gbr_rip is designed to take a Gerber file input and convert it to a raster image (in memory) using a transform file which controls scaling, rotation, mirroring, window size and DPI. The calling program can then take this bitmap from memory and format it to whatever standard is required and write the data to disk.
Because gbr_rip can process small stripes of an image, there is no upper limit on how large a bitmap can be produced - the larger the image the more stripes are needed - however after each stripe is produced and used, memory is cleared.
Executable Version - GBR2TIFF
For users who do not wish to write their own calling program for the gbr_rip library, we also offer an executable, gbr2tiff, that provides a command line interface to the raster library.
The gbr2tiff executable can produce output in BMP, TIFF and Postscript with compression to reduce file size.
Ink Jet Rasterizer
Artwork has also developed a completely different approach to rasterization that has been optimized for inkjets. Inkjets are different from conventional laser imagers -- the physics of ink flow requires that one control the density very precisely. Artwork's inkjet rasterizer does two things that conventional rasterizers do not:
It takes into account the "diameter" of the droplet and offsets the placement of pixels from the edge to insure that the droplet does not fall outside of the desired boundary.
It allows the user to specify a very fine grid for droplet placement (to get line width accuracy) and at the same time allows the user to specify ink density (pixel to pixel spacing.)