Gerbolyze: Render SVG overlays directly into Gerber and Excellon files
Gerbolyze's command-line usage and SVG template format changed between v2.0 and v3.0. Details on the new format can be found below under command line usage.
Gerbolyze converts vector SVG and raster PNG/JPG images into Gerber PCB manufacturing files. Without an intermediate rasterization/re-vectorization step, vector data from SVG files are rendered losslessly. gerbolyze, on the other hand, supports (almost) the entire SVG 1.1 specification, including complex, self-intersecting paths with holes, patterns, dashes, and transformations.
Raster images can be vectorized using contour tracing (as gerbolyze v1.0 did) or embedded using high-resolution grayscale emulation while (mostly) ensuring trace/space design rules.
Gerbolyze can be tried online at https://dyna.kokoroyukuma.de/gerboweb.
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| Toko's (トーコ) drawing was converted to Gerbolyze and printed at PCBWay. |
Tooling for PCB art is scarce in both open and closed-source ecosystems. Even something as simple as putting a pretty picture on a PCB can be a time-consuming task. Various arcane incantations may be required depending on the PCB tool used, and even moderately complex images will slow most PCB tools to a halt.
Gerbolyze solves this problem without requiring a toolchain by vectorizing SVG vector and PNG or JPG bitmap files directly onto existing Gerber layers. Gerbolyze transforms any spec-compliant SVG vector data into a Gerber spec-compliant form. Gerbolyze has been tested against the industry-standard Altium Designer as well as the leading open-source KiCAD toolchain. Gerbolyze is designed for performance and will happily vectorize tens of thousands of primitives, producing tens of megabytes of Gerber code without crapping itself. With gerbolyze, you can finally be confident that if you overdo it with the high-poly anime silkscreen, your PCB fab's toolchain will fail before yours.
More info about this tool and how to use in KiCAD, follow the link below for the step-by-step instructions:
Gerbolyze high-fidelity SVG/PNG/JPG to PCB converter
