plotter recommendations for small firm

[Cara]

Anyone have a great plotter that they would recommend for a small firm?  We don’t need all of the bells and whistles, just something simple to replace our HP 750C (ancient!).  

Thanks!!

[Andrew Spiering]

Hi Cara,

Great question!  I have used the KIP 3100 in the past and have liked how it performed for the most part.  It is a scanner/plotter combo with slim dimensions that work well in a small space because you can stand it up against a wall.  The only two problems that I encountered were the scan quality and the paper feed.  

The scan quality is not quite true to color, so we had to bring our colored drawings into photoshop for a little retouching.  Also, if you use trace, then you need to tape your drawings to a white piece of paper.  If not, it will literally eat your trace.  (Learned that the hard way.)  

Secondly, if you have a large set to print or multiple sets, it will plot relatively quickly (6 sheets per minute).  It will seem like light speed compared to the HP 🙂  However, sometimes paper gets snagged and backs everything up, so you need to babysit while it is printing to avoid paper jams and crumpled sets.  (Also learned this one the hard way.)  They offer a few options for stackers, but they take up way too much space.  

Also, the KIP 3100 only prints black and white.  There are other models that have the option for color plotting.

Overall, I think the three big players are KIP, HP, and Oce/Cannon.  It just depends on your current needs.

I hope this helps!

[Dave McCorquodale]

we use an HP designjet 800ps 42″.  got it refurbished from a place online called Minnesota Computers several years ago.  can’t remember the cost but I think around 1K give or take a couple hundred.  Great service from them, enough to buy from them again when the need arises.  Ink use is great.  Doesn’t scan, but we don’t have a huge need for oversize scans.  Most of what we print are line drawings, but the color is good enough for us to print large images for framing occasionally.  It’s always been a bit of a hassle to connect new computers to it via the network, not sure if it has to do with the built-in print server or what.  That doesn’t come up too much, though.  None of us are tech gurus, just know enough to get what we need done.  Good luck

[Cara]

Thanks, Andrew and Dave! Others suggested the HP design jet 800, too, Dave. I think it’s a popular one among architectural firms. We ended up purchasing the HP T790 44″. We are anxious to plot, so we went with the most cost-effective one that could be delivered ASAP. This one plots color–good for both CAD drawings and GIS color maps. The HP T790 is supposedly the latest and greatest, though it does not have scanning capabilities. It also does not print Post Script–we generally plot from PDF so this should not be a problem.
I hope this post is helpful to others doing plotter research!

[Jason T. Radice]

I’ve had a few 42″ 800ps working simultaneously an we worked them HARD. (affectionately referred to as “spock’s coffins) and more recently I used a Z6200 which has better photo quality. Both were pretty much bullet proof machines. Though with the 800’s, we often did direct prints rather than using the print server. For some reason, the onboard print server didn’t work all that well with our output files, and when a deadline was approaching, the direct method was muuuuuuuuuch faster.

 

Another thing to consider if you mount the prints for display is having them hot laminated. It really raises the contrast and makes the images “pop” so much more than even using the expensive photo paper.  

[Author]

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