen plotter. A BrachioGraph can be built in an hour or so without any special skills. The total cost of all components can be as low as €15 or so. Apart from a Raspberry Pi computer and some hobby servo motors, the plotter can be built with everyday household items such as a clothes-peg. https://www.brachiog... Go
Graffiti plotter Huge plotter that can do graffiti https://github.com/r... Go
LEGO Camera Mount for AxiDraw Raspberry Pi Camera mount for AxiDraw, made out of LEGO https://muffinman.io... Go
Fumik: Open-source, wall drawing robot DIY Wall Drawing Robot https://github.com/f... Go
Numerically Controlled Pen Plotters in Art This research aims at exploring the potential to extend the creative capabilities of a pen plotter. While commercial pen plotters offer limited possibilities for controlling a pen’s pressure or its height in relation to the drawing surface, developing an advanced pen-lift mechanism would allow for dynamically controlling the height of a writing or drawing implement with adequate resolution. These improvements permit using an ink brush or pen with a flexible tip to modulate the stroke weight of the drawn lines. https://urn.fi/URN:N... Go

Community Where the party's at

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Title Description URL View
A huge list of resources A list like this one (an inspiration) https://github.com/b... Go
Subreddit For Plotter Art Subreddit For Plotter Art https://www.reddit.c... Go
DrawingBots Twitter Twitter account for Plotter enthusiasts (coming soon) https://twitter.com/... Go
DrawingBots Discord A place to talk about drawing robots and challenges https://discordapp.c... Go
DrawingBots Facebook A place to chat about drawing robots, share designs, links, etc https://www.facebook... Go
PlotterFiles Hundreds of Free SVG files for plotters and other 2D CNC machines https://plotterfiles... Go

GCode Generators SVG to GCode generators

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Title Description URL View
openjscam TPLang (with modifications) -> G-Code in pure JavaScript https://github.com/m... Go
Halftoner and Reactor Two interesting free software packages (Windows only) https://jasondorie.c... Go
3dwriter.io Converts text to postcards and written gcode 3dwriter.io Go
gcodeplot Converter for SVG and HPGL to gcode for a 3-axis GCode machine https://github.com/a... Go
HTML Canvas to gcode Draw in canvas with javascript and export a gcode file https://github.com/l... Go
Depictor A raspberry pi based print server to control your plotter. It can convert images to drawings, has a gallery with all previous prints and has a live print preview to check the progress of your drawings. https://github.com/I... Go
Sudoku Gcode A simple processing sketch to generate gcodes/svgs of sudoku riddles. https://github.com/I... Go

