Great writeup! Much of my plotting experience is a similar journey of hooking a bunch of rando utilities and file formats together with python. Plotters are really fun and can motivate some really interesting generative artwork.
Be sure to check out the #plottertwitter hashtag for inspiration, and I've aggregated some resources in an `awesome-plotters` repo as well: https://github.com/beardicus/awesome-plotters
I used to work at the local theme park and often enjoyed looking at the plen-plotter produced maps of the ride construction diagrams and whatnot.
Why aren't there any low cost (sub USD700) pen plotters available today? Were they just always super expensive and are now only cheap because they are outmoded?
I know Roland makes large format printers etc. but those are oodles of money and so will almost never be bought by non-professionals/enthusiasts. It just seems like we lost the ability to make 'good enough' large format drawings without resorting to sign shops.
If the bar for your 'good enough' is as low as my bar for good enough, a combination of https://rasterbator.net/ and packing tape works for me.
I make something with that maybe once a year, which is likely more frequently (total guess) than most find themselves making any kind of big sign thing, and I'd need a printer that would do only this to be more like $250 before it'd be something i'd buy.
Be sure to check out the #plottertwitter hashtag for inspiration, and I've aggregated some resources in an `awesome-plotters` repo as well: https://github.com/beardicus/awesome-plotters