HP Desktop Plotter

I'm continuing to find it a fun challenge to figure out techniques for displaying the Zscaler logo on some of my more interesting, obscure or otherwise weird vintage computing hardware. This time around I thought it would be fun to see if I could get the logo printed on my 'new' (aka 'found recently on Craigslist') HP Desktop Plotter. This kind of printer isn't great at producing text, but it's FANTASTIC at printing line-art / graphics.

This process was the most complex I've attempted so far:

• Find a plotter

• Lubricate a ton of moving parts that hadn't budged since the Reagan administration

• Create a "null modem" serial cable

• Locate a copy of the 37-year-old plotter manual

• Copy the Zscaler logo to a Mac that's new enough to join my home network so I could download the logo, but also old enough to talk to the plotter at 1984-speeds (in other words, *very* slowly)

• Locate and install 35-year-old plotter drivers and get them working again

• Use the old computer to (slooooowly) convert the logo from JPEG format (aka, "a bunch of pixels in rows") to vector format (aka "a bunch of tiny lines")

• Sit back and enjoy the show!

Anyway, this is a longer post than usual, but I hope you all enjoyed it. Happy Friday!