SVG Generators Tools that produce SVG files

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Title Description URL View
Patternodes A tool for creating graphical vector patterns, animations or illustrations using a node-based interface where you define a sequence of connected nodes that describe the design, each representing graphical elements, changes or repetitions. https://www.lostmind... Go
Differential Growth Experiments Series of visual experiments in JavaScript exploring the topic of differential growth as a method for generating interesting 2D forms https://github.com/j... Go
WaveFormer Turns audio recordings into a drawing https://www.misha.st... Go
Letters with QuickDraw SVGs and designs made with QuickDraw dataset http://frauzufall.de... Go
TemplateMaker Create designs for unique boxes, custom enclosures. Can be used with LaserCutting https://templatemake... Go
InkRays Circular designs generator http://thoka.net/ink... Go
MakerJS JavaScript library for creating and sharing modular line drawings for CNC https://maker.js.org... Go
Medieval City Generator Generates maps of imaginary medieval cities https://watabou.itch... Go
Map path generator Generates maps of the world https://pixelmap.amc... Go
Mandala Generator Creates Mandala designs http://mandalacreato... Go
Spiral Generator Generates Spirals with noise https://www.openproc... Go
Moire Patterns Some Moire patterns made with D3 https://codepen.io/m... Go
SVGUrt A few tools for creative image -> SVG conversion https://svgurt.com Go
Curved Polygons Generates Curved polygons https://codepen.io/m... Go
Delaunay Triangulator Image 2 Delaunay triangulation https://snorpey.gith... Go
Ln (3D line art engine) 3D Line Art Engine https://github.com/f... Go
CanvasSketch A framework for making generative artwork in JavaScript and the browser. https://github.com/m... Go
SquiggleDraw Processing app to create an SVG based on the brightness of an image transformed into sine waves. https://github.com/g... Go
SquiggleCam Browser tool for fast image -> squiggle drawing conversion https://msurguy.gith... Go
StippleGen Software that can create stipple drawings and “TSP art,” from image files https://github.com/e... Go
PenKit Tools for pen plotting in Python https://github.com/p... Go
Image 2 Hilbert Upload an image to generate a single line (Hilbert Curve) representation of it https://shooshx.gith... Go
Vectorizer A different kind of Spirograph http://blackholedesi... Go
Spirograph Spirograph made with Processing https://github.com/r... Go
MazeGenerator Creates SVGs of Mazes http://www.mazegener... Go
Kolam Generator Generates Kolam artworks https://editor.p5js.... Go
AsciiArt Image to ASCII generator https://pixlab.io/ar... Go
SpiralRaster Image to Spiral Raster generator http://paperjs.org/e... Go
Generative Artworks Some generative art generators made with Processing https://github.com/d... Go
City Generator Makes imaginary cities that look hand-drawn https://www.openproc... Go
Turtletoy Website where your can create SVG's using a minimalistic Turtle graphics API https://turtletoy.ne... Go
Juicy GCode Haskell tool for SVG 2 GCode conversion https://github.com/d... Go
SVGPath Transforms SVG Path Transformation library https://github.com/f... Go
Scribble Generator Drawbot_image_to_gcode_v2 https://github.com/j... Go
Circuit generator in 35c3 style Generative circuit generator in 35c3 style by Bleeptrack https://35c3.bleeptr... Go
Flower Generator Flower Generator from Bleeptrack https://blptrck.uber... Go
Linedraw Convert images to vectorized line drawings for plotters. https://github.com/L... Go
Scribbleplot Processing scripts to create different plottable versions of images https://github.com/b... Go
DullBits Drawbot Generates scribbly g-code from images http://dullbits.com/... Go
LumberSharp Stylized 3d scene to SVG conversion for plotting, inspired by Escher's woodcuts. https://github.com/d... Go
StippleGen (OSX port) A port of Evil Mad Scientist's StippleGen Processing app to full desktop Java https://github.com/f... Go
Mandala-esque Generator A Web Based tool for making of mandala-esque plotter pieces https://jan.jarfalk.... Go
Halftoner and Reactor Two interesting free software packages (Windows only) https://jasondorie.c... Go
Processing Boilerplate Processing Boilerplate with Gcode Export https://sighack.com/... Go
Tinkersynth Virtual machine to generate cool art and download SVGs. It lets you create unique generative art by making serendipitous discoveries through experimentation. https://tinkersynth.... Go
WEIR A System for Making Generative Systems from @inconvergent https://github.com/i... Go
VPype The Swiss Army knife of vector graphics for pen plotters https://github.com/a... Go
fawkes This package provides an R API to control the AxiDraw pen plotter https://fawkes.data-... Go
Peak Map Make a ridge line chart from any region on Earth https://anvaka.githu... Go
