TriTech Blog What is a plotter printer?

There is confusion occasionally as to why TriTech will quote certain printers for plotter services instead of desktop printer services. Often, our printer service technicians hear: "It says printer on the box, not plotter." We understand, but printer is a sort of umbrella marketing term and plotters fall under that umbrella. Even Wikipedia lists plotter separately from printer, but that could be because traditional plotters produce differently compared to modern printers. With the influences of product boxes and websites, it's easy to see why customers are puzzled. What is a plotter? How does TriTech differentiate printers and plotters? What is a plotter? Technically, a plotter is a printer that uses pens in a continuous motion to draw technical designs and intricate lines onto paper; in contrast, an inkjet printer uses ink drops from a cartridge and a laser printer uses a laser beam. Plotter printers are now considered outdated - perform a web search for "plotter" and results seem to automatically redirect to "wide format." TriTech will service and repair plotter printers if we can get parts. Unfortunately, many traditional plotters are no longer supported by their manufacturer due to out-of-production status and availability of comparable modern alternatives (read: companies...