Computer-driven line-drawing output devices that produce high-quality plots on paper or film. Pen plotters can use a variety of writing instruments, including wet-ink pens, ballpoint pens, scribe tips for coated materials, or some other kind of cutter for strippable film. Most pen plotters, however, use one or more (often eight) pens for drawing lines in the x,y plane on paper.
Broadly, there are three types of pen plotter: flatbed, drum, and beltbed.
On a flatbed plotter, paper is held in a flat horizontal plane while a pen carriage moves the writing instrument in both x and y directions.