Sandify SVG and GCode generator for single line drawings https://sandify.org/ Go
Components AI Experimental computational design platform for exploring generative space https://components.a... Go
DeepSVG A Hierarchical Generative Network for Vector Graphics Animation. https://blog.alexand... Go
SVG Cropper Browser based tool to crop SVGs using a rectangle, circle, polygon or custom shape. https://msurguy.gith... Go
PlotterFiles Hundreds of Free SVG files for plotters and other 2D CNC machines https://plotterfiles... Go
Contour Map Creator Create contour maps https://contourmapcr... Go
Elixir SVG generator Elixir SVG graphics library and art scripts to draw with a pen plotter. https://github.com/s... Go
SVG Peck Minimalist vector tool for pen plotter artists https://github.com/S... Go
lineboi3000 lineboi3000 is a way cool graphical interface for drawing, painting, adding EFX, and then sending your designs to a pen plotter or creating animations https://github.com/l... Go
STL Terrain Generator Generates STL 3D file of area on the map. https://touchterrain... Go
Nodebox NodeBox makes it easy to do data visualisations and generative design https://www.nodebox.... Go
DrawingBotV3 Drawing Bot is a free, open source software for converting images to line drawings for Plotters / Drawing Machines / 3D printers. It also serves as an application for visual artists to create stylised line drawings from images / video. https://github.com/S... Go
Plotter Vision Process 3D STLs for 3D printing into 2D SVGs for plotting http://plotter.visio... Go
Plotterfun Lots of common plotter Java algorithms for generating SVGs in a single convenient web app https://mitxela.com/... Go
Sheet music to SVG renderer In goes a midi file or a simple markup format, and out comes polylines, which can then be used for animation, plotting and various procedural drawing fun. https://github.com/L... Go
3D engines for SVG generation A list of existing tools that convert 3D objects to plottable SVG files https://github.com/m... Go
Programmable SVG Programmable Scalable Vector Graphics -- drawings that draw themselves https://github.com/L... Go
Handwriting generator Machine Learning-powered handwriting generator with option to save arbitrary generated handwriting as SVG https://www.handwrit... Go
SVG Crowbar A Chrome-specific bookmarklet that extracts SVG nodes and accompanying styles from an HTML document and downloads them as an SVG file https://nytimes.gith... Go
Potrace A NodeJS-compatible JavaScript tool for tracing bitmaps. https://www.npmjs.co... Go
Flowchart.fun A tool that generates SVGs of flowcharts from structured text https://flowchart.fu... Go
City Map Generator A tool by @probabletrain for creating procedural city maps in the browser, downloadable as SVG files https://maps.probabl... Go
Great-96 a tool for generating Islamic tiling geometric patterns https://isohedral.ca... Go
AudioPlotter A tool for generating SVGs of audio waveforms from sound files https://audioplotter... Go
DrawSVG A Python 3 library for programmatically generating SVG images and rendering them or displaying them in a Jupyter notebook. https://pypi.org/pro... Go
Rad Lines Beautiful SVG shape generator https://msurguy.gith... Go
Flow Lines A tool for generating flow line representations using SVG paths / polylines https://msurguy.gith... Go
Contours generator by Axismaps Create SVG contours of terrain maps https://contours.axi... Go
SuperFormula 2D superformula line-art generator built in Processing, with SVG export for use in digital fabrication workflows. https://github.com/j... Go
SVGO SVG Optimizer (SVGO) is a Node.js-based tool for optimizing SVG vector graphics files. This tool removes redundant and useless information such as editor metadata, comments, hidden elements, etc., without affecting rendering. Also see the SVGO GUI, https://github.com/jakearchibald/svgomg. https://github.com/s... Go
StringyPlotter TSP SVG Generator from 1 bit images https://github.com/t... Go
Axidraw Sketchpad A P5.js sketch for creating SVG drawings https://github.com/m... Go
Mandalagaba Mandala explorer with SVG Export option https://pro.mandalag... Go
Duplicate Lines remover Inkscape extension for removing duplicate lines in SVG files http://cutlings.wasb... Go
Python Streamlines builder A tool for building SVG streamlines from a 2d vector field https://github.com/m... Go
Sudoku Gcode A simple processing sketch to generate gcodes/svgs of sudoku riddles. https://github.com/I... Go
Online SVG Optimizer Free SVG optimizer for plotter and CNC users. https://plotterfiles... Go
p5 Studio CLI tool to rapidly create sketches with p5.js and Typescript https://github.com/B... Go
Raster to Vector conversion with AI Online tool for Tracing Pixels To Vectors in Full Color https://vectorizer.a... Go
VTracer - Raster to Vector Graphics Converter Web based open source tool for raster to vector conversion https://www.visionco... Go

