Gerber Format - Timeline

Timeline

• On 27-Aug-1980 the first edition of the Gerber Format: a subset of EIA RS-274-D; plot data format reference book was published by Gerber Systems Corporation as a specification to drive their range of photoplotters.
• In 1986 the Gerber format was extended to support apertures with variable sizes to produce rectangles of arbitrary sizes within a given range and tapered lines. This functionality is not in practical use any more.
• In the 1980s the Gerber format was adopted by several other photoplotter vendors and also CAM systems for PCB manufacturing. It had by now become the de facto standard.
• On 26-Apr-1991 with the availability of raster scan capability the Gerber format was extended for polygon areas and Extended Mass Parameters (RS-274X). RS-274X allowed the user to dynamically define apertures of different shapes and sizes as well as defining planes and polygon area fills without the need for manual “painting”. The impetus to develop the Extended Mass Parameters was provided by AT&T.
• On 16-Aug-1994 the last edition of the Gerber Format Guide was published by Gerber Systems Corporation.
• In April 1998 Gerber Systems Corporation was taken over by and integrated in Barco, Belgium. Barco's PCB division is now called Ucamco (former Barco ETS).
• On 21-Sep-1998 the RS-274X Format User’s Guide was published by Barco - Gerber Systems Corporation.
• In January 2012 the RS-274X Format User's Guide was updated to revision H.