[gregmac]

In the commercial space, I think "wide format printers" have totally replaced plotters at this point. They're basically big ink jet printers, though usually a bit more sophisticated (often 6 or more inks, including variants like "matte black" and "photo black" and "gray"). The quality is very impressive, you can literally print posters or frameable photos on it if you have the right paper.

"XY plotters" are still around but seem to be very niche (emulating hand writing) or DIY/hobby stuff.

I remember being in an engineering office of some sort as a kid, fascinated by watching the multi-pen plotter [1] drawing some kind of technical drawing. It had a pen carousel to change colors, and a little robot gripper to hold it. Finding information on these (from the 2 minutes of searching I did) seems quite hard, so it seems like they probably went out of fashion before the internet was a thing.

[1] https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/XY+plotter

[joshu]

there is a big plotter enthusiast community. i was able to find full documentation for my late 80's plotter online easily enough.

plotters are still made today, they're just called "vinyl cutters" and don't have the pen changers anymore.

perhaps let the people who actually know the answer to the given question do the writing?