Plotters Vs Printers: Which Is Better For You?

If you’re in the market for a printer, plotter, or a combination of both, you’ll want to know which is best for your needs. In this article, we’ll explore the advantages and disadvantages of each type so that you can decide for yourself whether one or both will work best for your project.

Printers Are Economical For Small To Medium Print Runs

Printers are economical for small to medium print runs. They are less expensive than plotters and have several advantages over them. For example, printers can produce higher-quality output in color and on a variety of media (including paper and plastic), which makes them more versatile overall.

Printers also tend to be faster than plotters since they don’t require a separate machine for cutting out artwork; instead, the printer itself cuts out images from an image file or template before printing them onto paper or plastic sheets using dots per inch (DPI) settings that vary based on your desired resolution below 200 DPI but usually between 300-600 DPI depending on how much detail you want in your final product

Printers Are Great For Printing Large Quantities, Too

Printers are also great for large print runs, as they can produce high volumes of documents. The cost per page is lower than with a plotter and you won’t have to worry about running out of ink or paper.

If you’re looking at printing in color, then a printer will be your best choice. They’re capable of printing on a range of media including paper and card stock as well as plastics such as PVC or Corian®—and even aluminum foil!

Printers Are Good For Wide Format Printing

Printers are also great for printing large quantities of small items. Business cards, posters, and signs can be printed with a printer that’s capable of doing so.

You may have noticed that restaurants and coffee shops often have signs that say things like “open soon.” These are often printed on an inkjet printer or laser printer at the restaurant itself. A business card is another type of item that can be made with a printer as well; it’s just not as common (and likely won’t cost much more than what you’d pay for it at your local office supply store).

If you’re looking for creative ways to showcase your food photography skills—like creating custom menus or flyers—a professional-grade photo printer will help get the job done!

Plotters Supply Large Format Drawings And Images

Plotters are the best option for printing large drawings, images, and diagrams. They can print on large sheets of paper, which makes them ideal for drawing up maps or drawing up architectural plans.

The main benefit of using a plotter over a printer or laser printer is that they allow you to produce artwork at a higher resolution than other methods such as inkjet printers (1,600×1,200 dpi). This means that your text will be sharper and clearer due to having less blurriness around each letter when compared with other methods such as inkjet printers which have lower resolutions than those found within most office environments today – typically between 600x300dpi upwards towards 1200x240dpi depending upon whether they’re using standard letterhead paper stock versus something else like card stock which has even lower resolution levels!

Plotters Can Be Used With A Range Of Media

Plotters can be used with a range of media, including film and vellum. This makes them particularly useful for printing on plastic sheets or other materials that are not suitable for laser printers.

Plastic is the most common choice for printing in the industrial market because it’s easy to use and provides excellent results at a low cost. The downside? Plastic doesn’t have as much clarity as paper does, so you won’t get an absolutely perfect image every time you print something out unless you’re using high-quality inkjet cartridges (which aren’t cheap).

Plotters Produce High-Quality Images

Plotters produce high-quality images and are good for wide-format printing, too. In addition to being able to print large quantities of photos or graphics on single sheets of paper at once, plotters can also be used to produce finishing touches like borderlines and watermarks. A printer may be more affordable when you’re printing small quantities but its limitations with regard to design elements make it less desirable for large-scale projects or poster prints.

Maintenance

Printers have been around for centuries, and their technology has come a long way. However, they are still not as advanced as plotters. Plotters are able to create prints with much higher resolutions than printers, and they can also print in multiple colors. This makes plotters the better choice for those who need high-quality prints. But plotters also require more maintenance than printers. Also, the cost of plotter maintenance is comparatively higher than that of printers.

You will need to clean the print heads on your plotter regularly to prevent clogs. The ink cartridges on a printer can also dry out if they are not used often enough, so it is important to keep them filled. Plotters also require special paper that can be costly, so you will need to factor that into your budget. Overall, plotters require more time and money to maintain, but they produce superior prints.

Conclusion

Plotters and printers both have their own unique benefits.

Printers are economical for small to medium print runs, but they’re not necessarily the best choice if you need high-quality large-format drawings or images. Printers can also be used for large-scale printing, too, but these machines tend to be more expensive than plotters.

If your company produces a lot of artwork that needs to be printed in different sizes and formats—or if your business has customers who want custom artwork printed from scratch—a plotter might be the right tool for your needs!