Algorithms R&D and innovations for drawing robots

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Title Description URL View
TSP Solver TSP Solver algorithm for optimizing pen travel https://bitaesthetic... Go
SVG2Gcode (Python) Python tool for converting SVG to GCode https://github.com/H... Go
SVG2Gcode (Python) Another SVG2GCode conversion tool https://github.com/S... Go
Centerline Tracing Tutorial Tutorial on making line artworks http://cleversomeday... Go
Penkit Optimizer Command-line tool for optimizing and visualizing the drawing order of SVG graphics for pen plotting. https://github.com/p... Go
SimplifyJS JS script for simplification of SVG lines http://mourner.githu... Go
PX2SVG Converts raster images to SVG, using color-run optimization. https://github.com/m... Go
FEngrave F-Engrave is a text or image to g-code program http://www.scorchwor... Go
Scribbleplot Processing scripts to create different plottable versions of images https://github.com/b... Go
DullBits Drawbot Generates scribbly g-code from images http://dullbits.com/... Go
Line Clipping Algorithm The Cohen-Sutherland Line Clipping Algorithm https://sighack.com/... Go
Medial (and Scale) Axis Transform library Medial (and Scale) Axis Transform library - SVG focused https://mat-demo.app... Go
Article about Generative art and plotters On fine art and generative line drawings https://www.tandfonl... Go
Algorithm for tiling of polygons A technique for tiling the plane with regular polygons https://observablehq... Go
Skeleton Tracing A new algorithm for retrieving topological skeleton as a set of polylines from binary images https://github.com/L... Go
Components AI Experimental computational design platform for exploring generative space https://components.a... Go
SVG Cropper Browser based tool to crop SVGs using a rectangle, circle, polygon or custom shape. https://msurguy.gith... Go
CozyVec CozyVec by @brubsby is "a tiny terminal program for creating plotter art" with JavaScript. https://brubsby.itch... Go
DrawSVG A Python 3 library for programmatically generating SVG images and rendering them or displaying them in a Jupyter notebook. https://pypi.org/pro... Go
StringyPlotter TSP SVG Generator from 1 bit images https://github.com/t... Go
Axidraw Sketchpad A P5.js sketch for creating SVG drawings https://github.com/m... Go
Paper on converting images to lines Abstracting Images into Continuous Line Artistic Styles https://www.u-aizu.a... Go
3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development Free book about 3D math, the geometry and algebra of 3D space. It is designed to teach you how to describe objects and their positions, orientations, and trajectories in 3D using mathematics. https://gamemath.com... Go

Supplies Pens, inks, papers

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Title Description URL View
Common pens and papers A list of pens and papers that are community favorites https://drawingbots.... Go
Plotter Materials Comprehensive chronological list of papers used by plotter artists https://stylecampaig... Go

Vintage Plotters Resources for old plotters

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Title Description URL View
3D-printed pen adapters Parametric OpenSCAD code to create custom pen adapters. https://github.com/j... Go
HP 7475A pen refill adaptor Pen adapter for HP7475a, holds Pilot LG2RF refills. Add the spring from any common ballpoint pen to keep pressure on the refill cartridge. https://www.thingive... Go

Plotter Control Software Software Solutions for controlling drawing robots

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Title Description URL View
AxiDrawJS "A complete solution for controlling AxiDraw via local server and browser application Comes with generators for a map, terrain and Lorenz attractor" https://github.com/u... Go
Axi Unofficial driver software for AxiDraw https://github.com/f... Go
saxi saxi is a tool for interacting with the AxiDraw drawing machine by Evil Mad Scientist. It comes with an easy-to-use interface, and is exactingly precise. https://github.com/n... Go
Processing Boilerplate with Gcode Export I had written up this Processing boilerplate for generating Gcode for my cheap chinese plotter based on GRBL. https://sighack.com/... Go
Makelangelo Software Makelangelo software that provides a beautiful, intuitive interface to drive your polargraph drawing robot https://github.com/M... Go
Processing Boilerplate Processing Boilerplate with Gcode Export https://sighack.com/... Go
fawkes This package provides an R API to control the AxiDraw pen plotter https://fawkes.data-... Go
AxiDraw Figma Plugin Easily control an AxiDraw drawing machine from Figma. Prepare your vector art and send it to the plotter in one click. https://www.figma.co... Go
TAXI - Axidraw GUI Taxi is an opinionated touch screen Axidraw GUI https://github.com/p... Go
Penplotter Webserver Pen Plotter Webserver for RPI0 https://github.com/h... Go
Depictor A raspberry pi based print server to control your plotter. It can convert images to drawings, has a gallery with all previous prints and has a live print preview to check the progress of your drawings. https://github.com/I... Go
Universal G Code Sender CLI A terminal based client for Universal Gcode Sender, making it possible to connect to a controller and send G-code files without any fancy GUI's. The program uses the same stable and well tested backend as UGS Classic and UGS Platform. https://github.com/w... Go

Data for design generation Collections and repositories of designs or data that can be used for making designs for plotting

