The term “inkjet plotter paper” refers to the rolls of inexpensive bond papers that architects, engineers, builders, and fashion designers use to output large line drawings and sketches created in CAD (computer-aided design) software.
Today, some people use “wide-format plotter paper” as a catch-all phrase for all types of wide-format inkjet media for aqueous-ink printers.
Background
The original inkjet plotter papers were created for precise and detailed monochrome printing with fine lines and small text. They weren’t designed to handle the higher ink-saturation levels that other categories of wide-format inkjet paper can.
This makes inkjet plotter paper different (and less costly) than inkjet poster papers, inkjet photo papers, and inkjet art papers. These papers were coated to handle the higher ink saturations required to print full-page, full-color posters, photographs, and art.
Inkjet plotter papers simply provide an inexpensive option for printing and reprinting the many intricate line drawings used in building construction or remodeling projects.
Examples of true inkjet plotter paper include:
Freedom Paper 20 lb. Ultra-bright Uncoated Inkjet Paper (740)
Freedom Paper 24 lb. Premium Coated Bond Paper (745)
Freedom Paper 20 lb. Eco-Friendly Inkjet Bond Plotter Paper (733)
Specialty inkjet plotter media are available for use with engineering drawings. Inkjet Double Matte Mylar has a specialty coating that enables manual markups of design changes. Frosted Double Matte Tracing Film(778) is an inkjet-ready alternative to the vellum papers traditionally used for overlays
SEO Terms Lag Behind Inkjet Technologies
The term “plotter” is a holdover from the earliest days of wide-format inkjet printing in the 1980s when computer-driven ink pens were used to draw the simple lines and shapes that the first CAD (computer-aided design) software used to make drawings. These lines and shapes are called “vectors” and are created with a different computer-processing language than the Adobe Postscript language that could convert the pixel patterns used to create on-screen images (“rasters”) into digitally printed images on paper.
Specially developed ink-receptive coatings were needed for papers that would be used to control the multiple inkjet droplets of inks to recreate raster photographic images as dot-patterns on full-page large-format sheets.
Although inkjet plotter paper is a popular search term, website content creators can’t always be sure if the online shopper is looking for rolls of uncoated bond papers or any type of paper available in wide-format rolls.
Now that aqueous inks are used with narrower rolls of paper in high-speed production ink presses, it’s not surprising that “wide-format plotter paper” has become a popular search term. When searching for sources of inkjet printing paper, it’s important to distinguish between the large rolls of paper produced for production inkjet presses used in commercial printing and the wide-format rolls of paper used on aqueous wide-format inkjet printers.
For example, some online stores that claim to sell “inkjet plotter paper” carry all types of wide-format inkjet printer media except the inexpensive uncoated and coated inkjet bond paper rolls that work fine for everyday printing of line drawings.
Our History
In 2002, Freedom Paper opened one of the first B2B e-commerce stores to sell our wide-format plotter paper. Since then, we have watched the markets for inkjet media evolve as solvent, latex, UV-curable inks have improved and after HP introduced its PageWide XL series of high-speed single-pass wide-format aqueous-inkjet printers.
Today, Freedom Paper offers CAD software users inkjet plotter papers from HP, Canon, and Sihl. Some papers work well on HP PageWide XL printers too.
We also offer a wide assortment of inkjet photo and art papers as well as sign and display media for wide-format printers that use aqueous, eco-solvent, latex, or UV-curable inks. We plan to introduce a number of new products in the months ahead. So visit the Freedom Paper website or sign up for email notifications
