To judge from the dislodged pigment grains, the original Tektronix Circuit Computer probably used then-new laser printing on good-quality paper, laminated between plastic sheets:

A Pilot Precise V5RT cartridge on plain paper (20 lb 98 white), also laminated, looks pretty good:

But a black V5RT pen on HP Glossy Presentation Paper (44 lb, 160 g/m²), also laminated, is spectacular:

The glossy Presentation paper is hard enough to keep the pen ball from sinking in, producing much finer lines. In round numbers:

• 0.2 mm – Tek laser-printed (?) original
• 0.3 mm – green V5RT on plain paper
• 0.2 mm – black V5RT on glossy Presentation paper

The CNC 3018XL plotted / drew everything at 2400 mm/min = 40 mm/s, with minimal wobbulation in the lines and none worth mentioning in the characters.

The pen ball sometimes pulls a dot of ink off the glossy paper as it rises at the end of a stroke; perhaps matte paper would produce more traction on the ink.

You can see small blobs at the end of some strokes, but the fancy paper prevents most of the bleeding visible in the previous tests. Pilot V5 pens definitely dislike card stock.

The results looks great in person without magnification, so maybe none of that matters.

The pix come from the Pixel 3a camera in its microscope adapter.

Extra Fine Pilot V5 pens have a 0.5 mm ball, in contrast to the 1.0 mm ball in the cheap pens I’ve been using, so they should produce much finer lines.

Which turns out to be the case:

That’s a stack of three “Homage” Tek CC bottom decks under a Genuine Tektronix Circuit Computer.

The black scale at the top of the picture (and the bottom of the stack) came from a 1 mm cheap pen in the collet holder, the two green scales come from a 0.5 mm Pilot V5RT cartridge in its new holder, and the Original is (most likely) laser-printed back when that was a New Thing.

As always, paper makes a big difference in the results. The brownish paper is 110 pound card stock with a relatively coarse surface finish. The white paper is ordinary 22 pound general-purpose laser / inkjet printer paper.

The 1.0 mm pen (top) doesn’t much care what it’s writing on, producing results on the low side of OK: some light sections, no blobs. Perfectly serviceable, but not pretty.

The Pilot V5RT really likes better paper, as it bleeds out on the card stock whenever the CNC 3018XL so much as pauses at the end of a stroke. Using white paper slows, but doesn’t completely stop, the bleeding, making the blobs survivable.

I’ve been using card stock to get stiffer, more durable, and more easily manipulated decks, but the improved line quality on the white paper says I should laminate the decks in plastic, just like the original Tektronix design.

No surprise there!