A color hard copy machine is a data output equipment to produce color hard copies in the GIS applications.
There are several different color hard copy machines as listed below.
Pen Plotter
Usually four different colors of black, blue, green and red are available to draw line maps or diagrams in vector mode. In case of color painted polygon map, hatching pattern with fine and parallel lines will be used. The advantage is cheap cost, while the disadvantages are limited color selections, slow output and limited only to vector map.
Color Ink Jet Recorder
A color ink jet recorder is to produce a raster image with fine and color ink dots with the resolution of 200~400 dpi (dots per inch). Uaually toners and three kinds of yellow, cyan and magenta inks are available, the mixture of which makes a variety of colors with dot matrix patterns. The advantages are cheap cost and rapid color output, while the disadvantage is color degradation with time elapse and/or wet hands.
Color Dot Printer
A color dot printer is based on electrostatic theory, that can produce very fast color vector maps as well as raster images up to the size of AO. The advantage is high speed output, while the disadvantage is high cost.
Film Recorder
There are two types of color films recorder, drum scanner with ordinary film, and thermal electronic color printer with special coated paper and toner.
The advantages are fine resolution of 300~1,000 dpi and continuous full color tones, while the disadvantage is high cost and rather slow speed.
Figure 5.6 shows major color hard copy machines.
Table 5.3 shows a comparison between different types of color hard copy machines.