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Title Description URL View
TheDoodleLibrary Some line drawings as SVGs https://www.thedoodl... Go
Geometric artworks 3D prints that could be converted to SVGs https://www.thingive... Go
Circuit Board designs Circuit board designs can be drawn with plotters https://github.com/g... Go
Icons for maps Various open source map icons https://github.com/t... Go
TheNounProject Millions of vector icons https://thenounproje... Go
Some free DXF designs Lots and lots of ready to plot vector designs https://www.scan2cad... Go
Dimensions.Guide Dimensions.Guide is a comprehensive reference database of dimensioned drawings documenting the standard measurements and sizes of the everyday objects and spaces that make up our world. https://www.dimensio... Go
Contour Map Creator Create contour maps https://contourmapcr... Go
SVG Crowbar A Chrome-specific bookmarklet that extracts SVG nodes and accompanying styles from an HTML document and downloads them as an SVG file https://nytimes.gith... Go

Articles Magazines, Writings and articles about pen plotters

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Title Description URL View
24 Plotter Comparison of 1994 Article Comparing specs and prices of 24 plotters https://bit.ly/2XMeZ... Go
From Lettering Guides to CNC Plotter A Brief History of Technical Lettering Tools https://www.typotheq... Go
My AxiDraw – 5 lessons learned An article for people thinking about buying an AxiDraw. 5 dos and don'ts taken from author's experience https://www.jakub-an... Go
Research paper about plottertwitter hashtag Tools, Tricks, and Hacks: Exploring Novel Digital Fabrication Workflows on #PlotterTwitter https://dl.acm.org/d... Go
Numerically Controlled Pen Plotters in Art This research aims at exploring the potential to extend the creative capabilities of a pen plotter. While commercial pen plotters offer limited possibilities for controlling a pen’s pressure or its height in relation to the drawing surface, developing an advanced pen-lift mechanism would allow for dynamically controlling the height of a writing or drawing implement with adequate resolution. These improvements permit using an ink brush or pen with a flexible tip to modulate the stroke weight of the drawn lines. https://urn.fi/URN:N... Go

Text Fonts, Text tools, plugins and extensions for Plotter and drawing robot workflows.

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Title Description URL View
Single Line Fonts Fonts that are working well for plotters, drawing robots and laser engraving http://www.imajeenyu... Go
ttf2hershey This tool converts the common True Type Font (.ttf) files to Hershey font format https://github.com/L... Go
Single Line text creator Type text and export to single stroke SVG for your plotter! https://www.template... Go
Single line fonts Fonts suitable for plotters or for laser cutters / engravers and CNC milling. Perfect for creating plottable text! https://www.singleli... Go
Single-Line Font Renderer A browser-based tool to render single-line/SVG fonts and export text as SVG files made for CNC machines and pen plotters. https://jvolker.gith... Go
Render LaTeX math with Hershey Fonts hfmath is a tiny JS tool for rendering mathematics using single-line Hershey Fonts https://github.com/L... Go
p5.js Hershey Vector Font Library p5.js Hershey Vector Font Library https://github.com/L... Go
chinese-hershey-font Convert Chinese Characters to Single-Line Fonts using Computer Vision https://github.com/L... Go
Relief SingleLine font Relief SingleLine is a versatile sans serif “single-line” font with open paths oriented towards CNC (Computer Numerical Control) engraving and fab labs environments. https://github.com/i... Go
CNC Text Single Line editor Browser based editor for single line text. Has over 40 fonts available for use https://msurguy.gith... Go

Plotter Manuals Looking for a manual for that plotter? Check here!

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Title Description URL View
AxiDraw manual Manual for AxiDraw drawing machines from the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories https://wiki.evilmad... Go
Roland DXY-990 manual Roland DXY-990 Operation Manual in PDF form https://archive.org/... Go
HP 7475A Plotter Operation Manual Operations and Interconnection Manual for the Hewlett Packard HP 7475A graphics pen plotter. https://archive.org/... Go
HP 7475A Interfacing and Programming Manual Interfacing and Programming Manual for the Hewlett Packard HP 7475A graphics pen plotter https://archive.org/... Go
Roland DXY-880 X-Y Plotter Operation Manual Operation Manual for the Roland DXY-880 X-Y Pen Plotter https://archive.org/... Go
Service Notes for the Roland PDX 3300 Pen Plotter Scanned by Paul Haeberli Noveber 2020 https://github.com/P... Go
Houston Instrument DMP-160 Series Plotters Operation Manual Operation Manual for Houston Instrument DMP-160 series plotters. Scanned by Jimmy Kirkus-Lamont https://archive.org/... Go