[HN Gopher] Pen Plotter Art and Algorithms, Part 1 (2017)
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Pen Plotter Art and Algorithms, Part 1 (2017)
Author : Tomte
Score : 69 points
Date : 2021-08-30 11:41 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (mattdesl.svbtle.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (mattdesl.svbtle.com)
| nielsbot wrote:
| If you like plotter art, Anders Hof aka "Inconvergent" does some
| nice work (and sells plotter prints)
|
| https://img.inconvergent.net/plot/
| CobrastanJorji wrote:
| One of the cooler pieces of plotter art I've seen was logging the
| memory state of every byte over time for the playing of a NES
| game for a few seconds. An NES only has 2048 bytes of memory, so
| you can plot sparklines for all of them on a poster pretty
| readably. https://www.michaelfogleman.com/plotter/#nes
| iambateman wrote:
| shameless plug, but some friends and I have been working on
| fountaincards.com, which uses a plotter to write and send cards
| written with a fountain pen.
|
| Right now we are still getting set up, but it's been fun to dive
| into the world of Inkscape and try to figure out how to
| automatically generate SVG's that look like a human really wrote
| them.
| theparanoid wrote:
| I tried to register via Google at
| https://fountaincards.com/register and received a 404.
| ortusdux wrote:
| It is pretty easy to use a 3d printer as a pen plotter. You can
| easily print a pen holder that mounts to your print head. This
| one (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3139205) includes a
| retaining screw for different sized pens. I have also seen mods
| for CNCs that will click retractable sharpies and then use them
| for layout or part marking. Here is one example:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3LhK2SAusk
|
| As a side note, the MUJI gel pen from the 3rd image
| (Tesselations, August 2017) are amazing.
| pronoiac wrote:
| I've heard that if you're using different-sized pens on the
| same print, it can be better to wrap them in tape to fit, to
| avoid alignment issues.
| roland35 wrote:
| I had some issues with my g code files on my prusa printer - I
| think it expects some special start up sequence of g code.
| There is also an x y z offset which seemed useful, but it
| replaced my calibration so I needed to recalibrate after!
| joshu wrote:
| one issue is that pens need to have some compliance to the
| surface (versus a 3d printer or CNC, which don't)
|
| to get good lines on my CNC machine, I had to make a slide on
| the z axis with a spring to apply force downward with the pen.
| neitherboosh wrote:
| I have an Ender 3 (one of the cheapest available consumer 3D
| printers) and have had success using Inkscape to generate gcode
| for it. For anyone interested, Processing/p5.js are great tools
| for programmatically generating .svgs for plotting. It's great
| fun! Thinking about making some wall art soon.
|
| I also have a MUJI notebook on my desk that I use to sketch out
| ideas before coding them :)
| dang wrote:
| Discussed at the time:
|
| _Pen Plotter Art and Algorithms_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043159 - Dec 2017 (12
| comments)
| ElCapitanMarkla wrote:
| Freaky timing. I've been working on a DIY CNC mill on and off for
| the last couple of years and finally got it all working over the
| weekend. I've spent a few hours this week playing with processing
| to see if I can make something cool that I'd like to look at on
| my wall
| joshu wrote:
| pics of the CNC?
| Brian-Puccio wrote:
| If you like some of the art others have mentioned in this thread,
| the very analog and mechanical art by James Gandy might also be
| of interest:
|
| http://www.jamesnolangandy.com
| lemming wrote:
| Only tangentially related to this post, but does anyone know what
| sort of algorithm I would use to create pen plots from photos,
| something like this?
|
| https://twitter.com/PhotoPuck/status/1412540641066749953
|
| The basic algorithm is some sort of halftoning I guess, but I'm
| impressed by the way the lines follow the contours of the objects
| in the scene, they're not just random squiggles trying to reach a
| certain darkness. So if there's an object with obviously vertical
| lines, it'll be drawn by the plotter using vertical lines as
| well. How might I achieve something similar?
| paulgb wrote:
| This doesn't really answer your question, but I think people
| interested in this question would like the book Opt Art. It
| introduces a number of techniques for using constraint solvers
| to arrange lines such that they look like a source image.
|
| https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691164069/op...
| joshu wrote:
| and he's on twitter here: https://twitter.com/baabbaash
| mkl wrote:
| I'm not sure how the curvy shading was done, but the lines
| following edges looks like the results of vectorising the
| output of an edge detector:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge_detection
| lemming wrote:
| Thanks, I'd figured it was something like that. It's very
| impressive how it works, he has more examples in his feed.
| Sometimes it looks more like there's a conversion to a sort
| of "visual direction" in the image which the lines follow,
| not just edges.
| mkl wrote:
| If you follow level curves as well as edges, you can get
| that visual direction effect. I think people may also do
| shading in directions similar to nearby edges.
| raphlinus wrote:
| I think coming up with an appropriate stippling algorithm is
| part of what makes it art; different techniques make different
| textures. But here's an example that comes with full source and
| is not too complicated: https://greweb.me/plots/236
|
| And another approach (from the makers of the AxiDraw) that's
| more dot-like: https://wiki.evilmadscientist.com/StippleGen
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