kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Rick Walker <walker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Cirilo,

> When I did that sort of thing 15 years ago the pen I used was the type
> used for stencil work - it was a short steel tube (you can get
> various sizes) with a steel plug.  I can't remember what ink I used
> now - it was a pretty thick in k meant for old drum recorders but it
> was also water resistant when dry. 

Regular India Ink is water resistant and works well with capillary pens. 
The Rapidograph pen is readily available in quite a range of diameters
from .015" to .050" or so.  The proper ink for such pens is fairly
tricky because specific drying, cleaning and flowing properties are
required.  It's a major pain if you let the capillary dry out and glue
the inner wire and tube together. 

I like HPGL because the syntax is the easiest to parse among all the
graphics languages.  It basically boils down to "SP<n>; select pen <n>", 
"PU<x,y>; jump to xy location with pen up" and "PD<x,y>; move from current
location to next xy with pen down".  There are a few extensions that
allow a closed path to be defined with fill, but most of the commands
are relatively state-free. 

--
Rick Walker