[matthew-wegner]

It's a fair question! I've thought about that a lot, as someone who has plotted maybe ~200 pieces of their own work (and generated plots for ~500-ish).

In person, it is very obvious that you're looking at something created by a physical pen. The lines have a glossiness to them, a slight pressure, etc. It's an artifact a printer couldn't have created.

Process-wise, it's a fun challenge too, but that's a different thing altogether.

[great_psy]

Serious question, Can this pen effect be simulated, and still be printed with a regular printer ? Would there be a difference then ?

[sleepybrett]

Only if your printer also slightly embosses (they don't anymore really .. dot-matrix and daisy wheel certainly can but then you get resolution problems), can take any ink you can run through a pen (they can't.. or at least they don't.. maybe old ribbon based printers could...). There is a quality to a pen plot that is not reproduced with current 'printer' technologies.