Reading this, I think of paper technology that has probably been lost.

I remember using flatbed plotters with a "static-cling" button. (maybe HP?)

you clicked the button out, put paper on the flatbed, then clicked the button in and a static charge sucked the paper down and held it in place.

You would generate your plots using a language that could select various color pens, move to x1,y1, pen down, move to x2,y2, pen up, etc...

I think better printers and then inkjets are what finally killed them off.

> you clicked the button out, put paper on the flatbed, then clicked the button in and a static charge sucked the paper down and held it in place.

Interestingly, this technology is not lost, and it is in a current vinyl cutter/plotter, the Silhouette Curio 2:

https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/curio-2

But this is quite a new model and I don't remember seeing this technology anywhere else for a long while, so perhaps they had to wait for some patent to expire?

These machines also have swappable tools (effectively a two tool changer).

I think ultimately the plotter largely became the vinyl cutter.