Plotter tools

Many of us still stock one of the famous Sony PRN-C41 pen plotters or similar models. In the eighties it was still a real alternative to the dot-matrix printer as output device, but unfortunately, most of these obscure devices got dusty in the attic due to a lack of pens.
Fortunately, the MSX companies Sony and Toshiba were not the only ones using the pens installed. We also discovered plotters from Sharp and some professional printers in the medical field.
Especially with the Atari 1020 there is a four-color plotter for which you can still buy refills today.
The American Atari veteran Bradley Koda has been running a mail-order service since the early eighties, in which all wishes of the Atari 8-bit disciples can be fulfilled until today, including supplies for the popular MSX plotter. The replacement refills are offered at a moderate price as a color mixture or five black pens at moderate prices, only shipping and customs costs make these pins expensive.
A visit to Koda's homepage is definitely worth it. Also a chat with the owner, who is full of expert knowledge, is fun and invites to buy.

From Sony there was a threesome with the Creative Graphics, the Graphic Master and the Print Master Cartridge that left nothing to be desired. Almost vector-oriented work was possible, files could be exchanged between the applications and the printer program could control either the dot matrix printer or the plotter. Manual colours could be assigned to the plotter pens to achieve best possible results.
Even today it is still fun to control the plotter with these programs and to amaze the audience.

If this was too complicated for you, you could use Sony's own consumer apps Creative Greetings and Homewriter to integrate ready-made graphics into greeting cards and design them individually.

There were also applications in the homebrew area. Here the plotter tools of Frank Horn are especially mentioned. On his homepage Frank Horn gives an insight into his portfolio of that time.

Now a newer program has reached me, Joost Zwijnenburg has published a tool called JoyPlot, which makes you want to use the old plotter again. This tool is also available in our download area. Cheers to Joost!

By the way, the plotter can still be used with modern hardware, the Centronics interface makes it also possible. Happy plotting!

Related links:
BestElectronics.com: Bradley Koda's amazing time travel
Frank Horn's homepage
Download Joost Zwijnenburg's JoyPlot from the download database