I've been working on making a pen plotter which I might add a z axis to in the future, but I'm just trying to get a basic 2D one done. I've got one (half) built based on this: [www.instructables.com]

I've made a few modifications to the design (using metal dowels to reduce friction, better belt system, better pen mount), but the basic idea is the same, I'm using the reprap firmware as a gcode interpreter for it.

I'm trying to replicate hand drawn sketches with it, how would I go about implementing shading? I don't really care about time problems with shading.

Any Ideas?

... it's normally done with hatches or point-clouds of different density for different 'shades of grey' ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

How would I implement hatches? Is there a software capable of that output?

... in my beginnings with CNC-milling (around 1986) I had to program a CAD/CAM on my own, as there were no programs for Atari ST on the market - there I've included splines/beziers and hatch-filling of enclosed areas. Eventually I can extract the coding from the old programs

Actually you can search for programs converting bitmaps for CNC-drilling - they calculate the point-density accordingly ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Can someone give me an example of a program that can do this?

... google for "bmp2cnc" or "bmp2dxf" or similar names - there are tons of dithering tools/programs around ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

[vimeo.com], the pencil is held much like a hand and rotates to overcome wear, I think I
used DotG or some other free software and Mach3

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Random Precision

I'm using a mac any programs that do this for mac?